That Complimentary Consultation - You want to sell, not give away the store

Even my electrician friend knows that approaching a potentially lucrative prospect with the offer of a "complimentary consultation" is the most effective selling technique.  It gets us in the door, provides an opportunity to listen to the prospect's needs and concerns, permits us to screen if we want to work with this person or organization, and allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition.  The problem is: Too often we wind up giving away the store - without closing the sale. 

Here's how to use the complimentary consultation to close sales.

The first rule is to respect ourselves and what we're selling.  Research shows that professional sales reps who value themselves and their time have a better closer rate and earn more annually than colleagues who are willing to be used and abused.

The second rule is to qualify the prospect before agreeing to a consultation.  Yes, this can be done smoothly.  For example, we might ask about what size job it might be, how many other vendors they are talking to, and what are their usual terms and conditions for payment.  Of course, we also want to check their D&B etc.  If the assignment is relatively small or isn't going to provide useful experience for me, I won't proceed further if the prospect is having 10 other vendors meet with them.  In addition, I inform the prospect of our organization's usual expectations about payment. 

The third rule is to set parameters for the consultation, and stick to them.  For example, for routine assignments I do it by phone and for the maximum of 30 minutes.  If the job is large and is especially useful to my company then I might make exceptions.  There are standard ways to stop at 30 minutes.  One is to ask for the sale.  Another is to indicate that I would certainly welcome the opportunity to provide more information but that is service that is traditionally billable.  A third is to ask them to think about what I've said and if they decide my company could be helpful to take the next step.

The fourth is to have no expectations.  Expectations often create anxiety.  That comes across to the prospect as desperation.  We appear more negotiable than we want to be.  The best approach to these consultations is the realization that we also learn a lot from talking with the prospect.  For example, we may pick up industry intelligence, insider information about that particular company, insight about how we could be presenting ourselves better, and a more efficient way to screen out prospects before we get to this step in the future.

The fifth is to follow up.  We can do this directly by a phone call if the consultation seemed to go well and the prospect seemed interested.  We can do this indirectly by an email or by sending the prospect something our company recently published, an award won, a white paper, or a positive reference to the prospect on our blog.

Incidentally, blogs are low-cost, high-reach, real-time ways to feature prospects and current clients.  Posting a provocative interview with them and then copying, pasting and transmitting that interview to appropriate constituencies has brought me significant accounts and enhanced my network. Most organizations now recognize the positive exposure blogs create. If we have any doubt if the item we post might concern the prospect or client, then we just clear it with them first. 

The sixth is to move on if the prospect doesn't seem ready to close the deal.  Treat this totally as a learning experience and we never lose out.

The only way to lose out on complimentary consultations is to lose control of them.