The  Black  Belt  Selling  Guide  to  Selling  From  the  Left©  -­  Consultative  Selling  

1.    What  is  Consultative  Selling?   Consultative  selling  is  a  process  of  diagnosing,  shaping  and  developing  your  prospect’s  needs  (and  

desires),  and  then  aligning  your  solution  to  solve  those  needs  (what  we  call  ‘Selling  from  the  Left®’).  

This  is  in  direct  contrast  to  the  traditional  selling  approach  i.e.  ‘pushing’  Features,  Advantages  and  

Benefits  (or  ‘FAB’s)  at  a  prospect  (what  we  call  ‘Selling  from  the  Right®’)  and  hoping  those  FAB’s  

happen  to  align  to  the  prospect’s  burning  desires  or  needs!  

It’s  simple  –  if  you  wrote  down  an  analysis  of  a  client’s  world  on  the  left  and  an  FAB  statement  for  

your  portfolio  (or  solution)  on  the  right,  then  consultative  selling  starts  (and  spends  most  of  its  time)  

on  the  left,  before  moving  over  to  the  right.  In  contrast,  traditional  ‘FAB’  selling  starts  (and  spends  

most  of  its  time)  on  the  right.  

2.  Why  Consultative  Selling  is  So  Important  

In  today’s  world  of  tougher,  business-­‐savvy  buyers,  the  traditional  ‘Feature,  Advantage,  Benefit’  

selling  model  no  longer  works.  Buying  decisions  are  typically  being  made  at  a  more  senior  level  and  

senior  people  don’t  care  about  product  or  service  features.  They  expect  suppliers  to  bring  new,  

innovative  business  solutions  and  to  create  tangible  value  that  can  be  measured  (also  called  a  

‘Return  on  Investment’).   For  this  reason,  people  who  have  really  mastered  consultative  selling  and  can  ‘Sell  from  the  Left®’  

are  winning  and  earning  even  more  than  ever  before.  Whether  they  are  sales  people  or  business  

development  professionals,  they  are  in  huge  demand  and  typically  get  rewarded  with  six  figure  

salaries.  

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2.    The  ‘MIDAS’  System  for  ‘Selling  from  the  Left®’   We  use  a  proven  and  easy-­‐to-­‐learn  (and  easy  to-­‐apply)  system  called  MIDAS  for  making  consultative  

selling  or  ‘Selling  from  the  Left®’  really  work.  

So  what  is  MIDAS?  Well,  the  ‘M-­‐I-­‐D’  part  of  MIDAS  represents  the  client’s  world,  while  the  ‘A-­‐S’  of  

MIDAS  represents  what  you  can  sell  to  them.  

3.1  M-­‐I-­‐D:  The  Client’s  World  

The  M-­‐I-­‐D  of  MIDAS  stands  for  the  following:  

M  -­‐  Macro  and  Micro  (external)  forces.  These  are  external  pressures,  trends  and  events  that  affect  

your  target  organisation  (and  may  well  also  affect  other  organisations  in  the  sector  or  industry).  This  

is  a  REALLY  crucial  element  of  consultative  selling  because  these  external  forces  represent  all  of  the  

known  (and  unknown)  threats  and  opportunities  that  the  senior  decision  maker(s)  in  your  prospect  

organisation  are  faced  with.  You  should  do  a  bit  of  research  on  their  organisation  or  sector  and  

choose  two  or  three  of  the  main  external  trends,  pressures  or  forthcoming  events  that  are  likely  to  

combine  to  cause  a  real  threat  or  opportunity  for  the  client  in  the  near  or  medium  term  (and  which  

your  solution  may  be  able  to  help  with).  A  combination  of  M  factors,  for  instance,  might  be  the  

downturn  in  consumer  spending,  online  competition  and  VAT  increases  affecting  high-­‐street  

retailers.  This  combination  of  pressures  is  a  really  powerful  conversation  point  with  an  owner  of  a  

high-­‐street  retailer,  if  you’ve  got  something  that  can  help  him  or  her  counteract  the  negative  affect  

this  powerful  combination  of  forces  will  probably  have!  

I    –  the  Implications  (or  ‘Pain-­‐Points’)  that  these  external  forces  have,  or  will  have,  on  your  target  

organisation  and  your  target  contact’s  personal  role  in  that  organisation.  Your  analysis  of  these  

implications  should  include  some  sort  of  calculation  or  estimate  of  the  financial  implications  that  

could  result  from  his  or  her  failure  to  respond  to  a  specific  combination  of  external  threats  and  

opportunities  that  you  have  identified.  In  the  high-­‐street  retailer  example,  this  might  include  sales  

volumes  falling,  revenues  falling,  stock  levels  rising,  marketing  costs  rising  or  profits  falling–  all  of  

which  will  have  a  direct  impact  on  (and  cause  pain  for)  the  owner  if  that’s  who  you  are  targeting.  

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