Uncover customer needs and goals

Some customers may not want to talk about their needs and issues, so you have to be able to ask questions in a way that will get answers and build trust, write Edward Gaizo, Seleste Lunsford and Mark Marone

My wife and I went to look at pianos and as soon as we greeted the salesperson, he jumped right in and started pitching features of one particular model. I was so frustrated because he would not take the time to even ask why we were there and what we wanted. He was definitely in the sell mode rather than the discovery mode to uncover basic needs. We didn’t even bother listening to him and decided to leave.

Today the art of selling is in gathering the facts, not in making the dose. As a salesperson, you must be educated about your customer and the customer’s business and strategic goals before you introduce solutions through your product. Understanding the customer’s big picture helps you to avoid making wrong assumptions. It enables you to build bridges between your customer’s needs and your organisation’s products and services.

Customers often need guidance in order to understand their real needs. This can be accomplished through effective probing to reveal what he or she needs, as well as demonstrating the value in dealing with you as a salesperson.

Customers don’t want to be directly asked what their needs are. Ask questions to establish needs that you both recognise. Request permission to probe if you need to, and tell the customer why you must have the information. Never interrogate the customer with a barrage of ongoing questions, or with questions that may appear invasive or forward

Building trust

Some customers may not want to talk about their needs and issues, so you have to be able to ask questions in a way that will get answers and build trust.

When it’s appropriate in the sales interaction, discuss how your product or service can solve your customer’s specific needs. Always focus on what’s good for both the customer and your business. Top salespeople will make customers feel like they have their best interests in mind.

Understand all needs

When you understand the full range of your customer’s needs, you’re in a much better position to provide a comprehensive, long-term solution that truly helps the customer. By addressing customer needs effectively, you gain the customer’s trust and respect, as well as an edge in uncovering new selling opportunities.

The best way to uncover customer needs is through effective interviewing, which can only begin after you have first established rapport with the customer and made sure that customer feels comfortable disclosing business information. By asking the right questions, salespeople can direct the conversation to focus on the customer’s priorities and interests; establish the customer’s level of satisfaction with current products, services, or suppliers; or help the customer identify needs that he or she wasn’t aware of.

Here’s an example of how this can work: One Virginia company that manages retirement communities had invited a salesperson from a major health care provider to deliver a presentation on supplemental mental health care programmes. Though the company made it dear at the start that it was not interested in scrapping its basic indemnity plan, the salesperson was able to eventually sign it on to an HMO package with a managed mental health care component. How did the salesperson do it? By asking questions about premium hikes, the results of membership surveys, and changes in utilisation rates, the salesperson uncovered considerable dissatisfaction with the existing plan and the need to replace it with a more cost-effective plan that offers employees a greater number of attractive new features.

Customers want salespeople to listen to them and almost immediately understand their needs. When interviewing customers, ask the kinds of questions that help to develop a clear, complete, and mutual understanding of the customer’s needs.

• A clear understanding means that for each need you know exactly what the customer wants and why it’s important.
• A complete understanding means you know all of the customer’s needs and how they rank in importance.
• A mutual understanding means that you and the customer share the same understanding of the customer’s needs.

Effective interviewing also helps you to distinguish between an opportunity and a need. An opportunity may be a dissatisfaction the customer has or a new direction for the company. A need is a definite desire where you can help. Once you’ve identified a need, then you can position yourself as a resource for the customer—an ally who has an exclusive solution.

Probe for needs

Successful salespeople probe in a consultative manner to gain a full understanding of the customer’s needs. Effective probes involve the customer in the conversation and promote an open dialogue.

Top salespeople ask good probing questions, the right follow-up questions, and questions that will get customers to talk without being intrusive or offensive.

Developing a clear understanding of customer needs requires a structured approach for gathering information, one that makes use of both open and closed probes during the interview.

• Open probes yield information for the salesperson. They often begin with words and phrases that encourage a free response: How? Why? Tell me more ….
• Closed probes typically confirm understanding and gain closure for the salesperson. They often begin with words and phrases that limit a response: Do you …? Have you...? How many…? Is it true that…?

Using a mix of probes helps you to learn about the customer’s company—including its strategies and business goals, its culture and management processes, and its challenges and opportunities. By using probes effectively, you can learn:

• Valuable background information. What does the company make or sell? What customers does the company market to? Who are the company’s chief competitors?
• Why the customer has a need. What are the circumstances that prompted the customer to meet with you? What does the customer want to achieve or improve? What are the customers business objectives?
• Who your customer’s customers are. What internal customers does your customer have to satisfy? What roles do these people play in the customer’s organisation?
• The need behind the need. Does the customer’s expressed need stem from a greater or more basic need? What are the strategic needs behind the expressed need?

Ask open questions for a lot of information, closed questions for details and confirmation.

• How needs are changing. How has the customer’s business changed in recent years? What new markets does the customer sell to? What new competitors does the customer face?

Try to avoid the overuse of open and closed probes, however. When you rely exclusively on open probes, your conversation may lack focus or direction. When you rely exclusively on closed probes, the customer may begin to feel as though he or she is being interrogated and may become unwilling to share critical information.

Show you understand

Throughout the interaction, you should clarify the information you gather so that you are sure you understand it. You should confirm your understanding of the customer’s needs and goals. Restate what you’ve learned in your own words. The customer’s needs and situations often change. Salespeople must constantly keep track of this because they can’t assume that the customer’s situation and needs will stay the same.

Confirming your understanding en-sures that you and the customer achieve a mutual understanding. It allows you to move the sales cycle forward. It helps you to be certain that the customer does in fact have a need (and that you’re not simply making assumptions), even if the customer hasn’t expressed it.

At the end of the sales call, summarise what the customer has said to ensure that you’re both on the same wavelength. Top salespeople never stop asking the customer questions and confirming their understanding.

Excerpt from ‘Secrets of Top Performing Salespeople’ by Edward Gaizo, Seleste Lunsford and Mark Marone. Reproduced with permission © 2003, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited.