Most sales people would agree, that the perfect sale is when you give the customer exactly what they need.
The problem is just - how do we know what the customer needs? The answer is always the same - "listen to them". But the difference is in how to listen.
Old school sales approaches rely on customer need statements
The classical sales approach is to rely on the customer's own need assessment, take their exact specifications of what they need and then focus quickly on other information considered important, like the budget the customer has for buying the solution he knows he needs and whether the contact has the right authority to buy what he needs.
This approach is manifested in the BANT (budget, authority, need, timeframe) framework many sales people still use to qualify leads. It is part of a very passive sales approach which leaves large responsibilities to closing a deal with the customer.
But the customer's don't know - and here is why it's important
"I didn't know what I needed because I wasn't focused on the real problem and because I didn't know what my options and solutions were."
This statement is from Keenan, the author of the book "Gap selling" on recounting a personal experience and it sums up the situation many buyers are in perfectly.
He thought he needed to buy a new adapter since his broke again, but was then told by a sales person, who took the time to investigate his problem, that there was also a special travel case to protect the new adapter, which would save him money down the line. This is a typical case in replacement sales, where category buyers focus only on the replacement part but not on discovering solutions to prevent replacements.
Now you might say "but I am selling commodities, so why should I worry?"
Because:
a.) with a better solution you can convince customers to replace their existing solutions even before they run out and need a replenishment of the commodity
b.) with a better solution you develop customer loyalty as they know you understand their business - you can get out of bidding wars as your product stands out from the competition
Let me give you a personal experience from one of my clients. A provider of goose down bedding with a highly successful B2C business wanted to enter the hotel bedding segment. For most hotels this is a pure commodity they buy. They have clear quality thresholds and the decisive factor is price.
We decided to conduct a deeper discovery into hotel owner needs and unsurprisingly found that their core concerns were around booking rates. And part of that was stay satisfaction expressed in return bookings and / or positive ratings and reviews on booking sites.
Based on our direct customer feedback we knew that consciously aware users of our bedding had a significantly better sleep experience and were happy to recommend our product to their friends. But we also knew that hotel guest unaware of the special nature of their bedding would just be 'not-unsatisfied' with their sleep. Most guests do not pay special attention to their sleep, although this is the most time usually spent in the hotel. But their awareness is generally more focused on location, service, cleanliness and food.
So we decided to provide our bedding with specially designed leaflets, informing the guests about a special sleep experience they were going to have, as well as making it easy for them to positively review their hotel stay. Suddenly our product had turned from a price differentiated commodity to a core need solution.
It's your job to discover the true customer need
No customer would ask for a bedding solution that drives guest bookings and improves guest reviews - because they didn't think of the option.
It is your job as a sales person to:
discover your customer's core problems
identify the potential your products could have in solving their problems
develop the solution and then
educate the customer about the available solution.
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