The 4 Main Types of Selling (And When to Use Them)

Contributed to EO by Greg Walthour

How would you describe the sales function in your organization? Your selling approach is the heartbeat of your company. Done well, it engages and educates your customers and clients, provides you with insights into customers’ needs, and helps guide them toward a product or service that will improve their lives or business.

Why Different Types of Selling Exist

The types of selling and various selling styles your sales team utilizes are both industry and product dependent. What may work incredibly well for one service or industry may not work nearly as well for another. Sales is a skill of nuance and can be highly specialized.

At its core, sales is the process of convincing a customer to purchase something by using a series of planned and polished communication techniques. Your selling approach involves helping customers understand what they need and want so that they’re more likely to buy your products.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for selling products—there are multiple types of selling strategies and different kinds of sales you can deploy to get the job done. The selling styles that work for one company or industry may not work for another. And if sales stagnate, it’s time to ask questions and explore the four types of selling techniques.

The key is to find at least one of the many different types of selling that will benefit your business. To help you do so, I’ve detailed the four main types of selling along with the right time and situation to use them so that you can determine which selling approach would be most beneficial for your company.

The Four Types of Selling

There are four types of selling strategies that you can use to appeal to your customer. Interestingly, many people who have been in sales for a long time are unaware of these four main types of sales approaches. They include:

1. Solution Selling

In the solution selling methodology, the salesperson takes a comprehensive approach to understand a prospect’s needs and then recommends products based on the client’s problem. The solution-selling method puts the customer’s needs and wants at the center of the selling approach, making it more personalized and tailored to them.

In this case, your prospects know they have a problem but are unsure how to fix it, so the most important sign to look for in clients is that the client needs a tailor-made support solution that meets their specific needs. You can use this method of selling for products or services with a slightly longer buying process, where the ROI is high. This is an excellent option if your clients are looking for long-term solutions.

2. Transactional Selling

Sales representatives negotiate with customers to promote products or services in transactional selling. The type of sale typically involves identifying potential customers, developing relationships with them, pitching them a product or service, and closing the sale. Your ideal prospect knows what their problems are and what possible solutions exist to fix them, but they want a custom-made product.

With this style of selling, the representative usually gets in touch with the customer and then attempts to negotiate a sale. This method works better when the sales representative and customer have a pre-existing relationship. You can use this method of selling for short sale cycles—retail, real estate or automotive—and one-time purchases.

3. Consultative Selling

The consultative type of sales approach is about creating value and trust with potential customers and exploring their needs. With consultative selling, the salesperson’s primary goal is to establish a relationship with the customer; their second objective is to identify and provide the customer with the product they need. This is a complex selling approach to implement because it requires a highly experienced salesforce who are good communicators that ask the right questions and engage with customers throughout their journey. The end goal of consultative selling is to establish a consulting relationship with the client.

Consultative selling can be an effective type of business sales in any industry that aims to generate long-term revenue and profit rather than simply making a quick sale. For example, purchasing a car. In that case, the car salesperson takes the time to ask the client several questions about their needs and purpose before making a suggestion.

4. Provocative Selling

Provocation-based selling is one of the types of sales techniques that targets a problem your customer is not aware of, but that is critically important. Once the customer is informed about the issue through this method of selling, they are willing to take care of it. The salesperson must create urgency and show that the customer’s current chosen method is not a safe option. Sales professionals see these challenges as opportunities to show that their products are not just a nice addition but essential.

You can use the provocative selling method to help increase sales during normal situations and when business is slow. It is one of the different types of sales techniques that takes a special flair to execute properly, but once your sales team is efficient in conducting this type of selling technique, the sky is the limit as far as hitting your sales goals. You can use digital marketing services like digital PR, video marketing, influencer marketing services, and many others in tandem with this type of sale. It gives your customers an insight into your business and how you can assist them with their needs.

Leverage the 4 Types of Sales Strategies

A careful consideration of these four types of selling techniques and an analysis of which selling styles will work best for your product or service is a key step in growing and scaling your business. Focusing on your goals and expectations will help you pinpoint the most suitable types of selling strategies for your specific business and industry. Think about what you want to achieve and what steps you need to take to get there. The answers will help you focus your sales efforts and ensure that you’re on the right track.