different types of sales and selling techniques
This article provides an introduction to the different types of sales and selling techniques small businesses can consider when looking to increase sales conversions and grow their business.
The four basic different types of sales
In its simplest terms, there are four basic different types of sales for small businesses. These are transactional sales, solution sales, consultative sales, and provocative sales. We will outline each of these in more detail below.
Transactional sales
What are transactional sales? Transactional selling is focused on making a quick sale and many of them. These sales or transactions are often one-off and are typically sales where the customer is encouraged to ‘buy now’ with some form of urgency. An emotional connection with the customer is not essential with conversion factors usually centered around, price, timing and reviews.
Solution sales
What are solution sales? Solution sales is a model that matches the customer needs to a specific solution. Solution selling also demonstrates how a product or service is more superior to the competition. Essentially, to close deals and make more sales using this strategy, you must be able to explain how your product or service can solve a solution to the customer’s problem in the most effective way.
Consultative sales
What are consultative sales? Consultative selling focuses on forming connections with customers and building long lasting relationships. In consultative selling the salesperson will act like as a consultant, be knowledgeable, and often an expert in their field. The consultative sales approach may have a longer than usual sales cycle as you focus on selling a bespoke solution which is based on the customer’s needs. Consultative selling requires trust between the salesperson and customer and can lead to more cross-selling opportunities. These are usually high-ticket sales, taking a few touch points to close the sale and usually carried out face to face.
Provocative selling
What are provocative sales? The provocative selling approach is a method whereby the salesperson creates a demand to a problem or need, the customer is not yet aware they have. With this technique, you will look to uncover an issue the customer has and then sell your way of going ahead to fix the problem.
In simple terms:
You start by finding a critical issue – what is the main problem, that once highlighted, will be hard to ignore
Decide how you will present the information to the customer, so they see things from a new perspective - create a sense of urgency
Present your idea to the business owner or someone with influence in making the decision about your solution - here you can explain how have helped other businesses to overcome this issue, make them feel they are not alone, try to provoke a positive response.
All the above four different types of sales techniques are great skills to employ within different sales scenarios and so it is important to find out which ones will work for you and your business.
Different selling techniques
As well as the different types of sales techniques, there are also a range of different selling techniques for small businesses to build into their overall sales strategies to achieve business growth objectives.
Script-based selling
Script-based selling is used to help salespeople remember and include all the important details about a product or service. They can be open, detailing just a list of bullet points the salesperson must include, or they can be made up of exactly what you wish for your salespeople to say - word for word – simply reading a ‘script’.
Script-based selling works well for businesses where the customer needs tend not to vary.
Sometimes there is a reticence to utilise sales scripts, however a strong sales script can be extremely effective. Sales script selling helps to ensure that each interaction a potential customer has with your business, is provided all the accurate information required and conveyed consistently each time.
Needs-satisfaction selling
Needs satisfaction selling is a process whereby the salesperson will identify the customer’s needs by asking certain questions. The questions are probing and meaningful to uncover potential needs of the customer that the salesperson can then look to support and close a deal by offering a solution.
The needs-satisfaction selling approach works well if the salesperson asks a few questions to first identify the customer needs, and then offers the product or service while emphasising the points which best meet those needs.
Strategic partnering
Strategic partnering is a collaborative approach to selling where the customer and seller work jointly together to create a solution to grow each other’s businesses, for a shared benefit. In this type of partnering, the relationship formed between seller and customer is mutually beneficial.
Consultative selling
Consultative selling is a sales approach which focuses mainly on the relationship with the customer, rather than the product or service being offered. With consultative selling it is important that the salesperson demonstrates genuine curiosity when fact finding about their customer’s needs.
In this type of selling technique the salesperson must set out to build a relationship with the customer first before providing the solution.
The different types of sales and selling techniques and strategies will vary in effectiveness depending upon the sales scenario. When should you deploy one of these sales techniques? It can sometimes depend upon how the customer wishes to buy and what information they require in order to buy what you’re selling.
How we can help navigate the different types of selling techniques
We hope this article on the different types of sales and selling techniques was helpful. If you are a small business in the UK, and are looking for help with either your sales strategy and or selling techniques for you and your sales team, you can read more about that marketing or simply contact our team to discuss your business in more detail.