What Is Consulting Sales? Differences from Consultants and Characteristics of People Who Are Suited for It

Many people think consultants and salespeople are similar professions. In reality, there are many differences in their job responsibilities.

In conclusion, consultants and salespeople are completely different professions. Additionally, “consulting sales” also differs from both “consultant” and “salesperson” as separate job types.

This article explains the differences between consultants and salespeople, as well as the merits and demerits of consulting sales, for those who are unclear on these distinctions.

If you have questions about the differences between consultants, salespeople, and consulting sales professionals, take this opportunity to resolve them.

Differences Between Consultants, Salespeople, and Consulting Sales Professionals

Consultants, salespeople, and consulting sales professionals are each completely different job types.

Profession	Job Description
Consultant	Works alongside companies to resolve management challenges and problems
Salesperson	Main job is selling the company’s own products. Rarely accompanies clients through the entire problem-solving process.
Consulting Sales Professional	Resolves customer problems using the company’s own services and products

As shown above, a consultant’s primary job is resolving the management challenges of client companies. Depending on the company, they generally do not promote products or services to consumers or engage in sales activities.

Salespeople, on the other hand, sell their company’s products to businesses or individuals. Their main job is to get customers to sign contracts or purchase their company’s products.

Consulting sales professionals use services offered by consulting firms to guide client companies toward resolving their problems.

Let’s take a closer look at the differences between each of these roles.

1. Differences Between Consultants and Salespeople

Simply put, the key difference between consultants and salespeople is whether they sell their own company’s products or services. Salespeople focus on selling their company’s products and services, proposing how those offerings can solve the customer’s challenges, and closing the deal.

Consultants, on the other hand, do not sell their own products or services. Their job is to objectively identify the management challenges faced by companies or individuals and guide them toward resolution. In other words, they do not engage in any sales activities, making it a role with even greater responsibility than sales. In addition to management consultants who guide organizations toward resolving operational challenges, there are also technical consultants who address technical issues. Beyond guiding clients to solutions, the ability to propose ideas that contribute to client growth is also essential.

2. Differences Between Consultants and Consulting Sales Professionals

Although consultants and consulting sales professionals have similar names, their job responsibilities differ. Consultants objectively identify the challenges faced by companies or individuals and make proposals and take action toward resolving them. In some cases, they may be seconded to a company and act as a project leader at the core of its operations.

On the other hand, consulting sales professionals, unlike consultants, propose how to resolve the challenges faced by companies or individuals “by utilizing their own company’s (or in some cases, other companies’) services.” While they rarely participate in projects by being seconded to client companies, they often provide support in using the products or services.

The primary objective of consulting sales is not to address the business as a whole, but rather to get clients to sign contracts for products or services that solve or streamline specific parts of their operations. As a result, the skills needed to effectively promote products and services are extremely important.

3. Differences Between Consulting Sales Professionals and Salespeople

What consulting sales professionals and salespeople have in common is that both sell their company’s products and services to individuals and businesses. However, consulting sales professionals accompany clients through the entire problem-solving process, while salespeople primarily focus on selling their company’s products and services.

Salespeople’s main job is to sell their company’s products and services. When selling, they use various methods to understand customer needs and introduce the most suitable in-house products or services to generate revenue. Even if the customer’s needs would be better met by a competitor’s product, salespeople must focus on contributing to their own company’s sales rather than recommending other companies’ offerings.

Consulting sales professionals also share the common point of listening to customer needs, but selling their own products and services is not the primary focus. Since their main job is to resolve customer challenges, they may sometimes recommend other companies’ products or services when appropriate.

What Is Consulting Sales?

Some of you may not be familiar with the term “consulting sales” as a job type.

Consulting sales involves objectively understanding the challenges faced by companies or individuals and proposing solutions that leverage the company’s own services.

Rather than simply selling products or services to boost company revenue, the main focus is on resolving customer challenges — offering a different kind of fulfillment compared to traditional sales or consulting roles.

3 Rewarding Aspects of Consulting Sales

In consulting sales, you can experience the following three rewarding aspects.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Reward 1. A Sense of Accomplishment from Solving Company Challenges

The first rewarding aspect of consulting sales is being involved in solving customers’ problems.

Rather than simply selling products, the job involves listening to customer needs and making the most suitable proposals. Since customers express gratitude when their challenges are resolved, it is a highly rewarding profession. Furthermore, if your objective analytical skills and proposals uncover challenges the customer hadn’t even noticed and resolve those as well, you gain even greater trust.

Reward 2. Deepening Your Knowledge and Expertise

The second rewarding aspect is the ability to deepen your knowledge and expertise.

Unlike salespeople who simply sell their company’s products or services, consulting sales professionals make optimal proposals that include not only their own company’s offerings but also those of other companies.

As a result, you need to continuously update your knowledge not only about your own products and services, but also about competitors’ products and the latest industry information. You also need to deepen your understanding of the businesses your client companies operate in order to resolve their challenges, so you will gain a wide range of knowledge in the course of your work.

Being able to deepen your understanding of an entire industry, as well as advancing your career as a professional, is another rewarding aspect of consulting sales.

Reward 3. Leads to Personal Growth

The third rewarding aspect is that the work leads to personal growth.

Rather than simply preparing products or taking orders as instructed, you listen to customer challenges and leverage your knowledge to propose solutions.

Of course, since each customer’s challenges are different, you must acquire advanced skills — including the knowledge to identify the best solution and strong communication skills. As a result, in order to increase sales, you need to learn about various industries and companies, which naturally leads to personal growth.

Additionally, as you engage with a wide range of companies, your communication skills and ability to make proposals will be further refined — another form of personal growth.

Job Responsibilities of Consulting Sales Professionals

Consulting sales professionals specifically perform the following types of work.

The primary job of a consulting sales professional is to work toward resolving customer problems. This also requires conducting hearings to draw out company concerns and considering measures to guide them toward resolution.

In other words, because the role involves engaging with companies at a deeper level than typical sales, higher-level communication skills and logical thinking are required.

While ordinary salespeople conduct sales for their own company’s products and must prioritize their company’s interests, consulting sales professionals will also sell other companies’ products if those products can solve the customer’s problems. This means they are less likely to face the dilemma of having to promote their own products while knowing that a competitor’s product would be a better fit.

Benefits of Consulting Sales

Consulting sales offers benefits that neither consulting nor traditional sales can provide.

The following sections provide a detailed explanation of the various benefits of consulting sales.

1. Ability to Differentiate from Competitors

The first benefit of consulting sales is that by delving into problem-solving, it is easier to build trust with companies, allowing differentiation from companies that engage in traditional sales. While you do sell your own products and services, presenting solutions to challenges adds value that other companies cannot offer.

As a result, companies that engage in consulting sales also have the advantage of being able to retain customers for longer compared to companies that conduct traditional sales.

2. Gaining Strong Trust from Customers

The second benefit is that because you are involved with customers over a long period working toward their problem resolution, the relationship naturally becomes closer. If you can make effective, well-considered proposals and successfully guide them to a resolution, you will earn strong trust from customers.

By earning strong trust and building a positive relationship, there is a high likelihood that customers will return as repeat buyers of your products and services.

3. Gaining Broad Knowledge Leads to Personal Growth

In consulting sales, you need to acquire a wide range of knowledge in order to make the best proposals. Since the optimal solution varies for each challenge, you need to have a broad base of knowledge to draw from, which naturally requires studying various services and industries, leading to personal growth.

Additionally, working with many companies will sharpen your communication skills.

Drawbacks of Consulting Sales

While consulting sales offers various benefits, there are also some drawbacks.

If you are looking to pursue consulting sales in the future, it would be a good idea to understand the drawbacks introduced below as well.

1. Takes More Time to Close a Contract Than Other Types of Sales

The first drawback is that it takes more time to close a contract than other types of sales.

Unlike traditional sales, consulting sales requires developing strategies to resolve the challenges faced by each company. As a result, it is necessary to understand each company’s problems and gather information about their business.

A considerable amount of time is needed before a proposal can even be made, and after the proposal, it may also be necessary to investigate whether the problem has been properly resolved and, if not, what the cause is — making each client engagement time-consuming.

2. Need to Tailor Your Sales Approach to Each Customer

The second drawback is the need to tailor your sales approach to each customer. In traditional sales, if the product or service being sold is the same, there is generally no need to change the sales approach based on the customer. Sales methods may even be standardized through manuals, and unlike consulting sales, there are cases where deep thought about the content of proposals is less frequent.

In consulting sales, however, a customer-specific approach is necessary to work toward resolving each client’s challenges. Not only is the ability to propose solutions required, but so is knowledge of the products and services, as well as sales skills — meaning a wide range of competencies is demanded.

5 Skills Required for Consulting Sales

The skills required to work in consulting sales are as follows.

The skills required span a surprisingly wide range, from the ability to listen to customer challenges, to the ability to propose solutions and present them effectively.

The following sections provide a detailed explanation of the five skills required of consulting sales professionals, so please use this as a reference.

1. Listening Skills

First, “listening skills” — the ability to draw out how a company wants to resolve its challenges and concerns — are essential. In order to resolve challenges, it will also be necessary to understand the current state of the organization, including how operations are being conducted and the organizational structure.

By gathering the necessary information from companies through listening, you can make appropriate proposals tailored to each customer. In other words, listening skills are an indispensable skill for consulting sales professionals.

2. Communication Skills

The second required skill is “communication skills” for building trust with customers.

When a company is deciding whether to sign a contract for a product or service, psychological factors — such as feeling they can trust this person, or wanting to leave things in this person’s hands — can often be the deciding factor. Therefore, communication skills that allow you to win someone over and make them feel comfortable entrusting you are indispensable for sales.

Communication skills include techniques that can be learned later, such as gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, and volume, as well as inherent interpersonal qualities. While these cannot be acquired overnight simply by deciding to develop them, making every effort to cultivate them will prove extremely valuable as a consulting sales professional.

3. Comprehension Skills

The third required skill is “comprehension skills” regarding the relevant industry. Since you may engage in consulting sales across multiple industries rather than just one, you need the knowledge to understand the unique concerns of each industry and propose solutions.

Additionally, some company representatives may use abstract expressions or frequently use specialized terminology, so it is also necessary to read between the lines and understand what the other person is trying to convey from the words they use.

Developing comprehension skills is essential for facilitating smooth communication.

4. Analytical Skills

The fourth required skill is “analytical skills” for analyzing why challenges arise within a company and what is needed to resolve them. There are no shortage of cases where problems arise because preconceptions or excessive specialized knowledge cause people to view situations through a narrow lens. Therefore, analytical skills — for viewing things objectively as well as digging deeper into problems to identify their root causes — are indispensable for consulting sales professionals.

Additionally, by analyzing what kinds of challenges can be resolved using your own company’s products and services, you can make swift proposals for each individual challenge. This also enables more precise approaches and increases your market value as a consulting sales professional.

5. Presentation Skills

The fifth required skill is “presentation skills.”

The role of a consulting sales professional is not only to make proposals for challenges, but also to communicate convincing reasons for customers to take action. Simply stating facts like “this will solve the problem” or “this is what you should do” will not convince a company if there is no supporting rationale.

Furthermore, if explanations are too complex or difficult, the benefits of adopting a product or service will not come across clearly.

Therefore, presentation skills — the ability to logically and clearly propose why using your company’s products or services will lead to a resolution, with specific methods and supporting evidence — are absolutely essential.

Characteristics of People Suited for Consulting Sales

Consulting sales also has its own compatibility factors. Specifically, people who are well-suited for the role are as follows.

To avoid struggling after joining a company, please refer to the detailed explanation below about who is well-suited for this role.

1. People Who Can Empathize with Others’ Concerns

The first characteristic of a person well-suited for consulting sales is someone who can genuinely empathize with the concerns of others. Clients will talk about their current challenges and concerns, but you ultimately need to get to the root cause of those issues.

It is important to identify latent needs not just from the surface-level challenges and concerns, but also through casual conversations with customers. By being mindful during the listening phase — not only asking about the current state of challenges and concerns, but also what they are struggling with and what is worrying them — you will be able to identify the root cause.

Additionally, since clients themselves may not always have an accurate grasp of the challenges and concerns they face, it may be necessary to offer an opposing viewpoint when appropriate.

In other words, someone who can empathize with a person’s concerns while also being able to tell them when they are wrong and guide them toward a resolution is ideally suited for consulting sales.

2. People Who Are Highly Curious

Another characteristic of a person well-suited for consulting sales is someone who can maintain curiosity across a wide range of fields. The companies that consulting sales professionals work with are not limited to a single industry. Therefore, learning about different industries, companies, and fields is necessary, and highly curious individuals tend to grow faster.

Approaching your work with curiosity creates opportunities for flexible thinking to emerge. Problem-solving requires considering issues from multiple angles, and in today’s ever-changing society, approaches that worked in the past may no longer be effective. Continuously gathering the latest information on a daily basis is essential to keeping pace with the rapid changes in modern society.

3. People Who Are Well-Groomed and Can Speak Clearly and Confidently

Another characteristic of a person well-suited for this role is someone who is well-groomed and can speak clearly and confidently. Building trust with clients is extremely important in consulting sales. Since people who make a good first impression tend to be viewed favorably, having a neat and clean appearance is an important point.

Furthermore, being able to clearly articulate your own opinion is also important. Even if you have a valid opinion, if you convey it in an unconfident manner, clients will feel uneasy about entrusting things to you.

Being “well-groomed” and “clearly communicating your own opinions” are both essential for making a good impression on clients, so take a moment to reflect on how you measure up on these two points.

How to Become a Consulting Sales Professional

Ways to become a consulting sales professional include “joining a company that conducts consulting sales,” “working as a freelance consulting sales professional,” and “starting your own company and conducting consulting sales.”

Job openings are available across a wide range of fields, including aesthetic clinics, cloud services, insurance, and advertising production companies, so choose an industry that interests you.

If you already have experience in consulting sales, you can make yourself more attractive to your desired industry by highlighting your track record.

Frequently Asked Questions About Consulting Sales

Finally, we will answer some frequently asked questions about consulting sales.

If any of these topics interest you, please check the details below.

Summary

In this article, we introduced the differences between consultants and salespeople, as well as the concept of consulting sales.

Consultants, salespeople, and consulting sales professionals each have completely different job responsibilities and roles. With that in mind, take a moment to reconsider which field you are most interested in.

Consulting sales, which has become a term frequently heard in recent years, differs from traditional sales in that it prioritizes resolving customer challenges first — and conducts sales not only for its own products, but also for those of other companies when necessary. It is a recommended profession for those who want to engage more deeply with companies beyond simple sales activities.

People who can genuinely empathize with others’ concerns, those who are highly curious, and those who are well-groomed and able to communicate clearly and confidently are especially well-suited for this role, so please consider exploring it as a career or career change option.