The first thing we need to learn to do is to articulate the problem to the seller. Most clients are not quite sure what they want so a good business executive has to score in navigating the buyer’s interpretation of his/her problem is. Trust me! Prognosis of the cause of a headache is much easier that understanding what a customer needs, because even the customer doesn’t know their own problem. However, once you are able to do this you will be minting money.
And yet identifying the buyer’s real need and not the one presented (the ‘headache’) is indispensable to accelerating and sustaining the sale. It puts pressure on the buyer when you ask the business equivalent of, “Would you like the throbbing headache to go away?”
But wait! The answer to that could be a resounding, “Yes!” but that does not mean that they will sign up immediately.
The seller’s job, therefore, becomes to get a sense of the buyer’s priority and commitment to solving his pain.
A simple question like, “What are some of the things you are struggling with that would prevent you from relieving the headache, right away?” could reveal this.
The revelation gives insight into the next step. You get to understand their short-term key objectives.
The truth is that not all challenges will be their top priority.
Just as a parent may prioritize paying school fees to rent, knowing what is stopping the buyer from assuaging his pain right away, lets the seller make this innocuous statement: “To save time ahead of the divorce becoming final (or the board sitting) let us do all the paperwork first. We can continue with the purchase (or not) once the dust settles.”
Or, “Let us install the free 30-day trial version now and be done with the demo.” Or, “Because the upper classes are not affected by the new curriculum, let us cater to them first and revisit the lower classes after we have direction from the ministry. Is that OK?”
