When people hear the word “sales” they often have a preconceived notion of what it means—usually something that feels smarmy, in-your-face, or insincere. Sales is a natural and necessary part of any business, but quite frankly, some people think they don’t need a sales consultant or sales training to develop B2B sales expertise.
Here are five reasons why your customers or potential customers don’t think they need you, and how you can show them they do!
1. They already do regular training
Many companies offer regular sales training as a practice to keep employees fresh and on their game. Most people think because they have regular training sessions or workshops, that they don’t need further help from B2B sales consultants.
How to get over this hurdle:
A great way to overcome this is by using your service to complement their existing training and answer these questions. How can you provide value? What can you add to their existing training, so they can start seeing better results? How can you help them deliver revenue after a training workshop?
2. They have an in-house person
Some companies even have an in-house person that works as a sales trainer. But usually it’s one person. Having one person, or even a small team can make things very insular, and in some cases, very stale.
Help them grow from good to great:
As a sales consultant, you have a unique opportunity to share your fresh perspective, online courses and workshops to enhance their current sales training.
3. Their sales team is meeting budget
Companies that are meeting their budget think that translates to success and sustainability. It’s your job to ask the critical questions. For how long, though? Is meeting budget the end game? Meeting a budget is a sign of success, but not enough to determine a business’ future success.
Reach unthinkable heights:
As a B2B sales consultant, you can help optimize their process to reach unthinkable revenue levels! Meeting budget can also mean just getting by, so it’s important to showcase your abilities to help take their sales to the next level.
4. They don’t believe it is a strong ROI
Some companies just don’t see the value of using a sales consultant because they think it’s a strong return on investment. Organizations that have not used a consultant see it as a risk to use one as nothing is guaranteed.
Show them the money:
The best consultants show results and have a track record or retaining customers. Some even enter revenue sharing relationships and charge a customer less for initial training and consulting and pay the trainer a commission on revenue produced as a result of the training workshop.
5. They think ROI is not measurable
Some potential customers think they don’t need you because the return on investment isn’t measurable. How will they know using your service will be worthwhile if they can’t measure ROI?
Metrics, metrics, metrics:
Having specific strategies and measurable results—also known as metrics—will let your work speak for itself. Tracking revenue after sales training is standard operating procedure for world-class consultants.
Moving forward
Keep these things in mind when approaching a potential client or when dealing with a less-than-engaged client. Think about their thoughts and ideas about sales consultants. Remember, they want every reason in the world not to hire you or use your service, so it’s important to have a firm grasp on the work you do and how you can help others. They want to think they can do it on their own, but as you know, a little help can go a long way.
