Comments on: Does Your Customer Have A Need To Buy? http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/does-your-customer-have-a-need-to-buy/ Making A Difference - In Business and Your Personal Life Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:53:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: David Brock http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/does-your-customer-have-a-need-to-buy/comment-page-1/#comment-8992 David Brock Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:49:05 +0000 http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/?p=327#comment-8992 Good point Bob. Sometimes the role of the sales person is to help their customers to discover opportunities to do things differently and to grow. That will drive the need to buy. Good point Bob. Sometimes the role of the sales person is to help their customers to discover opportunities to do things differently and to grow. That will drive the need to buy.

]]> By: Bob Ennamorato http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/does-your-customer-have-a-need-to-buy/comment-page-1/#comment-8987 Bob Ennamorato Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:04:33 +0000 http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/?p=327#comment-8987 From my experience, a sales persons biggest competitor is usually not a supplier of a similar product. It is the inertia of prospects. Prospects rarely say early in the sales cycle "I just flat out prefer Brand X to yours". It is more often, "No thanks, I don't need any. I am happy with what I am using". More often than not their "happiness" stems from their current source "satisfying their needs". It is not because they don't have a "need" for something new ,it is usually because they have a very narrow view of what their "needs" really are. As I have said in prior comments here, our company sold safety equipment. When we first called on a prospect, they didn't "need" a welding helmet or hard hat, they were already using those products to comply with OSHA regulations. So we engaged them in reexamining their "needs". We questioned them about the "need" to reduce injury costs, lower workers comp premiums, increase productivity, reduce downtime, improve the quality of work life and increase profitability. Everything we brought up the prospect agreed, "well yeah, of course we need to do that" By saying "yes" to our needs questions, prospects began to see that maybe all of their "needs" were not being met and gave them a reason to continue with the sales cycle. Our selling job then became differentiating our products from what they were using and linking the value of those differences to the expanded "needs" we help the prospect recognize. So instead of walking away from a prospect who doesn't appear to have a "need" for a product, perhaps it is worthwhile to help them see that they do have a need to increase profit and they can only do that by overcoming their inertia and seeing what else is available. From my experience, a sales persons biggest competitor is usually not a supplier of a similar product. It is the inertia of prospects. Prospects rarely say early in the sales cycle “I just flat out prefer Brand X to yours”. It is more often, “No thanks, I don’t need any. I am happy with what I am using”. More often than not their “happiness” stems from their current source “satisfying their needs”. It is not because they don’t have a “need” for something new ,it is usually because they have a very narrow view of what their “needs” really are.

As I have said in prior comments here, our company sold safety equipment. When we first called on a prospect, they didn’t “need” a welding helmet or hard hat, they were already using those products to comply with OSHA regulations. So we engaged them in reexamining their “needs”. We questioned them about the “need” to reduce injury costs, lower workers comp premiums, increase productivity, reduce downtime, improve the quality of work life and increase profitability.

Everything we brought up the prospect agreed, “well yeah, of course we need to do that” By saying “yes” to our needs questions, prospects began to see that maybe all of their “needs” were not being met and gave them a reason to continue with the sales cycle. Our selling job then became differentiating our products from what they were using and linking the value of those differences to the expanded “needs” we help the prospect recognize.

So instead of walking away from a prospect who doesn’t appear to have a “need” for a product, perhaps it is worthwhile to help them see that they do have a need to increase profit and they can only do that by overcoming their inertia and seeing what else is available.

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