What is the difference between transactional selling and consultative selling

Thanks for signing up! Sales Bootcamp Learn how to generate more leads and revenue right from your inbox. Sign up. Sales Tactics : 8 min read What's Transactional Selling? Here's How to Do It. Amy Wood Contributor. Transactional selling vs. When a transactional sale is done, so is the relationship between the customer and the business.

When the lines between transactional and consultative selling blur. Applying consultative selling to transactional sales.

Authentically demonstrate value While cost has and always will be an important factor in making a sale, value is what builds trust and leads to long-term and repeat customers—and trust is a key component of consultative selling. According to Vidyard , these are the three things that make an effective customer story: Choose a credible interview subject —someone who will resonate with your audience while also demonstrating authority.

Ensure their story is believable , and that they can talk specifically about how your product or service helped them achieve success. Get the necessary permissions sooner rather than later. Learn about other tasks that a CRM can help you do more efficiently with this free handbook.

Get the guide. The way forward is relational. Try Copper free! No credit card required. Start your day free trial today. Request Demo Try Free. Related articles Sales Tactics How to send a follow-up email after no response How to send a follow-up email after no response Create a follow up email after no response, such as making it personal and adding value. Kimberlee Meier Contributor. Sales Tactics : 9 min read Cold sales email templates: Are they really worth your time?

Cold sales email templates: Are they really worth your time? Sales Tactics : 9 min read How to create a real estate sales funnel from scratch How to create a real estate sales funnel from scratch Learn the step-by-step process for creating a real estate sales funnel that collects, nurtures and converts your leads into home buyers.

X Try an actually easy-to-use CRM for free. Manage all your contacts, deals, emails, files, and more in one place. Continue with Google or use your email to sign up:. Full Name. He points out that my commissions are much lower than some of the other, more senior floor associates that have been around for a while. That floors me. He goes on to tell me how I might have handled that shovel sale differently.

Sure enough, another DIYer walks in looking for a shovel. This time, I know what to look for and I start off a conversation on the way over to the shovel area. By the way, have you ever considered a post hole digger?

So, I explain to him that the diameter of the hole can be much smaller when you use the post hole digger, because the hinge makes it like two hands scooping out the dirt. With a long-handled shovel, you have to basically dig a much wider hole so that you can angle the shovel to pull out the dirt. With that out of the way, I asked the next question. In the process, I had saved the man some money overall, but his outcome was a heck of a lot better than he had planned initially.

Value trumps price every time. So, you might be wondering about the final sale total. It was a lot less work, and the finished result was spectacular in his mind. We help sales leaders implement consultative selling within their companies to increase profitability and accelerate growth.

On the other hand, I talk less often about transactional sales. Very often, in my mandates, I find that B2B sales forces approach sales in a transactional way when a consultative method is required in order to achieve their objectives. But in rare cases, the opposite situation occurs and representatives work too hard on simple sales.

According to the website Business Dictionary , the term transactional selling is used to refer to a sales situation in which the seller's consulting role is particularly limited or non-existent, or even for which the consumer does not have recourse to a seller. In the context of transactional selling, the goal is to make the sale as fast and efficient as possible. In this first type of sale, the effort, level of expertise and time spent on the sale are minimal.

This is the most common selling approach used to sell commodities. Conversely, consultative selling is an approach that consists in deeply understanding the problems of potential customers, the consequences of these problems and identifying a solution to solve them by placing yourself in a position of trusted expert through the questioning process.

Consultative selling makes it possible to sell the value of products, services and solutions by focusing not on the need expressed by customers, but on the causes and problems at the root of the need. In this case, the level of skills , the time to invest in sales and the efforts are important.