These requests can be excellent sales opportunities if you have the exact products customers think they need. If they match, you just won the “needs lottery.” Lady Luck is smiling on you. You might want to walk home and look for lost wallets along the way. More than likely, your products are not exactly what they had in mind. You end up trying to convince customers you have better products than the ones they and competitors are proposing. The features start flying, and besides finding yourself in the middle of bidding wars, another problem surfaces.
A narrow focus on needs also weakens one of your greatest strengths. You limit your expertise as a problem solver. When in an emergency or urgent pain, customers do not consider all the alternatives you could recommend out of experience. Their purchasing decisions revolve solely around quickest delivery dates. At this point, all products look like commodities; another reason why they want more than one supplier bidding on the sale. Understandably, customers discount long-term benefits when they focus on short-term emergencies.
Another difficult selling situation arises during emergencies even when customers are choosing your products. When you think better remedies exist, you gently try to “unsell” customers on their current (and deficient) product choices. However, you are careful to point out that if these new products you suggest do not interest them, you will gladly furnish them with a quote on their requests. With that vote of confidence, it is not surprising that you encounter resistance.
When you reach the point at which you might be jeopardizing your sale, understandably you stop. You resign yourself to a strategy based on thinking that “I tried. Now it’s time to give customers what they think they need.” No one wants to lose a sale. However, you are taking a big risk if the customer’s poor selections do not fulfill his or her unclear goals. You might incur the blame, unless you think most customers blame themselves when the products they insisted on buying do not help them the way they thought.
Example
Janice Edwards, a manufacturing manager, has an old piece of production equipment and wants to make sure that if it breaks she has spare parts on-site. She calls the manufacturer and tells the salesperson, Robert Finley, she needs a redundant motor and gear set in case of breakdowns. Robert, with his customers’ best interests at heart, wants to make sure Janice does not waste money on obsolete equipment. He knows that his newest machinery product line has 40 percent more production capability than her current unit. He can easily justify the price differences to her between a new, state-of-the-art machine and these two spare parts. A new machine will pay for itself in less than eighteen months.
Robert feels he knows exactly what Janice needs—a new piece of equipment. He starts to explain to Janice the significant difference in production output between the new models and her obsolete one. Janice tells Robert all she needs right now is a proposal for these components. She will talk about buying a new machine when things slow down. Though everyone’s intentions are good, everybody loses. Janice misses an opportunity to spend her money more efficiently; Robert misses an opportunity to sell Janice a better solution. What went wrong?
Everyone equated needs with products. Janice felt she needed spare parts, Robert felt he needed to supply new equipment. He tried to sell his product on the payback resulting from improving production capabilities by 40 percent.
A more effective way to approach this sales situation would be to use the following steps:
Robert focuses first on Janice’s goal of preventing breakdowns, rather than on the production differences between her machine and a new one.
He asks her how she feels a spare motor and gear set will help her prevent breakdowns.
Taking into consideration her answers, he explains how features of the new equipment help prevent breakdowns measurably better—that is, new diagnostics warn of impending problems before they occur so that the customer can take corrective actions, typically saving two hours of downtime.
Once Janice agrees that these are benefits, Robert can point out the additional financial benefits to be gained by increasing production capabilities. (Remember the ten-play CD example from Chapter 2?) Secondary features and benefits increase value only after customers achieve their primary goals.
When you focus on needs, another problem arises. You miss sales opportunities because even people who are not in pain can have their lives improved—and there are more healthy people than sick people. Customers with no obvious pain often feel there are no opportunities to improve their situation. Salespeople who are pain magnets miss these opportunities to unleash hidden value.
These sentiments often arise when customers are unaware of new technological advances. For instance, think of the first time customers using carbon paper were introduced to copier machines. Talk about the goal of improving productivity in ways yet unknown. A more recent example is wireless technology. The majority of Internet customers are satisfied (no pain) communicating via telephone connections. They might not know how wireless products without the need for phone connections might help them improve their communications.
Finally, when you sell to needs, you give customers more credit than they deserve or want. While customers are always right about where they want to end up (goals); they are not always right on the best way to get there (products). This is where you excel. When you make sure customers always evaluate products in terms of achieving their goals, you reduce the potential for disappointments.
Goals
A goal (again according to Funk & Wagnalls dictionary) is “something toward which effort or movement is directed—an end or objective.” Customers’ goals always involve either achieving a positive result or avoiding a negative one. One of your primary sales responsibilities is to motivate customers to understand their goals. Making goals measurable provides customers with that motivation. Goals become the standards against which customers judge your products. As you will see later in this chapter, you make the goals customers want to achieve work in your favor. You let logic and measurable proof run their predictable course.
Know Customers’ Goals Even If They Don’t
Fortunately, most customers do not know what goals they want to achieve. They do not even think in terms of goals; they think in terms of needs. After all, they have mainly been exposed to sales methods that focus on needs, or pain. Yet, your best opportunities arise when customers do not know their goals. Soon they will— thanks to you. As an industry expert, know what your customers’ goals should be in case they do not. Everyone wins (except competitors) when you help customers to set quantifiable and attainable goals that accurately reflect their priorities and connect to your unique strengths.
When you ask customers what goals they are trying to achieve, be prepared for blank looks as well as wonderment and appreciation. They will respond, “Gee, I have never been asked that question before.” Needs-focused customers and product-focused salespeople do not discuss goals. This lack of goal discussions is to your advantage. Then, they will ask you, “What exactly do you mean by goals?” You must be able to answer their questions by knowing the typical goals of their industry. You will now have positioned yourself as a customer expert. You will have separated yourself from the typical product-packing salespeople. Caution: The rally killer of a sales call is two “What do you mean?” questions in a row. If the customer asks you, “What do you mean?” after you ask what his or her goals are, you can’t answer, “What do you mean, what do I mean?” Make sure you know typical industry goals (the Market Profile sheet at the end of this chapter will ensure that you do).
Note The University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School conducted a survey of chief executives and senior management. They were asked what they considered to be the most important reason for meeting with a salesperson. More than 70 percent of them responded that a salesperson’s knowledge of their industry and company would be the major reason why they would agree to an appointment. Knowing their goals makes you that salesperson.
Therefore, your initial emphasis in sales opportunities is to help customers define their goals. When you help customers set goals, you do not need to wait for them to have an obvious pain to act upon. You act as a catalyst to motivate customers to pursue and achieve measurable goals. You are in control of your own sales destiny when you act (as opposed to when you react).
Note When a customer doesn’t have clear-cut goals, ask what one thing would make his or her company more competitive. Know the competitors of your customers’ strengths and weaknesses and you become a valuable asset to them.
One Big Product Reason to Focus on Goals, Not Needs
Often, customers will request a specific feature that your product does not possess. When you question customers on why they need that feature, it is difficult for them not to question your motive. After all, if you cannot provide the feature, it is in your best interests to discourage them from wanting it. Customers find it hard to view you as an objective participant. However, that perspective changes when you know the customers goals—and question them on how that feature helps them achieve their goals.