Forget what you’ve been told or read about discovering your prospects’ “needs” as the key to sales success. In business-to-business sales, focusing on goals is the key.
The reality is these days, people and particularly companies “need” few things. Things such as heat, light and power are “needs,” but today such commodities are selected and supplied based on a narrow set of decision factors – usually price, availability and convenience.
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If you focus on “needs” you risk commoditizing yourself to compete on price alone. That is why virtually anything that is “needed” is usually something that can be standardized, scripted, automated, outsourced and off-shored, with low price the defining competitive differentiator.
True needs rarely drive buying decisions, particularly for products and services that may offer new value.
For example, in the consumer products world, razors are bought because most of us need to shave. While we would like a closer shave and a safer and easier shaving experience, no one said they “needed” a razor with three more blades or a vibrating feature, all at a price point multiples higher than any other razor on the market.
However, what we may be willing to “invest” in is the outcome or goal of a closer shave and smoother skin, without scraping or cutting our face. We just may be willing to invest more due to a higher perceived value of the result. What was a commodity buying event was transformed into a new, goal-oriented outcome for which a higher level of investment is required. Focusing on needs here would miss the opportunity. Focusing on outcomes and goals of value opens the door to sell new solutions.
Business innovation often occurs without an explicit statement of need. The business world focuses on goals, and most business decisions center upon investing money and human resources to achieve goals. Such investment decisions are often shaped by corporate financial goals, competitive threats, and other business-based objectives and criteria. The key to sales success in this environment is to discover what goals or outcomes are expected or would be desired, and what a client may be willing to invest to achieve them.
Business organizations make decisions to allocate resources and respond to market and competitive pressures in a predictable pattern. In most cases they are not worried about their needs, but rather how they can achieve their specific business goals and beat their competitors.
Businesses, like investors, are living in the future: the next quarter, the next quota, the next presentation. They want to invest in things that will make them better.
As author David Brooks highlights in his book “On Paradise Drive: How we live now (and always have) in the future tense,” American culture is intensely focused on doing everything better. How can we improve, be better, thinner, more competitive? Brooks points out that from microchips and diapers to knitting and peewee soccer, businesses and consumers invest billions to be better.
Companies are under even more pressure to perform, pushed even harder by owners for increased revenue and efficiency while gaining new advantages over their competition. This is where the sales focus should be, helping your prospective customer achieve a future objective or goal of measurable corporate value.
The real sales challenge lies in finding the areas of competitive advantage, greater efficiency and management knowledge. Find them and you have found what companies are investing in. Uncover how they rationalize the investment, what their return on investment criteria is and you have the keys to sales success.
No measurable problem or threat, no need to change, no sale. No simple way to quantify, no way to justify an investment, no sale. In many cases, prospective customers will not know this. Your sales objective must be to research, listen and observe in order to develop the business case required to get their attention and make the sale.
A typical roadblock is the often unspoken barrier of inertia: “We always do it this way.” To solve this, change the sales focus to desired outcomes. Why does doing something faster or better translate into measurable advantage and quantifiable business value?
Inertia addressed in this way often results in a request for more information. Zero in on how your prospects measure success, how they approach buying decisions, and which outcomes get the most attention, and you are on your way to selling more, more often.
Explore what threats keep them awake at night, where their competitors will gain on them.
Take a “micro-perspective” (individual/department/function internal value); what is your solution worth in labor savings, speed to market, efficiency, opportunity cost, strategic value? What is it worth from a “macro perspective” – what are gross and net revenue projected to be in 12, 24 and 36 months?
These are the facts that open up new markets, create new categories and win new customers.
Focus on goals and outcomes, understand how they are valued and measured and customize the investment rationale to the specific metrics of each prospective customer and you will be far ahead of those asking about needs. •
Christopher B. Coyle is senior director, bid strategy and planning for GTECH Corp., a global provider of technology and services for the regulated gaming markets.
