The answer is insight.
Insight selling, more specifically, is about creating value by demonstrating a deep understanding of your client and their industry’s challenges. It can be a way to differentiate yourself in today’s market and take your business to the next level of success.
Let’s delve a little further into this concept. Clients are no longer simply searching for a product or service – they want a partner who can offer a solution and implement it. They want you to be genuinely curious about their business and to offer knowledge relevant to them.
With insight selling, you’re helping your client to identify a problem they didn’t know they had. You provide insights which illuminate and provide something of intrinsic value to them. You play the role of strategy consultant or business coach to your client, guiding them through the process of buying and implementing your solution.
Insight selling is about working with clients and ensuring the process is less like selling and more like collaborating.
The Proof Insight Selling Works
In their book, Insight Selling: Surprising Research On What Sales Winners Do Differently, US-based sales training and consulting company RAIN Group studied over 700 business-to-business purchases made by buyers responsible for $3.1 billion in purchasing power. They found “that winners sell radically differently than second-place finishers”, and consistently exhibit behaviours on three levels.
According to the study…
They connect
- Sellers connect the dots between buyers’ needs and solutions they offer.
- Sellers connect with people by listening to buyers and connecting with them personally.
They convince
- Sellers persuade buyers they will achieve worthwhile results.
- Sellers minimize the perception of risk by demonstrating experience, building trust, and inspiring confidence.
- Sellers persuade buyers they are the best choice.
They collaborate
- Sellers collaborate with buyers by being proactive and responsive.
- Sellers educate buyers with new ideas and perspectives.
Many organisations, especially law firms, stumble when it comes to selling – a word which many lawyers dislike. But with price pressure from clients, intensifying competition and changes in the way legal services are bought, it’s more important than ever for firms to be able to effectively sell.
With insight selling, you can use your unique legal insights to develop preventive legal strategies aligned to your client’s business objectives. By providing insights based on your knowledge and position, you collaborate with your clients, become a part of their team and develop ideas which will lead to future business. Clients will place less value on your products and services and a higher value on you and your firm, resulting in long-term, profitable relationships.
Collaboration is the future of client relations. As we get closer to 2020, organisations that align their sales processes with new client expectations are likely to be the winners.