After The Click, The Time-Tested Rules Of Needs-Based Selling Kick-In

It’s obvious that nothing happens until someone finds your company and expresses interest in your product or service. And with web-based portals, it usually starts with a click. What comes after that is the company’s attempt to “convert” the click into a buying opportunity, and that requires some exchange of information between the company and the customer.

At that point, it ought to become a digital version of the age-old sales situation, but many companies miss that, and what passes for customer intimacy isn’t very intimate.

“Here’s how to Sign Up.”

“Here’s how to Sign On.

“Here’s your Tutorial.

“Click to Buy.”

“How did we do? Click for Survey.”

What’s missing here? The age-old, time-tested rules of needs-based selling.

The customer first has to know you understand and care about their problem. (Remember, every purchase is intended to solve a problem, meet a challenge or relieve some pain.)

I heard about a famous mediator whose claim to fame was his ability to listen to the stories of each of the parties and then play them back almost verbatim. “What,” you say? What about some blinding insights, observations and suggestions for solutions? It turns out the most important first step to resolving disputes is to have each party get a full and clear understanding of the problem by hearing: a. His own position, and b. The position of the other party, both as stated by a neutral third party.

Prove you understand by restating the problem back to the customer. Prove you care by saying something like “I want to help you solve that problem.”

The customer has to believe you have a potential solution.

It’s not enough to simply “show your stuff” and assume the customer will see how it can be used to address their situation. Sure, you know and love it. After all, you developed it and you know it can do wonderful things. But its applicability to the problem this client is having right now may not be self-evident.

Demonstrate the use of your product in solving the customer’s particular problem.

The customer has to trust that you are going to stay with it until the problem is really solved.

While understanding and caring about the customer and his problem and demonstrating how your product can solve it are critical to the process, the whole thing can fall apart when you “turn it loose” for the customer to “take it from there.” Recognize that there will likely be many iterations — trials-and-errors — before the problem is really solved, and show that you are invested in the solution, not just in selling a product.

Communicate that you will stay with it — in problem-solving mode — and do whatever it takes to get to a resolution satisfactory to the customer.

People love to talk about how everything is different in today’s marketplace. And it’s true there are different tools being used to connect buyers and sellers. But the rules of needs-based selling still apply and, to be successful, companies offering products and services must make sure their processes and procedures reflect those conventions and attitudes.