How important is it to ‘Pace and Lead’ when you are involved in a consultative selling process?
In a scale of 1 to 10, I would say a resounding 10!
Pacing and leading in consultative selling entails building rapport, aligning with the buyer’s mindset, and gradually guiding them toward a solution.
Here’s how AspireUP Consultancy helps salesforce embrace it effectively:
- Pacing: Establishing Trust and Alignment
Pacing involves mirroring the buyer’s communication style, understanding their needs, and demonstrating empathy.
- Active Listening: Ask deep open-ended #SPIN Selling questions (such as “What concerns or challenges are you facing in achieving your targets? What’s the impact on your sales productivity? And summarize what you hear to show understanding.
- Adapt to Their Style: If they are analytical, provide data-driven insights. If they are expressive, engage in storytelling.
- Acknowledge Their Concerns: Reflect their pain points before introducing solutions, making them feel heard.
- Leading: Guiding the Buyer to a Decision
Once trust is established, leading involves shifting the conversation toward influencing their decision-making.
- Challenge Their Thinking: Use insights to reframe their problem (e.g., “Many companies in your industry face X, but have you considered Y?”).
- Provide a Clear Path Forward: Recommend solutions aligned with their business objectives and justify with ROI-driven reasoning.
- Use Social Proof: Share success stories or case studies to reinforce confidence in your solution.
- Create a Sense of Ownership: Instead of selling, help them visualize how your solution fits their business. Use language like, “How would implementing this impact your team’s efficiency?
Here’s an example from ‘Salesforce’s consultative approach’ in selling CRM solutions. They use:
- Customer Intelligence: They research deeply into customer pain points before meetings.
- Reframing Problems: Instead of just selling CRM, they highlight inefficiencies in existing customer engagement strategies.
- Guided Decision-Making: By showing case studies of similar companies, they nudge buyers toward a tailored solution.
By mastering pacing and leading, sales professionals can guide customers naturally without pushing, leading to higher trust and conversions.
Feel free to DM us www.aspirerup.com and we are happy to have a chat on how we can help your salesforce master the art of pacing and leading via a consultative selling approach !
Article by Arvind Kumar
Feb 9th 2025