Tag Archives: sales methodology

Want vs. Need

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Often in sales methodology training you are told to uncover the client’s needs, and sell to those needs.

This is sound advice – but it can also be a trap of sorts.

People and clients need a lot of things, but they don’t always buy based on their needs. If they have funds to spend, they will look at all their needs and make decisions on them, weighing them against what they want – converting needs to wants. And then, and only then, will they make a buying decision.

Let me give you an example. My daughter, Kristen, was 18 years old. She got her first car in Dallas and drove it fast. So fast, she picked up a couple of speeding tickets. Short on cash and motivation, she did not pay them off. In time, she had a warrant out for her arrest. Working part-time at Chick-Fil-A she got a paycheck. Now, she already needed to pay those tickets off. Need: high, very high. But, it was closing in on summer. GAP was having a sale on summer dresses and clothes. Kristen really wanted those new clothes. What to do? Need vs. Want. A Huge Need. A Compelling Want. And what won? WANT!

As marketers and salespeople, our job is to create Want. That can often come out of seeing our prospect’s needs, working with them, fanning them, making a bonfire out of them. But it won’t be a sale unless we make it a Want.

Want comes out of value creation. Not just financial value, not just business value, but personal value! What will this MEAN to that person? With Kristen, it guaranteed that pleasure beat out possible pain. Fundamentally you have to help prospects, not just understand your value – but feel your value! That is when they decide to do something.

If you make the Want strong enough they will get a sense of urgency to do it now. Of all the things they have to do, make your choice the Want. This is a distinction worth looking at.

By Chuck Laughlin, Founder, Corporate Visions Inc.

Solving vs. Selling

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Are you solving a problem, or selling a product?

Solving vs. Selling

Which is it?

You know, in reality, selling a product is not all that bad. You can focus really hard on the sale, create a tight sales process/cycle, and follow it ruthlessly. Doing this well will yield results. Doing it great can lead to outstanding results.

So why bother working on solving your prospect’s problems, when selling can be so effective?

One, it can make deals come down faster and with less effort, believe it or not. If the customer feels you are firmly in their camp, helping them solve problems, and that you will not steer them in the wrong direction, then they will trust you and follow your advice. Not a bad place to be as a salesperson. But, you have to earn this right. If you are not the solution they need, you have to be willing to admit this to the prospect and walk away from the deal.

There is another advantage to this kind of selling. Your size of contract is usually bigger and your margins fatter. Why? Because you did not go into the deal with a fixed focus. You are willing to look at the customer’s problems, through their eyes, and see what they see. When doing this, you often see a synergistic relationship between several of your products and their myriad problems.

These are not just words, selling vs. solving. They are a way of life – a strategic play in a tactical world. It takes fortitude to do this kind of selling. You really need to take the time and visit with the prospect to find out what exactly they are trying to solve. What are their goals, or business initiatives? Explore this with them. Be a consultant to them. Treat them like you would a great friend in the same spot. Do not throw away their trust by trying to force a solution on them. Really explore their world. Then, when you understand the full magnitude of their problems, explore what your company can do for them. If there is a fit, and you believe it is a great fit, then share this with them. Show them exactly what you can do. Dramatize what is unique about you, and what value it creates for them. Be of service to them. Make your sales story come alive. Remember, Samurai means: “One Who Serves.” Now you are Samurai!

By Chuck Laughlin, Founder, Corporate Visions Inc.



The Last 3 Feet of the Sale

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Sales can be like golf. You start with great discovery – a great drive. You end up three feet from your prospect – on the putting green.

At this point which do you think is more important: great sales methodology, or a great message?

This is where your ability to present your message (a value proposition tailored to your prospect), either sinks the putt, or rolls off the green.

A colleague recently commented, “Messaging isn’t the most important thing in sales – it’s the only thing.” He is only mildly overstating the issue.

Without delivering a great message in the last three feet, you can kiss the sale goodbye!  People are more interested in what a product/service/solution will mean to their lives more than what it is made of. What it will mean is best communicated in the message.

Great messages tell the story of how your solution will improve the life, business, and finances of your prospect. A great message delivered with passion will out-sell even a better product (with a weak message). That’s how powerful your message is.

Great sales strategy, methodology, process, and reporting are meaningless if you do not deliver a great message to your prospect at the point of sale.

So, how do you know if your message is strong?

  1. Is your message unique to your product/solution?
  2. Is it important to your prospect?
  3. Can you easily defend and prove its value?
  4. Is it memorable (what will they remember after you leave)?
  5. Does it truly differentiate you in your marketplace?

If your message passes these “Five Tests of a Great Message,” when sales process and methodology drives you to the putting green – you’ll be in the position to win.


CRM and the Buyer’s Mind

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The goal of sales is to have your prospect make a decision to buy from you. While sales software helps bring you and your buyer to a decision event, at the event it is what you say and how you say it that will win or lose the deal. Researchers examining this “last three feet” of the sales cycle have discovered that influencing buyers’ critical choices are emotionally based experiences.

Think back to a defining moment, or significant event, that happened in your life (graduation, first day on a new job, marriage, first child, death of a loved one, or divorce). Can you remember the details surrounding those events: what you ate, wore, the weather, sounds and/or smells?

Neuroscientists explain the phenomenon of recalling specific details even years later, to the emotion surrounding the event. In fact, our entire life history is recalled by linking these emotional moments. Emotion also plays a key role in customer relationships — specifically loyalty.

“Quality, price, and service are to satisfaction… as emotion, trust and personalization are to loyalty. Loyalty is having or showing continual allegiance. And, allegiance is equally about emotions as about tangible value.” — The Journal for Customer Relations

Every touch-point with a customer is an opportunity to create an emotional moment – positive or negative. How do you feel when a vendor ships you the wrong product, gives you an incorrect invoice, keeps you on hold for twenty minutes, or treats you with disregard or disrespect? The greater the emotion, the more likely you will remember it. How do you want your customers to remember you?

What is happening in your environment when you find yourself feeling joyful, excited, or inspired? Are you creating that emotion in your buyers’ mind? How can you get your buyers excited about your solution and only your solution? Here are a few very effective techniques.

One is called a “Mini Drama” (used in radio and television advertisements). The best Mini Dramas let your buyers witness the pain of their problem contrasted with how life would be different with your product. Seeing their pain through your mini re-enactment of it, contrasted by ‘relief’ makes your solution very real to them.

Telling a story about a client with a similar problem, highlighting life before your solution and then life after your solution was implemented is another technique that creates emotion. When you get to the part of how your unique value will improve their world and they become engaged and excited – you have locked in an emotional moment that will anchor your benefit in their mind.

“Personalization is understanding the role emotions play beyond products, price, or service. It’s about helping customers feel they are at least as important as what they buy from you and the prices they pay.”
– The CRM Forum

You affect customer loyalty by creating positive emotional moments through every customer interaction. Your message (story) and how it’s delivered (face to face, phone, email, web site), is having an impact on them. Make sure it leaves the imprint you want – a positive defining moment. Look for ways to create positive emotional moments at various points of customer contact. Dramatize the pain without your solution and the gain with your solution.

- Dean Schantz
Senior Consultant