Stop trying to sell product and start focusing on how you help your client with business outcomes.

Stop trying to talk features and benefits and start developing the business chops that is business acumen and situational knowledge (You need to sound like you work in business, like a good general manager. You need to understand how your client’s business works, the economic and market conditions, and the challenges confronting their business).

Stop talking about you and your company and start listening to your client talk about their business, their goals, and their needs (they talk at least 70% of the time, you talk no more than 30% of the time, you wait 8 beats after they’re doing speaking before you say a word . . . Yes, that’s a long time, and yes it will make you uncomfortable).

Stop trying to close opportunities fast and start doing the work necessary to helping your client loosen the status quo’s grip on their organization (Fast is slow and slow is fact. You only as fast as you can together obtain the real outcomes you need).

Stop skipping the discovery work and start helping your client discover why they need to change. Stop skipping whole stages of your sales process, too (Your process is your best and surest path to creating value and winning. Use it!).

Stop trying to sell without discovering, creating, or building dissatisfaction and help your client develop the compelling case for change (Want to why you aren’t different? Want to know why you aren’t compelling? Want to know why you end up with so many “no decisions?” Your dream clients don’t change without the necessary motivation).

Stop playing too low and too small and start creating the greatest level of value you can (If you want to be consultative, you have to help your clients with their biggest, most important, and most strategic outcomes. It’s about the most value, not what you can or want to sell).

Read the rest here: http://thesalesblog.com/blog/2013/11/21/stop-being-transactional-and-start-being-consultative/