Mihir Koltharkar's consultative selling training teaches B2B salespeople to diagnose before they prescribe — using structured questioning in the tradition of SPIN Selling, his own CIMTA framework, and FAB value articulation. At Safaricom Kenya, this approach lifted sales conversion from 20% to 37% — an 85% improvement — without any change to product or price.
The Problem: Telling Is Not Selling
Most salespeople open meetings by presenting. The buyer hears a generic pitch, compares it on price, and the deal becomes a commodity. Consultative sellers do the opposite: they ask layered questions about the buyer's situation, problems and the cost of those problems, so that the solution feels tailor-made — because it is.
What Participants Learn
- Question architecture — situation, problem, implication and need-payoff style questions, adapted for Indian, Gulf and Southeast Asian buyers
- The CIMTA sequence — Connect, Investigate, Match, Test, Advance
- Active listening and NLP-based rapport — reading what the buyer isn't saying
- FAB value articulation — linking features to advantages to the benefit this buyer described
- Objection diagnosis — treating objections as unanswered questions, not attacks
- Advancing — ending every conversation with a concrete, committed next step
SPIN Selling vs CIMTA
SPIN Selling, from Neil Rackham's research, is a powerful questioning model. CIMTA places questioning inside a complete conversation sequence — adding rapport before it and commitment-testing and advancing after it — so salespeople know not just what to ask, but what to do next.
Clients include Abbott, TCS, JP Morgan Chase, Boston Consulting Group, Ferrero, Mahindra, Safaricom, Audi, Almarai, Fly Dubai and Shapoorji Pallonji — see all clients by sector and country.
Related reading: Telling Is Not Selling · Safaricom Case Study · Top 5 B2B Sales Trainers in India
Bring Consultative Selling to Your Team
Delivered in-person or virtually, customised to your industry and buyers.
Enquire Now →Frequently Asked Questions
What is consultative selling?
Consultative selling is a B2B approach where the salesperson diagnoses the buyer's situation and problems through structured questioning before recommending a solution, rather than leading with a product pitch.
Is consultative selling the same as SPIN Selling?
SPIN Selling is one well-known consultative questioning model. Mihir Koltharkar's CIMTA framework places consultative questioning inside a complete sequence: Connect, Investigate, Match, Test and Advance.
Who provides consultative selling training in India?
Mihir Koltharkar delivers consultative selling training for corporate teams across India, the UAE, the Philippines and Kenya, as part of his Impossible Sales programme.
