Building Compelling Need

Many salespeople expect a prospect to know their needs and how a product or service will benefit them. Unfortunately, most prospects have not taken the time to investigate their situation in depth and they do not know what your product or service can do for them.

Even if you have identified several of your prospects needs, and gotten positive response, that alone may not be enough to motivate that prospect to make a positive buying decision. In times of uncertainty, like today, many decision makers are reluctant to spend precious financial resources, even if they are spent on good products.

Many salespeople are calling on your prospects daily, asking them to spend money. All too often these prospects have make difficult choices on which of their identified needs they will satisfy. In a business that is experiencing cash flow problems companies must maximize their profits and painful decisions have to be made. These painful decisions may be to not replace capital equipment, reduce operating expenses in maintenance, or to reduce employee levels. They may be faced with spending money to buy a product or service or using those resources for payroll.

To motivate a prospect to purchase your product, especially during difficult times and situations, you must build a Compelling Need. If you understand that there are always needs that are going to be unmet and products not funded or developed, then you can understand why it is important to go beyond simply getting a prospect to agree to a few needs and that it's a good idea to purchase you product or service. To build the Compelling Need you must not have emotional want alone, but you must also have financial justification. The larger the business and the more levels the decision has to go through for approval, the more financial justification and benefits will be required.

Many times proposals for significant changes and dollar commitments will be decided by a group, committee, or board. This means that the burden falls on the salesperson to not only build the Compelling Need for their product or service, but also to document it so that the materials, such as a proposal being used to support the decision are self sufficient and persuasive if the salesperson is not present.

All decisions are based on expectations of results. People make the simplest, and even the most complex, decisions based on what they perceive the results of that decision will be. It is important to realize that in building a Compelling Need, you need to help the prospect have a clear understanding of results from the decision. If we know our product will provide a specific benefit, such as improved employee production or avoidance of loss, then we must not just know it or even tell the prospect about it, we must be sure that the prospect fully perceives it. Remember, the prospects perception determines the prospects actions.

The result of any decision will be a gain or a loss for the prospect. Regardless of whether it is financial or emotional, the desire to avoid loss is a stronger drive than the desire for gain.

When building a Compelling Need it is important to realize that people make decisions, not corporations. When building the Compelling Need don't forget to continuously probe or ask the decision makers "what's in it for them." By doing this you can find an "internal champion" that will push your proposal or project forward very aggressively because they feel its results will have a positive affect on them. To determine who can become your internal champion, or assist you, ask people in the organization "how will the decision affect you?" You can learn people's motivation or reasons to act by asking the following questions:

Building a Compelling Need means that you must know each customer or prospect. It is very important not to assume but to clearly know.

Customers buy not because of your product or service but because of what they believe your product or service will do for them. Even purchases you think individuals have made because they "fell in love with the product" can be traced back to the results that product provided. For example, a person may buy a luxury or sporty vehicle, and may even speak of it in emotional terms, but if you question the individual further you will find that the product is not the reason for the purchase. The product was purchased because of what the product "would do for them." It may make the person "feel better about himself or herself" or it may have "conveyed a particular image" that he/she wanted conveyed to others.

Once you understand not only your customer's needs, but also how to relate your product or service will fulfill those needs, then you are able to build a Compelling Need for what you are selling. If you have not built a Compelling Need for your product or service and ensured that the Compelling Need far out weighs the investment in time, money, and effort it takes to acquire it then you cannot complain if you do not get a positive buying decision from the prospect. As a matter of fact, even if you have built a compelling need compared to the investment required to obtain your product or service, in times of scarcity it may be required to be The Most Compelling Need for the prospect to buy. Many good decisions and legitimate needs are going unfulfilled because of scarce resources. Don't let yours be one.