Most purchases—aside from impulse buys—are made to fulfill a need or solve a problem. In today’s market, every successful product is designed to alleviate an identified problem. Products that fail to solve anything simply don’t survive.
Just as you’d visit a doctor to treat an illness, when a customer walks into a store, they’re seeking a solution. For example, a customer isn’t shopping for a drill; they need a hole. It’s this underlying problem that drives a tool purchase. The same principle applies in sales: it’s not about pushing products, but about diagnosing the customer's real needs.
Think of a sales representative as a doctor who must first diagnose the problem before prescribing a solution. A well-trained sales rep can quickly determine the underlying issue through careful need assessment. However, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of assuming you know what your customers want based solely on what they say. Customers may have different goals and hidden challenges that aren’t immediately obvious.
The key to effective need assessment is asking the right questions. While mystery shopping, you can evaluate if a sales rep is truly diagnosing the customer’s needs by noting whether they ask questions like:
Once a rep diagnoses the customer’s problem through these targeted questions, they can offer highly tailored product suggestions. This not only builds credibility but positions the sales rep as an expert in both the brand and the product. It’s crucial to avoid making assumptions about what customers want—effective need assessment means understanding the customer's real challenges, even if they might not be fully aware of them themselves.
In a world where every product must solve a problem to survive, the role of the sales rep is more critical than ever. By asking the right background, challenge, critical events, urgency, benefit, and solution questions, sales representatives can accurately diagnose customer needs and deliver a targeted value proposition. Adopting this doctor-like approach in sales will help establish trust, ensure customer satisfaction, and drive long-term loyalty.
Embrace need assessment in your sales process and watch your customer relationships—and sales—grow.