What’s the Real Need? Start by Understanding the “Why”
Finally, after many calls, emails, and conversations, the customer tells you they are ready and interested to talk with you.
Finally, after many calls, emails, and conversations, the customer tells you they are ready and interested to talk with you.
STOP!!!!
Simply put, even when the customer does explain their need, the first need they tell you is likely not the “real underlying driver” but rather a symptom of a bigger issue, goal, or problem they are experiencing.
Ask yourself … “why do they need this?” If your answer is because they want to “increase something”, “save something (money)” or “improve something” … Ask yourself, “but why”? If you can’t answer that, keeping digging!!!!
Let’s look at an example:
After 18 months of conversations between a CRM salesperson and a VP Sales, the VP Sales suddenly communicates that they are now considering implementing a CRM for their 10 sales reps.
The knee jerk reaction for this sales rep is to offer a demo, show off features and benefits, and then offer a quote. This is where things begin to go wrong because the sales rep still does not really know why this need exists.
The right step at this point is for the salesperson do a discovery of what is driving this need. See example below.
| Sales Reps Asks | Prospect Answers |
|---|---|
| What’s your main reason for wanting a CRM? | Our sales team is disorganized and we, as management, lack visibility as to what is going on! |
| How long has this been an issue for you? | For many years. In fact, ever since I took over 5 years ago. |
| Why is it now a priority? | We are considering expanding our offices into several other US states, so we need to “clean up our current structure” before we do that. |
| Ideally, when are you planning to expand? | We would like to have our first satellite office set up within the next 12 months. |
| What’s motivating that timeline? | It’s always been an important topic, but much more now than ever before as our competitors are starting to hit new markets so we cannot be left in a vulnerable position. |
| What’s your biggest risk in this expansion? | To secure the financing we may need to fund our expansion, we need to show our investors we have positioned ourselves properly. |
Questions:
- How would you describe the VP of Sales need(s) before being asked all the above probing questions?
- How did the need change after the VP Sales was asked all of the above questions? What did you learn about his real motivation?
- How does asking all the questions above benefit the sales rep?
- How does asking all the questions above benefit the prospect?
- How does the prospect view/feel about the sales rep after the sales rep has asked all these questions?
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Create a Need: It’s All in the Questioning!!!
Can You See the Difference?
