Distributors are re-examining their strategies as millennials become a populous and educated segment of the workforce, Michael Wilson writes. Their online purchasing preferences are reviving the need to practice consultative selling as distributors shift to meet customer preferences.
Source: Industrial Distribution, October 4, 2016.
Consultative selling refers to a method of selling in which distributors spend more time with customers in order to better understand their priorities, needs, and challenges. Armed with this knowledge, they attempt to recommend solutions that will address these issues. It’s different from a traditional sales approach in that it involves suggesting solutions to a problem rather than just focusing on selling a specific product.
INSIGHTS: Industrial cleaning, like animal health it is a packaged goods industry. Sales representatives need to consider how this information affects their own customers and how to adjust the job of selling solutions instead of products.