By Simon Hazeldine

The very best salespeople never ever hard sell.  What is the big secret?  The secret is that they don’t think of themselves as salespeople!  They think of themselves as consultants. Their aim is to help people to get what they need.

A consultative approach means that your primary approach is to investigate.  Your approach is to behave as though you are giving someone a very thorough medical examination.  It is only after you have conducted the examination that you are able to use your expertise to recommend an appropriate course of action.

Would you be comfortable if you went to see a doctor who asked you no questions about your condition and within moments of meeting you announced that you needed to take a particular medicine? You would probably run a mile.

Compare and contrast this with the doctor who asks a series of well structured questions and conducts a thorough examination.  It is only after this process has been completed that you are prescribed the appropriate medicine.  You accept the diagnosis and the appropriate treatment with confidence.

This consultative approach is exactly what takes people to the very top of the selling profession.  And the really exciting news is that this approach is so much easier, and requires so much less effort than the hard sell approach.

Ask questions to make sure you understand someone’s situation.  Then you can help people to get what they really want.  When you do this you will find that the money flows into your bank account with ease!

Simon Hazeldine is the bestselling author of four business books that have been endorsed by famous business leaders including Duncan Bannatyne from BBC TV’s ‘Dragon’s Den’ and multi-billionaire founder and CEO of Dell Computers, Michael Dell.

For more valuable information on leadership, sales, negotiation and persuasion including sample chapters from Simon Hazeldine’s bestselling books please visit http://www.simonhazeldine.com