Chief Client Officer | Turning Latent Value into EBITDA | Consumer Industries
During one of my mentoring sessions, someone asked, "How can I become a more successful sales leader?" Reflecting on my two decades of experience building businesses through consultative and relationship-based selling, it clicked that I had been following a consistent playbook. This playbook applies to B2B sales, such as opening and growing new accounts, and can be tweaked for B2C, like selling Tide Pods to billions of consumers. Here’s how it goes. Let’s say you are trying to sell business consulting services to senior leaders at a CPG company. 1. First, Sell Your Personal Brand Your personal branding gets you the first meeting. In sales, people buy from those they trust and respect. Position yourself as a knowledgeable and reliable expert in your field. 2. Engage on a Regular Basis, But Don’t Try to Sell Yet Find a way to engage with your prospect regularly. Spend time listening and learning about their world; don't try to sell yet. Share examples of what their peers are doing, preferably. Use these opportunities to subtly position your company brand in a way they hadn’t visualized before. 3. Sell the Problem Framework, Co-Expand the Framework To sell a solution, you need to sell the problem first. But before selling the problem, sell the problem framework that connects the solution to a bigger purpose, like SG&A reduction, revenue growth, or cleaner, brighter, and fresh-smelling clothes (Tide Pods). This is the most critical step. The framework needs to be logical and simple. Bonus points if the prospect co-develops the framework with you. Once they do, you occupy the space in their head on how they evaluate any solutions in the future, and your competitor won't even know that their proposals are being evaluated with the framework you defined. 4. Sell the Problem Once the prospect has the problem framework in their head, share what they are missing today within that framework that prevents them from achieving their bigger goals. That’s the part your company solves for, but you are not yet selling the solution until the prospect is in clear agreement on the problem. 5. Sell the Solution Once the problem is clearly defined and understood, present your solution as the ideal response. Your solution should address the problem directly and offer clear benefits in alignment with the bigger goals that can be evaluated using your framework. 6. Continue to Engage Until Sold, Continue to Engage, Period Just because you sold the solution doesn't mean the prospect will buy it immediately. They might think it over for days or weeks, consult peers, or evaluate your competitors. This is where you can offer references. If the prospect comes back with concerns or objections, don't panic—they are only trying to justify the purchase in their head. Help them with those points using data and proven facts. Eventually, they will come around and ask you for a formal proposal. At this point, you have increased your probability of winning. Focus on closing.