Consultative Selling 7.0
Why Audiofile applies it
Since this article is 100% non-audio and has a high ‘what on earth is this about’ content, the coverage will not be very large. Add to that, too much text and too long sentences and you have the perfect cocktail for no audience.
Despite this knowledge, I have decided to write and share the article anyway. The question is that the conviction is greater than the expected end result…
Why Audiofile applies Consultative Selling 7.0 (and what that means for you)
The Audiofile article “What is Sensible Audio” explains the origin, the why and the benefits of Audiofile’s pay-of Sensible Audio.
The introduction of that article describes the connection between our companies On the Border (OTB) and Audiofile. And how they help each other to be ‘completely successful’.
Again an effective cooperation. OTB has trained Audiofile in: Consultative Selling 7.0.
From now on I will abbreviate Consultative Selling 7.0 to: CS7.0.
A bold statement
On the Border (OTB) not only claims that CS7.0 is unique, but dares to make the bold statement that CS7.0 is the highest and therefore most sustainable form of selling, consequently with the highest added value for you. A bold statement, isn’t it?
And if that is true, and if Audiofile is really worthy of CS7.0, then that means something. For you. Let me explain to you exactly what.
“….highest and most sustainable form of selling, for you…”
It’s background
CS7.0 is easy to understand and extremely difficult to implement. This also explains why so few companies are able to be CS7.0 worthy.
If executed masterfully, then a maximum result applies to both the supplier and the buyer, both in the short and the long term. And you can interpret that result 4Q (for the enthusiast I will gladly make time to explain the concept of 4Q).
CS7.0 goes further than the verb ‘to sell’. It also has little in common with selling. At least if the definition of selling has to do with ‘wanting to sell something’.
“…CS7.0 is easy to understand and extremely difficult to implement…”
CS7.0 starts with an intrinsic conviction. Which is opposite to the general definition of sales. Such a conviction is also opposite to the well-known Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of management who want/have to keep control over the output of sales people with all their might.
The conditions
What are, in principle, the conditions for CS7.0?
First of all, because of your (own internal) resistance you have to be resistant to tests. This means that you have to be resistant to external and internal resistance while practicing CS7.0. Why? Because you are doing something that is unknown. For yourself and for the recipient of CS7.0. It even feels strange. To both parties.
A true CS7.0-er receives every resistance with respect, after which… nothing is done with it. The CS7.0-er chooses not to do anything with it, because doing something with it causes a deviation from the conviction.
Note: what’s the point of having a business conviction if every time a negative seed is planted, you start thinking about it or worse, act on it?
This means that you have to have a solid belief that CS7.0 always contributes to the added value for the other. The firmer the conviction, the deeper the roots. And the deeper the roots, the more resistant to resistance. It also works the other way around. Little root formation often leads to a relapse into old behavior. And old behavior means ‘I want to sell something’. Which directly undermines the added value.
Next step
The next step is the translation of that rock-solid mindset into new behavior. Which is also at odds with what sales training teaches us ‘salespeople’ and which usually leads to hyperventilation in management.
Sales teaches us to do something, with something as a result. That result always has the same parameter. Euros. If you remove the parameter Euros from sales and (especially) managers, you actually remove their right to exist. Hence the hyperventilation.
Fundamental change
It is the fundamental change that makes CS7.0 so extremely difficult. As if, knowing that you are an experienced marathon runner, you have to learn to walk again, and with every step you have to think about what the procedure is for the next step. Another metaphor: you seem to have to swim against the current permanently.
And to make matters worse. That swimming against the current does not seem to change substantially as you become more experienced with CS7.0.
Why Audiofile still uses CS7.0
That is easy to answer. Because OTB (and therefore Audiofile) developed CS7.0. Which means that deep-rooted ideas, mega important for sustainable success, cannot be deeper than possible. So that’s fine.
What’s in it for you?
Or better, what is the effect of Audiofile’s CS7.0 on you?
CS7.0, if applied correctly, always has the same effect. After a Teams meeting, after a telephone conversation or after a face-to-face conversation and even after a WhatsApp interaction with Audiofile, you not only feel that you are understood and heard. You know that you are understood and heard.
You know this because the undivided attention for you together with the battery of critical questions has only one goal:
“To help you make the most optimal purchase in an objective manner (fact-based)”
It is no more than that, but also no less. The effect, on you, is quite earth-shattering. Because you will notice that there is no room in the conversation for Audiofile itself. Except for the translated expertise in line with your (latent and even latent) wishes and needs.
“…CS7.0, if applied properly, always has the same effect…”
You also notice that your potential supplier is more critical of your process than you are (please take some time to let this sink in)
What you also find strange is that your potential supplier forces you to adjust your budget downwards. Although well-intentioned, an internal conflict may arise within you. Surely cheaper is not better?
Disappointing -for you- is Audiofile’s disclaimer that every audio choice you make has two parameters. One parameter fills in what you want. The other parameter is the consequence of the first parameter, which usually does not contribute to your first parameter (..)
“…You also notice that your potential supplier is more critical of your process than you are…”
Auditive laws
Audiofile calls this the ‘power and force of the auditory laws’. You are disappointed because you really hoped for the product to be the sheep with five legs. Audiofile tells you that this hope is in vain. Hence your disappointment.
The operational CS7.0 keywords: fact-based, dry-boiled, without bells and whistles, without personal gain (let that sink in for a moment), critical of you, critical of the process, chronically logical and down-to-earth.
Add to this: an enormous wealth of musical and auditory experience. And to further polish the ego of undersigned: able to link musical (4Q) properties of audio equipment and extrapolate these to a suitable auditory (4Q) advice. For you.
Experienced consultative sellers (so the sellers without 7.0 addition) have as their starting point ‘helping customers purchase’. That is actually already a big step forward compared to the way in which normal sales are conducted.
But do you remember? Consultative Selling 7.0 represents the highest and therefore most sustainable form of selling. This means that CS7.0 not only helps the customer with purchasing.
>>> CS7.0 helps the customer with purchasing,
better than the customer ever could <<<
Purchase better than you
That may seem a bit ‘overblown’, a retailer who thinks he can buy-in better than you can.
And yet CS7.0 stands for exactly that.
That is the added value of CS7.0. That is what CS7.0 stands for. The added value in which the position of your supplier is not relevant. Which creates maximum space for… You.
If you have not yet dropped out, I ask you to test me (several times). You can do this by telephone, via Teams, Skype, Whatsapp and – preferably – here in the store.
There is a good chance that afterwards you will indeed confirm what is described above.
Musical CS7.0 Greetings,
Michel
P.S.: “What you can wake me up for at night?”
Frikandellen Speciaal & Intensive chatting about Consultative Selling 7.0
