Marketing Consultant Dan Grandstaff recently spoke to Triangle Business Leaders on How to Sell Without Selling. He offered these tips:

1. Position Yourself. Once you’re clear about who you work with, the specific problems you can solve for them, and what makes you different from your competitors selling becomes more about communicating the value you can provide than trying to push them into saying yes.
2. Identify Prospects and How to Approach Them. List actual names of people who what the problems you’d like to solve. Think about ways to get introductions or referrals to them, and what you could offer to get their attention.
3. Conduct a Strategy Session. Asking questions is a good way to build rapport and help them sell themselves on hiring you. Get a feel for where they’re at and what they’re looking to achieve. Ask why it’s important for them to solve this problem. Then ask what the result is they’re really hoping to achieve and what that would mean for them. Summarize what they said to make sure you understood correctly.
4. Offer Options and Recommendations. Instead of jumping in and talking about your services, start by giving an example of how you helped solve a similar problem. Then ask “If I could help you with that, would you be interested in hearing more?”
   

   Saying “yes” to this small question will put them in the right mindset. Make a recommendation, describing what you could do. See how they react and if they have questions. You’ll get a good sense of whether to proceed or offer up something else.

5. Planning Next Steps. Tell them you’d like to work with them and why. Our enthusiasm can often make a big difference. Ask how they would like to proceed and. If they’re interested in getting started, make an offer and agree on the next step. If they’re not ready yet, get agreement on a next step such as a follow-up.
6. Handling Questions About Price. Don’t talk price too soon—if they bring it up, then say you can’t give an exact answer until you know the scope of the project but projects like this tend to range between $x and $y. Make sure you reiterate the value they’ll receive. You may also want to compare the price and value to an alternative. Then ask, “Is that within your budget?” and wait for their response.
   

   a.    If they say it’s higher than planned, ask what they expected. Then reiterate the value.
   b.    If they say it’s much higher than expected, ask what that number was and decide whether you’d be willing to do a reduced version of the project. If so, ask which elements they’d want to eliminate.

7. Handling, “I need to think about it.” Ask what questions and issues they’re going to be thinking about so you can make sure they have all the info they need. Address their concerns. If appropriate, introduce an element of scarcity or urgency. Either way, agree on a next step before concluding.