What's the cost of not solving the customer's problem?

Over the years sales people have been educated to focus their selling efforts on calculating the total cost of ownership. This is a good strategy when the true cost of a product or service includes a wide range of factors other than just the purchase price. These other decision factors include everything from quality of goods, to service, support, ease of use, upgradeability, educational ramp up, manageability, membership fees, depreciation, residual value, amenities, and the long-term viability of the vendor's company.

One of the questions however that is rarely asked is "Mr. Smith, what will happen if the needs or requirements driving your purchase are not appropriately addressed?" In other words, what's the cost of not making a good decision? The answer to this question is going to be a tell all to you as a sales person.

If for some reason your customer does not have a sense of urgency for making a decision, you are not likely to make a sale. On the other hand, when a customer does have a sense of urgency for moving forward, they are generally making a decision based on a need to satisfy some specific requirement. That can be to address an outstanding issue, prevent a problem from happening, or take advantage of a potential opportunity. If there are multiple reasons to move forward, this helps escalate the customer's sense of urgency even further.

Many sales people have also been told that if you ask implication questions you will uncover these problems and raise their status to your customer. The problem is most sales people asking implication questions end up sounding desperate. The customer knows the game and when they hear them, they start to switch off. It's an old method that is more than often delivered in a very unsophisticated way. Imagine your are seeking a vendor for IT and the sales person starts to ask "What would happen if your system went down and was unavailable to end users?" Or, "What would be the impact to your business if your supply chain was disrupted and you were unable to get raw materials on a timely basis?" To the customer there is an immediate 'red flag' warning of sales person in pursuit and I am being set up for the kill.

Sales has moved well beyond the implication questions of yesteryear to a far more sophisticated and easily managed process that keeps the customer wanting to purchase. You can guide them through questions that will uncover the answers to identification of urgency without a feeling of entrapment for the customer. Those questions are carefully asked through a structured diagnostic process that will encourage the customer to communicate the issues to you before you need to lower to 'set up for the kill' questions. Customers are smart and you need to let them be smart. The sales person is seen as a genuine consultative seller in an easy to use and manage process that solves the customers problems.

If we go back to the question "Mr. Smith, what will happen if the needs or requirements driving your purchase are not appropriately addressed?" this is actually a heavy closing question. The answer to this question would bring about the closing process of the sale. If the customer answers the question 'we would end up with an interrupted supply chain' he knows and can actually predict your next line. 'Well Mr. Smith, we need to ensure that does not happen' and the balance of the close continues.

Customers like to be treated respectfully and certainly they dislike being bullied and set up for the kill. They chose vendors who can solve their problems by acting as business partners and not 'foxes in sheep outfits'. They want to know they can trust your representations and you do have their best interests in mind at all times. They want you to be genuine. They will advise their issues to a trusted person that is genuinely interested in them and actually they will tell you more than what most sales people will commonly learn about their customer.

The quality of your questions and how they are communicated will define if they believe you are a satisfactory seller for them. It will define if you can find out their requirements and issues and be seen as a business partner to resolve them.

In today's market, people are becoming more pressured to purchase. Sales people are working with scarce opportunities and quickly move to high pressure selling tactics in an attempt to secure the business. The more emphasis they place on building up the degree of the issue, the urgency of the issue, the more likely the customer will move away from them. Customers are more skeptical than ever and their requirement to undertake more due diligence in their purchases is rising. They have to be confident they are making the right decisions. That confidence is shared with genuine business partners and not those sales tactics of yesteryear.

Mastering Sales is proving to be the worlds leading consultative methodology for sales people and customers welcome the approach from people who are trained sellers in the methodology.