Sandler Rule #39, “When All Else Fails, Become a Consultant,” is a great tip that all salespeople should practice. Let’s say you are the greatest salesperson in the world and you give a pitch to a potential business partner, and you give the best pitch of their life to a company. However, even though you gave the best pitch of your life, the prospect doesn’t decide to business with him. No matter how good of a sales pitch it was, the potential business partner won’t agree to work with you. Don’t pull a Rose from Titanic and let go.
If you every find yourself in this situation, Sandler suggests asking the prospect, “Can I stop being a salesperson for a moment and be a consultant?”. It is not necessarily to give away what you know, but to make one last effort to rescue a deal. Give away concepts, and then sell the implementation of those concepts. Build advice around concepts that connect to your value.
Transforming from a salesperson into a consultant can still be beneficial to you because this can then help you still have a relationship for that person. It shows that you don’t only care about making a sale so that you and your company. It shows that you care about what the customer needs and care that they get what they find. This can lead to them possibly coming back to you for different help or they might refer others to you. The overall goal is to connect implementation of your product direct to the perceived problem of the prospect.
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