Selling With, Not To

True consultative selling is about selling with your customers, not to them. In other words, you work closely together in partnership to co-create value by eliciting the best thinking on both sides to create better ideas, stronger buy-in, and unshakeable relationships.

It’s a beautiful thing when it happens, but it’s also not common because it takes a rare mixture of relevant knowledge, interpersonal skills, and an outside-in mindset to make it work. I’ve written about that in my book, Bottom-Line Selling.

But there is more to the story than the quantitative and logical approach I advocate, and there is more value possible in co-creation than can be captured in a spreadsheet. That’s where Chip Bell’s new book, Inside Your Customer’s Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions, comes in.

Knowledge, skill and outside-in thinking may not be enough unless you can also get inside your customer’s imagination. The customer’s mind contains a potential treasure trove of ideas for working together to generate incredible value, much of which they may not even be aware of. The trick is to harness that imagination. Have you ever had a customer meeting that just sparkled with enthusiasm and produced ideas almost faster than you could write them down? This book will show you how to make that the norm rather than the exception.

The book is divided into five tactics for creating and sustaining a co-creation partnership, each with three techniques to apply them effectively. Bell calls them “secrets”, but I prefer to see them as plain common sense, creatively applied. They are:

Curiosity: The first step to selling with someone is to be curious about them. Chip says “curiosity is fundamentally an optimistic treasure hunt”, and it springs from a genuine desire to know as much as you can about them.

Grounding: Grounding is about establishing a shared purpose with your customer. It starts with defining the customer’s core need or aspiration.

Discovery: Curiosity and grounding are important to get started, but at some point you have to start generating ideas. Discovery is about creating a climate to make innovation possible—maybe even inevitable.

Trust: All innovation contains risk for both parties, so trust is essential. Both parties must trust each other enough to open up fully and generate ideas, and they must also trust each other enough to share the risks of implementing them.

Passion: Just like a marriage, a co-creation partnership needs to be nurtured with passion to avoid complacency and indifference. Passion ensures that both sides consistently bring their best.

This short synopsis does not do justice to the book. Chip uses excellent analogies and tons of compelling stories to illustrate and support his points, which makes for excellent reading. If you’ve ever had the chance to see Chip in person, you’ll see that he writes like he speaks, with a dynamic combination of entertainment and insight.