Jun 21 2007
Identifying Needs, Developing Needs And Satisfying Needs
Well, you have all responded so magnificently to my call to arms and voted in your tens, that I am going to give you a proper post today - none of that short sharp stuff - a real sales lesson that gets to the heart of selling! (If you haven’t voted yet, of course I forgive you, do it now please, here.- we’ll wait for you.)
Customers and prospects possess a hierarchy of needs which have to be uncovered and the very best professional salespeople have become masters at recognising those needs.
Rarely do you get information unless you ask for it. You need information to sell your services or products and look for future sales possibilities. Skilful questioning means that you do not seem to be imposing on the prospect by asking too many questions.
Types Of Needs:
• Implied Needs are statements about problems, difficulties and dissatisfaction.
An examples would be: “Our system is too slow, we cannot handle the volumes, and the system is unreliable”
• Explicit Needs are specific customer statements of wants or desires.
An example might include: “We need a faster system, we have to cut costs, and we need more reliability”
Uncovering Implied Needs will suffice only in small sales, as the sales opportunity grows larger, the more important it is to uncover Explicit Needs.
Implied Needs Have To Be Developed Into Explicit Needs With Questions:
Types of questions:
- Uncovering Questions, to find out about problems or implied needs.
- Developing Questions, take the implied needs and develop them into explicit needs.
Uncovering Implied Needs:
Situation Questions, find facts and information about the customer’s present situation e.g.
“How many people do you employ?” “What markets are you in?” “What is your annual sales revenue?”
Problem Questions find out about problems, difficulties or dissatisfaction e.g. “How easy to use is your system?” “Is the system reliable?” “Do you have quality problems?” “How do you manage with…….?”
“Are you satisfied with……..?”
Developing Needs:
In a larger sale, uncovering problems and offering solutions does not work. Needs have to be developed with implication questions. Implication questions will increase the seriousness of the problem.
The Value Equation:
- Cost of solution outweighs the problem.
- Implication questions take the problem and build it up.
- It becomes large enough to justify action.
Questions to Develop Needs:
Implication questions, about the effects, consequences or implications of the customers problems e.g.
“You say the software is hard to use - how does that affect your productivity?” “The data is easy to lose - what does this mean to your company?” “So you return fewer calls - how does it affect your customer service?”
Questions to Capitalise On Developed Needs:
Need pay off questions,question the value or usefulness of the proposed solution e.g. “How will this help you?” “Why do you need to do this?” “Why is this important to you?”
Summary:
Using questioning techniques you can control the prospect in almost any given situation. You can guide the prospect towards acceptance of your solution. Should you need to, you can use questioning techniques to regain control.
These techniques are very effective when used at the “Exploratory Meeting” stage and if you would like to learn more about conducting a professional and rigorous exploratory meeting, please use the contact form to request a copy of my comprehensive guide.
Ever wondered what the real Cambridge University is like? Is it as it is portrayed in “Chariots Of Fire” or “Brideshead Revisited“? You can read the thoughts of a first year “Fresher” - my son, as he looks back and reflects on his first three terms at the most prestigious and arguably, until very recently, the most elitist university in the world: “A Fresher’s Reflections” here on Leadership Turn
And finally, but actually foremost in my thoughts today, “Happy Birthday” to a remarkable person and that adjective hardly does her justice- Nikki Owen.
Think “The Sales Practitioners“ - soon, I promise!!
It’s been a big week! Wherever you are in the world, as ever, have a great weekend. - JF
