Recognition of Needs

If your salesperson has done a good job in the last phase, she has surfaced one or more previously unrecognized problems that your product/service can help solve. Now, she needs drill into those problems and help the customer understand their severity. The ability to “dollarize” the cost of neglecting the problem and the ability to extend the problem’s implications on all other parts of the business is critical. It is a lot like the old iceberg metaphor. What is visible above the surface looks like something one can easily sail around. However, danger lurks below. A good salesperson helps the customer see the danger that lurks below and helps them steer well clear.

Typical Customer Concerns in this phase:

· Do we have a problem?
· How big is it?
· Does it justify action ?

Signs that this phase is over:

Customer accepts that the problem is severe enough to justify change and therefore decides to take action.

Common Strategic Errors:

· Failure to investigate/develop customer needs
· Making product presentations too early

Coaching Questions and Tips:

· How are we shaping the opportunity?
· All implication end-points mapped? Where else?
· Have we overlooked anything?
· What’s our value hypothesis?


Other Key Coaching Questions:

· What problems are they trying to solve?
· How much pain exists?
· Do you have implied/explicit needs?
· Who owns the problem?
· Who is impacted by the problem?
· Is there a risk if they don’t see the upside?
· Do they have a budget?

Next, we will look at that stage where you have the customer ready to receive your proposal. The customer may issue an RFP or, if you are clear on what stage the customer is in, you can get a jump on your competitors with laser guided unsolicited offer. This stage is called the Evaluation of Options.

Good selling!

Steve