Business-to-business salespeople often encounter difficulties in differentiating their products from the competitive offerings. A very promising approach for providing added value to their buyers is to view the products as part of a “total solution” comprising both physical attributes and services.

Simultaneously, salespeople should approach their customers with a “problem-solving approach”, acting as real consultants for their clients.

The market where the salesman works is usually very competitive. He must adapt his offer and value proposition to the competitive situation. To do this he has to understand the nature of competition in his industry, see key success factors clearly, analyse his company’s competitors, their position, strategy and potential actions.On the basis of this knowledge the salesman must develop his own strategy for competing and must implement it effectively, taking care also of ethical aspects of business competition.

It happens frequently that in the field of consultative selling competitors sometimes cooperate with each other. The salesman must also know the concept of co-ompetition.

To understand properly the needs and the behaviour of the customers, and to adapt the sales proposals and the general sales approach to their requirements the salesman must be able to identify specific groups of customers with similar background, goals, needs, attitudes. Segmenting the market is an important step towards positioning, what means adapting the product and service packages, the prices and the sales tools to specific market segments. Segmentation is the basis of well targeted marketing actions.

There are many different ways of market segmentation and the salesman must be able to select the most suitable one for his purposes.

Consultative selling is typically done for the organizational markets where the buyer is not the end user. Companies selling complex and expensive goods have influential suppliers behind them and co-operate with subcontractors and partners. It means selling happens in a supply chain.

The salesman must understand his industry’s supply chain and must see his company’s position it clearly. He must understand how revenue and profit distribution is related to competitive forces, mutual dependence and bargaining positions. He must understand the forces influencing the development of modern supply chain and must adapt his selling strategy and behaviour to all these things.