How to Find Out What Buyers Really Want

Here is a statement of the obvious: buyers don’t buy products, or services they buy solutions to problems, or the ability to exploit opportunities. In short they buy them to meet a need. So, why do sellers spend 9 times more time talking about their solutions than the needs of the buyer?

Before a buyer buys he, or she must have a need and that need must have a certain urgency, or priority. If the seller wants to sell his, or her solutions then he, or she must clearly demonstrate how it can solve the buyer’s problem. The problem is that listing product features and benefits is an ineffective way of doing this.

To remedy this problem here is a checklist to guide you in identifying and then meeting the needs of the buyer.:

1. Avoid premature diagnosis of the solution. In other words he, or she must define the problem before prescribing a solution. Don’t make assumptions regarding the customer’s needs, or assume that he, or she needs what you are offering. Ask first and give the customer a chance to say no.

2. The expert may immediately know the problem and perhaps even the solution. However, he, or she must take care to involve the customer in the discovery and build trust along the way. Connecting with buyer’s needs, requires a consultative approach with the salesperson adopting the role of an expert, or trusted advisor.

3. Understand what stage the buyers is at:
- The need is hidden (blissful ignorance)
- The need is recognized
- They are actively looking to resolve the need.

4. Understand the company and its industry, as well as its goals and strategy. Without this the seller will struggle to understand what is motivating the buyer. Understand the tradeoffs, constraints and complicating factors that bear on the needs. Understand needs from the perspective of the different stakeholders.

5. Don’t take the buyers needs on face value. Dig beneath the surface. Look to the implications of the needs. Help the buyer to develop a clearer picture of his/her needs and the advantages of solving them.

6. More questions are not the answer. Ask better questions – those that relate to needs and their implications. Don’t ask situational questions – for example about the size of the company, how long it was established – that is information that is ‘nice to know’ as opposed to ‘need to know’, or can be found from other sources (such as the company’s web site).

7. Buyers can be slow to open up. When they hear questions they fear closing. So the seller must earn the right to ask questions. This is done by showing tact, a willingness and ability to help.

8. Be tactful and sensitive regarding how they unearth the buyer’s needs. Protect the person when identifying the problem and don’t make the buyer feel like a fool!

9. It is not enough just to listen and to understand needs, but to provoke, inspire, enthuse and engage with the seller around the opportunities and challenge facing its business.

10. The sales person must help the buyer envision life after the problem has been solved. No pain, no sale - that was the old sales philosophy, with the job of the salesperson being to find and accentuate points of pain. However, the sales pro moves beyond the pain and the problem to focus on the benefits, the vision, the business impact and the likely risks that will need to be overcome.

11. Sell to those with latent needs. The role of the salesperson now includes demand generation. That means traditional prequalification criteria no longer apply.

12. Selling higher in the organization – where priorities are set and budgets can be set in response to the identification of needs. This will require a new vocabulary and a new message. It also requires confidence and skill.

Questions About Needs:

So with those tips in mind here are some questions to help you address the buyer's needs:
- What does the buyer want to achieve?
- What does the company want to achieve?
- What are the key business drivers in this area?
- What is the underlying opportunity, or challenge facing the business? How big is it? How urgent is it?
- What is the gap between desired and actual performance in the area in question? - How does this compare with internal and external expectations?
- What are the relevant industry drivers, or trends?
- Are there any critical events, or dates?
- Who does it impact on most? How? Who else is affected? In what ways? What are the consequences? What is the cost?
- The impact on the business - has it been quantified? What are the benefits of its resolution? Are they quantified in a credible manner?
- What are the relevant metrics? How will success be measured?
- Is this area a priority? If it is why has it not been addressed to date (constraints)?
- Has the issue been address/discussed in the past? What happened as a result?
- What are the competing priorities and projects?
- How does it fit with existing people and processes?
- What are the barriers to addressing the need / exploiting the opportunity?
- What could prevent it? What constraints?
- What is the context in terms of the organisations history, culture, politics, etc?

Why Sales People Are 9 Time More Likely to Talk About Themselves!

From our experience watching hundreds of sales presentations, pitches and proposals sellers spend 9 times as much time talking about themselves (that is their companies and solutions), as they do about the buyer’s needs. It should be the other way around and if it was, we believe, it could double, or triple the rate of success of the average salesperson.

So, how do you know where the sales person is focused? Well, listen out for the words that are used in sales pitches, presentations and proposals.

Focused on Needs	Focused Elsewhere
Using these words means you are focused on the buyer’s needs: Challenges / Needs Problems / Opportunities Goals / Objectives Strategies Priorities Performance Gaps Metrics Results Impact Risk	Using these words suggests you are focused on your solution: Competitive advantage Benefits Features Technology Unique Selling Point Value Proposition Our company, People, Skills, Capabilities, etc. Our Services, Products, or Systems ‘industry leading’, ‘best in class’, ‘innovative’, etc. Price

To understand this better we have been considering the following questions:

• What is so difficult about finding out about the buyer’s needs before arriving at a solution?
• Why do sellers feel that they have to convince the buyer that they have the best solution before they have found out what the buyer’s problem is?

Well here are some possible answers:

• The buyer is reluctant to reveal his, or her problem to the seller.
• The buyer says he, or she knows what is wanted and the seller accepts that this is true.
• The salesperson has been trained to talk features and benefits.
• The seller believes that his, or her solution is the best regardless of the specific needs of the customer.
• The seller assumes he, or she knows what the customer wants, so there is no need to discuss it.
• The sales person does not have the knowledge, or skill to be able to uncover the buyer’s needs.
• The problem is so obvious to the salesperson that getting straight to the solution makes sense.
• Sellers are used to selling to lower level managers, where discussions around features and technologies, can be welcomed. At senior levels they are not
• The seller assumes that the buyer can join the dots and link the solution to his, or her problem.
• Time with the buyer is limited so communicating key product information is a priority.

All of these are factors.

Can you write your customers ‘I have a Dream’ speech

Moving beyond points of pain for a more compelling proposition.

Martin Luther King is not remembered for an ‘I have a problem’, but rather an ‘I have a dream’ speech. He brought the issue of civil rights and race relations centre stage, but will always be remembered for his dream of the solution, not his definition of the problem.

Think about this in relation to the message you want to leave with your customers and prospects. Do you want it to focus on the problem, or on what their life and business can and should look like once that problem is surmounted?

Is it easier to rally people around the problems they are facing, or around a vision of what they can achieve? Well, let us take another more contemporary statesman as a reference. Barack Obama did not get elected on a ‘no we can’t’ ticket. Yes, he did speak plainly about the problems (of which there were many), but what rallied people was not agreement regarding the problems, but his vision of a better America. Think about this in terms of your last sales meeting, presentation, or proposal – did it focus on defining the problem, or envisioning the future post its resolution.

Are You Focused Too Much on Pain?

Think of it this way – do you go to the doctor to find out what is wrong, or to get a remedy, or cure? For a long time ‘problems’ and ‘pain’ have been the glue of the complex sale. Find, leverage and accentuate them and you got yourself a customer, or at least a prospect. Now there is no doubt that buyer problems and pain does represent an important dimensions to understanding customer needs and their behaviours. However, it is in no way the full picture. Here is why:

· Problems can be a lot more contentious that solutions. Problems, politics and blame are often intermingled, making it difficult to get agreement on the problem. Focusing on the solution instead can be less divisive.

· Some may be sensitive about discussing their problems with outsiders and particularly those they feel want to exploit them (that is sales people).

· Some people don’t realize, or don’t want to realize they have a problem. Others may realize they have problems but not want to own them. The complex sale requires that you not just sell to those with existing needs, but that you help create the need among others.

· A focus on problems can sap morale and motivation. By definition it can involve looking backwards, as opposed to looking forward. In addition, people can also learn to live with problems and with pain, taking refuse in denial, or inertia.

Moving from, or Moving To Motivation.

Have you ever noticed that some people are motivated by what they want, while others are motivated by the opposite? Let me explain. Some people are driven to meet target and all that goes with it, while others may be as powerfully motivated but for a different reason – that is the fear of missing target.

Similarly, some people go to the gym because they want to look good in a swimming suit, while others go because of the dread of being pointed at on the beach. Put simply this could be referred to as moving away from and moving towards motivation. So, which one applies to your various prospects and which form of motivation do you find yourself appealing to most?

The Higher You Sell, The More You Should Focus on Promise, Not Problems.

We find that as salespeople sell higher in organisations, particularly at C Level, the focus moves somewhat from problems and more to the achievement of business goals, or potential. Also we find that the more product, or technology focused the seller is the greater the focus on problem and pain. That is because it can be easier to latch onto a problem than to develop a full understanding of what it is that the prospect’s business wants to, or can potentially achieve.

That is because at C level the salesperson's focus has to be as much on the business objectives and strategy, as the buying process and the buying decision. Afterall it is a business decision first and foremost and the business case is foremost.

A focus on problems to justify selling your solution, can result in a band aid mentality with narrow problem definitions that run the risk of addressing symptoms rather than their causes. An example would be the implementation of a sales system in order to address sales reporting and paperwork problems, without addressing more fundamental issues relating to sales process, structure and effectiveness.

The resulting danger is that the system may reinforce underlying problems, say for example where it ends up automating existing inefficient processes. Another potential issues that may arise from a failure to understand what the business wants to, can, or should achieve is that its project may be vulnerable to a range of other risk factors, such as a change in internal priorities where the system implementation is delayed because the sales manager succeeds in persuading his colleagues of the need to ’get the house in order first’.

Take The 'I have a dream' Test.

Helping your customers envision a more successful future is a powerful ingredient of the complex sale.

- So could you write your customers ‘I have a dream’ speech?

- How much of this dream (at a personal, as well as a organizational level) is reflected in your sales presentations, conversations and proposals?

- What is the ‘Yes we can’ message your sales proposition is communicating?

After all it is better to 'light a candle than to curse the darkness' to quote no less than Mother Theresa.

‘SPIN® Selling’ - A Classic that is worth reading again and again

Looking for a book that will help you increase your conversion ratios? Then read SPIN selling. Here are the seven key points I took from this must read sales methodology.

1. Too many sales people are happy with meetings that result in another meeting. But wait a second, the real question must be asked – ‘has the meeting resulted in an advance in the sales cycle?’

You need to know the difference between what Rackham defines as an ‘advance’ and a ‘continuation’ - it will affect your closure rate.

2. In high value sales forget the welcoming attitude to objections, focus on objection prevention and the symptoms behind objections. Too many objections means you are feature and advantage selling and not selling benefits. If you are of the school of thought that objections are great you must read this book.

3. Professionally trained sales people are always looking to uncover and develop explicit needs, while also being conscious of implicit needs. However, the key factor, as the authors point out, is a compelling reason to act. That is the real challenge for the sales pro.

4. You better believe it, lots of selling happens when you are not in the room. That means your sponsor is left to sell on your behalf! But, just how willing, or able is he, or she, to push your solution. You can’t expect him her to remember the eight key features of your solution. However you need to ensure they are able to communicate the impact of your solution on their business. Think about it.

5. Learn how to ask; situation, problem, implication and needs pay-off questions. The skills to develop implication questions will impact your sales closure rate. So ask how important your solutions benefits will be to your prospects business. Ask what affect changing x,y,z will have on the business.

6. This book supports what I have believed for years - there is no great distinction between open ended and closed questions in high value sales. However the questions you ask must demonstrate you understand the prospects business.

Remember don’t spend too long ask situational questions, or gathering all kinds of facts on the Client’s business. Instead ask implication and needs questions (in SPIN® language) in order to get to what really matters in building awareness of the need for your solution.

7. Please, please gain commitment in your sales calls. Propose sensible and realistic commitments to advance the sale. But before you do, ensure you have addressed your prospects key concerns. You must check for concerns, summarize the value of your solution and be sure the value is specific to the prospect.

Conclusion

'Spin Selling' was first published in 1988, but its ideas and concepts are ageless.

There is a huge amount more you could take from this book. If you really want to develop your sales effectiveness you need to read (and if you have read it before, re-read) this book.

‘SPIN Selling', Neil Rackham, Mc Grath Hill, 1988.

Needs Analysis: Be careful when you point out your prospect's problems

As salespeople we have been trained to sniff out our customers’ problems, including ones that the customer may not have been fully aware of. It is our job to digg them up and to parade them around in front of our prospects in order to build a desire for their resolution and tension for change. However, be careful because it can easily backfire.

Happy days, the prospect has a probem:

The logic is clear if our product, or service is a solution, then we need to find a matching problem and the bigger the problem the greater the potential for a sale.

Little wonder then that we focus so much on the problem, with the following being typical of the 'problem focused' openings of so many sales pitches:

• ‘80% of IT projects are either behind schedule, over budget or about to be scrapped.’
• ‘Up to 20% of hardware and software on most networks is hidden, resulting in unwelcome surprises in terms of costs, licensing and risks.’
• ‘In the face of increasingly complex stock handing rules most warehouse systems are struggling to achieve 99.9% accuracy levels. ‘
  

Needs Analysis Can Help You Sell:

Here is traditionally how it worked: find the sore point, scratch it to make it hurt a little more and then when you present the prospect with your medicine he, or she will readily embrace you and your solution. Well, that is how it is supposed to work. The problem is that in the process of pointing people to their pains, sore points and inadequacies you could lose as many friends as you gain.

Managers often personally identify with their businesses, strategies and departments. So, when you criticise their strategy, their results, etc. you are criticising them. Nobody likes to have their weaknesses aired, or attention drawn to their failures. If you don’t exercise care in how you undercover the prospects needs, or problems (that is the needs analysis aspect of selling), then you run the risk of sabotaging the sale. You could be creating a wall of denial, defensiveness and resistance.

Needs Analysis Can Lose You Friends

Let us take the example of a software testing company whose sales pitch which started by stating that ‘80% of IT projects are in trouble’ (a statistic that was backed up by quoting a independent source). The danger is that this opening could be seen by many prospects as a thinly veiled insult.

While the message it strikes at the very heart of the problem, most IT Managers are likely to respond with a statement such as ‘are you suggesting that we, or I, cannot delivery successful IT projects?’ Only a minority – perhaps managers from other departments, are likely to react with a ‘yes you are absolutely right most of our projects are failing, we need your help.’

Put People Before Problems:

So, when you are focusing on the problem do not forget the people involved -those who are part of the problem as well as those that are affected by it. Taking our ‘80% of IT projects are behind schedule'' example, how can it be transformed so that it is less likely to encounter resistance?

Well, it could be reworded to ‘IT managers are often thwarted in their efforts to deliver key software projects on time and within budget…’ The difference is subtle, but significant saying that managers are being thwarted as opposed to failing. In this way it shifts the focus from the people to the problem and in particular to the processes and systems that are holding people back.

Exposing the Problem, While Protecting The People

The savvy salesperson knows that he must identify problems, while at the same time protecting people. He must, for example, get to the heart of problems in the warehouse without directly criticizing the warehouse manager. This is at the core of influencing people.

Tips On Using Problem Identification to Sell

So, how to uncover the needs and problems that will help you to sell your solution, while at the same time avoiding resistance on the part of the prospect? Well, here are 3 techniques to bear in mind:

1. Tell stories to help customers understand their own situation. This enables you to couch comments and observations that may be relevant to the prospect’s business in a neutral 3rd party way.
   
   
2. The savvy salesperson must also have a good sense of politics and timing. He must know the right time to speak out about problems and how loudly to do so. He must also earn the right to speak, by virtue of his/her demonstrated level of expertise, credibility and trust. He must not speak out until at least tacitly invited to do so.
   
   
3. Ask questions, rather than making statements. Use them to steer the customer along the path of greater awareness and to help them arrive at their own definition of the problem. Focus your questions not just on the problems, but on the implications and the possible solutions. Probe behind the facts to understand how people feel about the situation, as well as to understand their hopes and fears. They are essential to the manner in which you couche your solutions.
   
   
4. Listen and emphathise as a means of demonstrating commitment and building rapport. Encouraging the customer or prospect to open up about his or her problems and challenges is the supreme test of a salesperson's skill. The prospect has to feel that by opening up he, or she is not just simply providing the salesperson with amunition to be used in his/her salespitch.
   
   
5. Focus on the positive, as opposed to the negative and on opportunities as opposed to challenges. In the warehousing example we mentioned earlier, it would be focusing not on the effect of more complex handing rules on accuracy levels, but on how successfully mastering complex handling rules can deliver a cost advantage.
   
   
6. Compliment your customer. It is important to find out about the company’s successes, strengths, achievements, etc. and highlight these in your conversations and your proposals.
   
   
7. Choose your language carefully. What one person sees as 'benchmarking' another may consider 'finger pointing'. When salespeople and consultants use words such as ‘review’, ‘assessment’, ‘audit’, clients and prospects may crudely translate these terms int ‘you think you know it all’,, or at least ’you think you are better than us’.
   
   
8. Be careful when you are using analysts reports and statistics. They can be a blunt instrument, being used in most cases to infer a problem in the prospect's company, or industry and to deliver a negative message. They are no substitute for a full understanding of the customers business. In any respect, we find that buyers are increasingly weary and disbelieving of analyst data.
   
   
9. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. There is a wise Spanish proverb that says ‘It is much easier to talk about bulls, than it is to step into the ring.’ This is an important point for sales people to bear in mind. Don’t judge a person, or a situation, until and unless you are in that situation yourself. For those directly confronted with a problem there is a level and complexity that the outsider cannot immediately appreciate.

Protect the Customer's Ego!

You are 'beating around the bush' with that potential customer a
colleague said to me after a sales call recently. I asked him to
explain and he added 'you make a point or ask the customer a question
that cuts directly to the point, but then you dilute it by adding
something like 'what do you think', or 'do you think that might apply
here.'

I must admit I struggled to explain why. They I remembered two
golden rules of sales - 'protect the customers ego' and even more
basic: 'don't make the customer feel foolish'.

I like a good headline as much as the next person and bold type such
as '90% of managers fail to budget properly for IT projects '
certainly grabs attention, but isn't it really a disguised insult to
the customer.

If you are going to poke your nose into the customers business and
he/she opens up to tell about the business you have to be very
careful. Selling entails identifying problems and creating tension
for their resolution, but the pace at which that happens very
important.

You may quickly arrive at what you feel is the ideal solution for the
customer and may even struggle to hide your surprise at how obvious it
is, but slow down and make sure you bring the customer along at
his/her own pace to the same realizations.

So take your time to air all the clients problems, or short comings
and balance with recognition and praise for the companies successes
and achievements. Finally, don't making your suggestions in a way
that will make you look like a ''know it all''.