Want to become a trusted expert? Start with this book.

Want to become a trusted expert? Start with this book.

Most sales books are written for people selling products. But you face a different challenge.
You need to demonstrate your expertise by adding value, offering insight into your clients’ priority situations and earning their trust.

Consultative Selling by Mack Hanan is the bible for this approach. It shows you how to identify, develop and package opportunities that improve your clients’ profitability.
These ideas lie at the heart of his approach:

1. Act as an expert, not a seller. This sets the tone for your client relationships.
2. Focus on the business issue and profit improvement, not your method or the services you provide.
3. Build a financial case with the client for the improvements they could achieve.
4. Develop a business case that makes the client's commercial opportunity tangible. This is effectively a proposal based on profit improvement, not fees.
5. Work in partnership with clients on their business agenda, while shaping the improvements they want to achieve.

There's one important qualification. This approach requires you to be comfortable discussing the financial and commercial aspects of a client's business, not just the technical aspects of their challenges and your proposed solution.

If that's something you or your consultants struggle with, let's talk. It's one area I work on with technology services and specialist consulting firms.

💢 Back in August 22 I enrolled for #ship30for30 the online digital writing course. Since then I’ve done several sprints, publishing an atomic essay each day for 30 days.

This article is the first for 30 days in November 2026.