Consultative selling: diagnose first, recommend second

B2B buyers usually know more than they did a decade ago. Before they talk to sales, they have read reviews and asked peers. A rep who repeats the website adds nothing, while one who helps them think through their specific problem earns the next meeting.

Consultative selling works best when:

• The problem has several possible causes, so diagnosis matters.
• The buyer will need to justify the choice internally.
• The product can be configured, scoped or priced to fit.

Because it is slower than a scripted pitch, it is worth the time only with people who have a real problem.

Consultative selling now often starts in public threads. Someone describes a problem, and the best reply asks a good question or offers a diagnosis before mentioning any product. Here are sample sentences, scored 0 to 100 for buying intent the way HearBuyers scores posts:

• Sample, score 87. "Our email open rates dropped from about 40% to 12% in two months and nothing changed on our side. We need someone to audit this." A problem with symptoms, asking for an expert.
• Sample, score 58. "Is email deliverability getting worse for everyone?" A real worry, but a general question.
• Sample, score 4. "Ranking my favourite email newsletters this year." No problem to diagnose.

A consultative reply to the first post would ask about recent DNS or sending changes and explain two likely causes. Any offer to help comes after that, if at all.

• Asking questions as a script. Buyers can tell when the questions are just a stall before the pitch.
• Diagnosing without permission. In public, answer what was asked first, then offer more.
• Never recommending anything. Consulting is how you get there, but you still need to suggest a next step.
• Using it on simple purchases. If someone wants a known product at a known price, help them buy it.

• Solution selling: a close cousin focused on the buyer's problem.
• Pain points: what consultative questions uncover.
• MEDDIC: a qualification framework that pairs well with it.
• Personal selling: the one-to-one channel it uses.

For a worked example of a diagnose-first reply in a public thread, read Reddit lead generation.