Needs

Who has not stood in line at a petrol station and thought, “You know what, I need a chocolate bar right now!” The bars are put next to the tills for exactly that reason. We do not really need the bar but we see it there and it makes us think that we need it.

How many people in business do you think make impulse buys? I am going to suggest that it is not very many. The decision to buy a product is generally influenced by a number of people in different roles and the buying process is often controlled by a procurement department. As a result, impulse buys in a business are very infrequent. A business will have to need the product before they will buy it. You must find those needs and position your product as the solution to them.

For the customer, the process starts from having a problem or an issue, something that needs to be solved. Surveys suggest that half of all potential customers for your product will be quite happy with their current situation, they do not have a need. That is a reasonable place to be. On a personal level, we need to buy food on a regular basis but we don’t need to buy an oven to cook it in quite so regularly. Our need for food is driven by our need for energy; our need for a new oven will probably come from the old one breaking down.

Your customer will not want your solution until they know that they need it.

Likewise, your customer will not come to you until they perceive that they have a need. It could be as simple as they have a new employee so need to buy them a new laptop. However, it could be much more complex like being unable to track orders through their purchasing system. The new laptop is generally easy to solve and can be done quite quickly. Solving the problems with a purchasing system requires much more information before it can be solved.

Asking questions is at the root of finding out about needs. A sales person must ask their customer all about what they are doing, what they are trying to achieve and what is stopping them from achieving it. It is important to fully understand all of the needs, even those that you cannot help with or seem small and irrelevant. If they are affecting your customer, then they are affecting your ability to help them and make a sale.

Chapters 12 to 14 of The Equation of Sales cover the aspects of a sales person’s role that deal with needs. They are:

Chapter 12 – Needs Analysis, how to uncover basic needs so that you can initiate discussions;

Chapter 13 – Asking Questions, how to ask good questions so that you can find the information that you need;

Chapter 14 – Active Listening, how to listen effectively so that you understand everything that your customer is telling you.

The video below discusses Needs in more detail.