The potential buyer is starting to find out. Potential client - who is he? Where to find potential clients

04.10.2021

The phrase "prospect" is used as often in sales as "Armageddon" is used at conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses. But who can really be called that? Let's try to figure it out so that this phrase does not turn into a common senseless cliché.

After all, a potential client is not just any person who, passing by a plumbing store, looks at the toilet bowl in the window. To be considered a potential customer, a particular person (or organization) must meet four requirements.

Requirement 1: He must have a need for the proposed product

Your potential consumer must certainly meet this condition, if only you want him to "grow" from a possible into a real client. There is no point in wasting your own efforts, nerves and precious time on a subject who does not feel and probably never will feel the need to purchase your service/product. For example, why offer a stand with cigarettes to a children's cafe? Or fresh beef for a vegetarian?

It also happens a little differently. When the client himself does not know about some of his needs, until the seller tactfully points it out to him. For example, a bank director may not think about how the productivity and labor efficiency of credit managers will increase if they are taught to blind ten-finger typing on the keyboard.

How much the percentage of embittered visitors will decrease, who simply cannot stand the spectacle, as the creditor knocks out a leisurely shot with two manicured fingers and delays the agonizing wait.

But when we try to sell a product in which he is obviously not interested, then this can be summed up in one word: imposition. And the seller… he's like a Casanova - it's important to be persistent, but not intrusive.

Requirement 2: He must want to buy your product

Do you think that it is possible to build a deal on just one need?

To put it bluntly, the vast majority of us have to learn to ignore our needs throughout our lives. And desires in this case play an important role.

You need to buy a winter jacket - but a person spends the last money on a trip to Turkey.

The company needs to buy new equipment - but a brand new Range Rover is being purchased for the chief accountant.

Employees demand wages - but the owners of the corporation lost it in poker ...

All these things happen because of impulses that all moms (and many dads) who last until the fourth birthday of their child immediately recognize, and they look like this: “Hacchu!”

Now seriously. If we are talking about a personal, direct sale, who do you think should initiate the interest? You come to a person and you want him to buy something from you. Should it have a desire to take possession of your product from the very beginning, or does it fall on your shoulders to provoke this desire?

Of course, yours. A near-potential-client has never heard of you, and therefore could not be interested in you. But you called and sold this interest to him. It remains only to properly prepare for and show him how he wants to have what you offer.

If we talk about retail, then everything is even simpler: since a potential buyer has wandered into your salon / store, then some kind, tiny and ghostly, but he already has an interest. It remains only to take the bull by the horns ... and sell this bull to the client.

Requirement 3: He must have the financial ability to purchase your product

Surely the latest Apple laptops, which are so functional that unless they are fried eggs, would fit well into the interior of any office. But if you go to the waiting room of a "fading" newspaper and offer them a similar solution, you are unlikely to become good friends. Not at all because the editor-in-chief has no desire or the correspondents have no needs. Just because they don't have the money for it.

Before you go with any offer to a new person or group of people who meet the above two requirements, make sure that they are wealthy enough to pay for your services or products.

True, there is a small exception to the rule, which borders on fantasy, but it has been repeatedly proven: if a person has a strong enough desire, in almost all cases he finds the means as if by magic.

Requirement 4: He must have decision-making authority

You can find yourself in an extremely embarrassing situation if you court your potential client for a long period, only to find out that he is not at all competent in decision making. In a world where even the deputy chief of security has five assistants and three deputies, this happens.

Most often, the situation described above occurs when “cooperating” with corporate clients. You run after people, arrange ingenious colorful presentations, but all the time they promise you to call back, or think, or “consult” ... The fact is that they do not have the necessary authority to decide on the purchase of your services / products, but they cannot openly admit to this "someone".

Now you can definitely answer the question of who your potential client is, and who can be called that and who is not. It remains only to figure out how to determine the role of this or that person in the organization in order to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy when working with them. If you are not tired and are willing to spend a few more minutes, then you

Finding and attracting new customers is an urgent task for any company. How to find potential customers, and most importantly, how to make them real?

How to find potential clients

Today there are many ways to attract customers. One of the most obvious is the distribution of various types of advertising. You can place your company's offer in specialized print media, on radio and TV programs, run an online campaign, or both. The main thing is to inform future buyers about the key advantages and necessity of your offer, to arouse their maximum interest.

All potential customers at a glance!
Manage customer relationships, work productively with leads!

After the emergence of interest, it is important to correctly build further actions. It is necessary to fully satisfy the request of a potential client, answer all incoming questions, be sure to find out his contact details to continue communication and invite you to a personal meeting.

Another sure way to actively search for clients is cold calls or, in other words, calling those who do not know you yet. Cold calling requires careful preparation. Define at least five arguments that will matter to the client. It must be remembered that in a few minutes of communication, your potential client should understand exactly that he wants to cooperate with your company.

But before you talk about the benefits of your products, make sure that your interlocutor is responsible for making decisions that interest you. It would also be appropriate to ask what is not satisfactory in working with current suppliers of goods and services. Even if a potential client did not immediately become real, you should not despair, since a lot of time can pass between interest and purchase. In this case, you need to periodically remind about your company, make mailings about changes in the offer. Then, if necessary, the client will be able to easily contact you.

How to remind potential customers about the company

For regular reminders of yourself, you need to maintain a database of potential customers, where the following information should be indicated:

client organization name
Name of contact person
email, mailing address phone
significant dates for the client
other important data (identified needs, interests, priorities in choosing a supplier, etc.).

This list must be updated and supplemented after each conversation with the client. Practice shows that the so-called “keep in touch” system allows you to significantly increase sales and works well in any business. According to this system, the client will agree to make a purchase not after two or three contacts, but after the seventh or eighth time. In some cases, to achieve success, you need to produce up to 20-30 "touches". Touches can be any interaction with a client: calls, presentations, emails, etc. Just always stay available and connected.

Automation of work with clients

Keeping in touch with customers will help you with the new Class365 system, designed to work effectively with both potential and existing customers. Class365 has a built-in email and SMS module, which makes it possible to effectively make marketing impacts on customers without uploading the database to third-party sites.

In the CRM module of the program, you can view all created documents, order history, latest activity, correspondence, additional comments of the manager on transactions with the client right in the counterparty card. This is convenient not only in terms of storing and searching for information, but also when transferring cases to a new employee. With this approach, the staff will not need to be put into work for weeks. Everything you need to work with clients is in one system and any information of interest is very easy to find.

It takes a lot of effort to make a potential client permanent, but the foundation of all work is attention. Be attentive to your clients, record every detail of the negotiations in the Class365 program and you will see how easy it is to work with the client base.

Potential buyer

Introduction to the concept of "potential buyer"

A potential buyer is someone who wants to buy something from you.

Potential buyers are people who may know about your company or you, but have never bought anything from you. How to include them in the orbit of your business?

It's not easy at all. Many small firms fail to truly expand precisely because they fail to capture the attention of potential buyers and turn them into visitors.

For many years, businessmen believed that the main way to withstand competition was to increase the assortment and keep prices lower than those of competitors. With some irony, we can say that too much variety and low prices are the two main reasons for the collapse of firms!

Let's explain this idea.

Too much assortment can lead to large inventories, which will affect profitability. Think about where the niche market is for you and what you will actually be selling.

Too low prices for many small and even large firms can be a harbinger of collapse. If you can't compete with Wal-Mart on efficiency, you can't compete on price either. Emphasize your positive aspects: specialization, customer service, staff competence, warranty service, home delivery, repair services, gift wrapping, etc. Emphasize your difference from any Wal-Mart if in prices you are not able to compete with them.

Let's talk more about the range.

The average person encounters hundreds of commercial offers every day: on television, radio, newspapers, billboards, taxis, and even, as in Sydney, Australia, in the showers of hotel rooms.

More than 15,000 new products enter the market each year, and 90% of them fail to sell!

Consider this: PC owners can choose from over 30,000 programs on offer;

Car buyers can choose from 572 types and models;

If you have a credit card, you get over 300 catalogs between September and Christmas;

There are 13 8 varieties of toothpaste (these are not trademarks, but varieties: in tubes, in single packs, in various colors, for smokers, non-smokers, for people with bad teeth, for tea or coffee lovers, for people with yellowing teeth ...) .

In Consumer Reports, David Pittle writes, "Over and over again we hear about people having difficulty deciding what to buy."

And yet, in some areas of business, a wide range works. Charles Lazarus, founder of the well-known toy company Toys I Us, says: “When parents have no idea what to buy for their child, they go to the department store, where they have the widest choice.” That's fine for a company like Toys I Us, but not so good for a little corner store. It, naturally, will lose in assortment to large firms.

What to do in this case, to lure a potential buyer?

For a small entrepreneur, a large assortment can rarely be profitable due to the high cost of inventories.

Let's look at another reason why small businesses fail. They are trying to compete with the big firms on prices.

Large enterprises will certainly offer better prices. They have greater purchasing power and lower overheads relative to sales volume and can therefore be successful at very low trade margins. They have already pumped billions of dollars out of the American consumer by saying, "No one can match our prices!" or something like that. In 1993, for the first time, these price-beaters sold more ready-to-wear clothes than specialty stores. For the first time in its 116-year history, Budweiser has reduced the price of beer. To keep its place in the tobacco market, Philip Morris reduced the price of Marlboro cigarettes by 40%.

Can it work? Maybe - but for large firms! Even for such giants as "Philip Morris", the result can be very different. The short-term effect will be expressed in an increase in sales, but in a decrease in profits. On the day that the Marlboro cigarette price cut was announced, the price of the company's shares on the stock exchange fell. Investors did not consider that an increase in the number of potential buyers of Marlboro would lead to an increase in the lower limit of the share price. Even more than a year later, financial analysts are trying to find an explanation for what is now called Marlboro's Black Friday. The market share owned by this company has increased, but competitors do not retreat, in turn reducing the price of cigarettes. As a result, smokers are happy with lower prices, but in general the cigarette industry is becoming less profitable.

Take American Airlines as an example. Year after year, this airline has been ranked at the top of the air passenger surveys. At some point, she decided to increase traffic volumes by lowering ticket prices. This idea seemed quite timely. After all, different airlines have very different fares depending on the time of year (and sometimes even depending on the time of day). Why not replace the puzzle like “at what price should I fly?” introducing easy-to-understand rules? The problem turned out to be that other airlines followed American Airlines' lead. Some small companies, like Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines, managed to operate successfully because they didn't have the federal tax and markup problems that American Airlines had to account for. Soon she was to return to the well-mastered old methods and rates.

Today's consumers know perfectly well who does what. They will place your company in their mental “scale”, on which they “mark” where to buy what. Renowned authors Jack Trout and Ol Reis call this “positioning”—the process by which consumers envision a “place” for your product in their minds.

As renowned forecaster Laurel Cutler says, “The 1990s consumer is the most intelligent and savvy consumer. We have taught people to think."

The problem with price cuts is that they can lead to a "price war". You will soon find yourself in the position of the owners of the Kroger supermarkets in Cincinnati, who increased their discounts on new foods to the point that pig farmers came to them to buy milk for piglets at five cents a quart, because it was cheaper, than regular piglet feed.

Therefore, the desire to lower prices and increase the range may not be the best way to attract a potential buyer.

What to do?

Below we will give some examples of using certain techniques to attract the attention of a potential buyer to your business. To make it easier for you to understand what to do, we will tell you the story of how we first got into business.

We were quite competitive in terms of prices and assortment, but in our store we limited this competition to a certain category of goods,

When we started, our little baby store had an annual turnover of about $25,000. What would make a potential buyer come to us, passing by a huge department store and a number of large specialty stores? My father-in-law came up with the idea: “Let you have inexpensive goods, but in the widest assortment in the city!”

It was autumn, and we thought about what a person might need for the winter, and not very expensive at that?

What if you try to trade in small things that warm children - mittens, scarves, muffs? It turned out to be what we needed - inexpensively, and we could offer the widest range of these goods in the city!

We decorated the windows ourselves:

"THE BEST RANGE OF CHILDREN'S GLOVES, MUFFS AND SCARVES IN OUR CITY!"

Soon people started coming in and wondering what the best range of muffs and gloves was. While they were in the store, we managed to offer them overalls (we had, perhaps, in the poorest assortment) - after all, the sale of one overall was equal in money to the cost of three dozen pairs of gloves.

Sometimes we were able to sell either a jumpsuit, or a suit, or a girl's dress - all this because we had what a particular buyer wanted, and in the widest range.

So, although we didn't have the widest range of all products, we managed to achieve it in some of what our customers required.

What have we achieved? We have transferred our Potential Buyer to the rank of Visitor.

You need to make the first favorable impression on the Visitor, and this is achieved by a calm, warm, caring atmosphere. If you succeed, then by doing so you win future customers. If you ignore or, even worse, annoy these Visitors, then you lose them forever. And sometimes, worst of all, they will tell their story of a failed visit to your store to a dozen or more of their friends and pals.

Not so long ago, a supermarket lost our family in this way...perhaps forever. And since we were spending about $100 every week in their grocery department (which means about $5,000 a year, or about $100,000 over the next twenty years), such a loss is quite significant even for a large enterprise.

Here is how it was. We went to the counter to buy some small things. The seller looked and said:

Get a number!

What? we asked.

Get a number! - repeated the seller, directing us to a typewriter like a cash register, issuing tear-off paper numbers. So I'll know whose turn it is.

But forgive me, because there is no one in the hall but us!

If you want to be served, then you must have a number! These are our rules! - once again repeated the seller, already annoyed tone.

We went to the machine and tore off the number - sixty-one,

The clerk glanced at the wall board and yelled, “Next! Sixty-first!"

This is us, - we had to respond, and only then we were served.

What happened? The people who tried to take care of us, trying to create the impression of professionalism and competence, forgot about the human factor. They only remembered that everyone had to "pay by the numbers." This is how robots work, not people. In any case, people should not act like this if they want their potential buyer to rise to the next step and become a Visitor,

How much do you collect per hectare?

Stan Golomb develops marketing programs for dry cleaners, restaurants, dentists, medical services, pizzerias and many other businesses. When he takes on new clients, he always asks them to think seriously and answer one key question for the business, namely “how much do you collect per hectare?”

“Farmers always calculate yields per hectare,” explains Stan. If the average yield is, say, 50 centners per hectare, then a yield of 30 centners immediately tells him that something is wrong.”

So why shouldn't an entrepreneur compare the results of his activities with "yield per hectare"? In business, this “yield” is calculated in relation to the rest of the market. “Area in hectares” in this case can be the number of transactions in a given market segment that are concluded and executed by one enterprise. Do you want to know how you are doing? Pay attention to your "yield".

Start by defining your market. Your primary market is where eighty percent of your Potential Buyers live. Find out the addresses of 300 of your current customers. From this data, you can estimate where the vast majority of your customers live. If you are a typical small business, over 80% of your customers live within a three to five mile radius of your business.

Then calculate how many families live in your area of the market. Go to the post office - there is data on the number of postmen and how many houses each of them serves. Let's say you have 5,000 houses on your lot. You do business with 1000 clients. This gives a "yield" of 20%, that is, you serve 20% of your potential market. Your task: to find a way to increase the "yield"!

There are two ways to increase it:

1. Increase the number of families served by your business.

2. Convince those families that already do business with you to spend more money on you.

When you have an idea of your market share, you can begin to systematically increase it. Even if all customers in your market are already covered, you still have the opportunity to dramatically increase sales by applying appropriate incentives so that each of them spends 50% more.

Your sales volume will depend on a number of factors:

1. Geographic location of your part of the market,

2. Population density.

3. The level of income of the population in this part of the market.

4. The type of activity in which the population is engaged.

5. The image and style of life adopted here.

6. Ethnic characteristics of the population.

7. The average age of the population.

8. Typical weather conditions in the area,

9. The number of competitors in a given market.

10. Type of competition.

11. The nature of your activities to improve your competitiveness.

The combination of these factors determines why one business has a turnover of $5,000 a week, while another, similar, barely manages to reach two thousand. Whatever factors you have to deal with, you can always increase your "yield".

Think about how farmers increase yields per hectare? Someone increases watering, someone adds fertilizer, someone starts using pesticides to control pests, someone develops hybrid varieties. They sow, cultivate, fertilize their fields, trying to do everything so that the yield per hectare pays off their costs as much as possible. What can you do with your business?

Life forces you to reckon with some unchanging factors. Let's take them as a given. You cannot change the economy of your market segment, population density, its geographical boundaries. It is not possible to significantly change the location of the enterprise or influence the methods of the competitor in the field of prices and discounts on goods or services.

However, much can be done to make your business more successful, and only you can do this through your own actions. You can do nothing, and then you will reap the benefits of doing nothing - nothing will change, except perhaps external factors that affect your business.

Take the dry cleaner industry as an example. Their annual turnover can be very different - from 50,000 to 1,000,000 dollars (most dry cleaners operate within these limits).

But whatever this turnover is, it can be increased by 20, 50 and even more percent. And this is done by analyzing the local service market and corresponding actions.

For example, there is a highway to the north of you. You don't have any clients on one side of it. The railway is located in the south, because of it there are few customers from the south. In the west - a golf course, there are also not many customers there. To the east, your market appears to be bordering on Fairview Avenue. If your business is located in the center of this lot on Ogden Avenue, you have to reckon with the indicated boundaries. The only way to attract buyers is to send them flyers, as well as phone calls. At the same time, pay special attention to the appearance of your store: shop windows, signs, interiors, the rumor about which will be transferred from visitor to visitor. According to a recent survey, four out of ten potential buyers decide to do business with you based on the appearance of your business.

Once you have an idea of your market area, like a farmer has about the yield in his field, you can start thinking about how to cultivate that “own field” to increase yields and, consequently, profits.

Interview with Sid Friedman

If something doesn't want to change, change that "something"!

Sid is one of the world's leading insurance agents. When we want to understand how to find Potential Buyers, we call Sid. He manages thirty insurance agents, but still personally distributes insurance policies. In his lectures and seminars, the most frequently repeated phrase is "if something doesn't want to change, change that 'something'!"

What does Sid mean by this?

Nothing more than the following: “It is not enough just to do what everyone does. And more importantly, it’s not enough to simply repeat what has worked before.” Peter Draker writes that "every enterprise must be ready for change ... in everything!"

The fact that some idea, concept, theory worked in business for many years does not mean that it will continue to be suitable. This is a kind of part of the philosophy, expressed in the words "the only constant essence is change!"

Sid Friedman's desire for change extends to his vision for the future. We talked with him, trying to figure out how he became one of the leading insurance agents.

Question: How do you determine the contingent of people who may need your services?

Answer: I do targeted marketing. I find people who are somewhat similar to each other. I cannot say that my market is all around. I live near Philadelphia, but this is not my market. Just as it is neither New York nor Atlantic City.

My market is people who have something in common with each other. So if I want to involve funeral directors, I go where they are. I go to their meetings, speak there. I write articles for their special magazine. When I manage to understand their life and work, and they understand me, then a certain relationship is established between us.

As soon as I manage to get one funeral director as a client, I can already go to the next one. I go to my only client so far with a list of funeral directors and say, "Joe, do you know anyone else on this list that I could talk to and offer my services to?" I go to those people who trust each other and use their connections with each other.

I am very careful with whom I work with and to whom I offer my services.

My market is not all people. You can, of course, act randomly and achieve a certain success, but in this case you can be compared to that single spermatozoon out of a billion of its kind, which fertilizes the egg, and this happens purely probabilistically. I don't want to be like that. It's pointless. I prefer to know in advance which sperm will work and use only that.

Question: What can you say about those who have already used your services once? Are you doing something special to encourage them to contact you again?

Answer: Of course, We mutually sell services to each other. I'm not just an outsider, you become an important person to me. Now I'm trying to keep you - this is the number one task. How exactly am I trying to keep you? I send birthday greetings letters using phrases like: “I saw an article here and I think it might be of interest to you.” By informing you about any events that may be of interest to you,

Since you bought A, and I think B, C, D, or E might also be useful to you, I'm trying to see you and let you know. For example, if you bought group insurance from me, then I can talk to you about an additional pension contribution, annuity insurance, monthly contributions to the pension fund - you will know that I also do this. I don't expect you to buy my services every time I call, but by doing so, I am suggesting that when you decide to buy something, you may well turn to me.

Question: Do you exclude from consideration some segments of the potential market to find those who really need your services?

Answer: It all starts with planning, doesn't it? Can I pull the trigger without knowing what I'm aiming at? Everything happens by no means according to the principle: “Attention! Fire! Hit!" If I know what I want to achieve, then I must consider whether the client can afford my services, does he have enough income, is his business profitable? If profitable, is the client the type of person who cares about the future? Will they buy my services when I visit them? No way in the world will I deal with engineers - I just don't know how to work with them.

Personality, biographical background, location, environment, everything has to do with the process of identifying which market I would like to work with.

Question: Many do not at all seek to disclose the details of their financial situation. How do you manage to overcome this barrier in order to assess whether a potential client can use your services?

Answer: I do not think that the reason for their reluctance to share this kind of information with me lies in the presence or absence of some kind of desire, it's just that this is the public. I know that dry cleaning business owners all over America, as well as all over the world, make a lot of money. Owners of several dry cleaners make even more money. If I wanted to get these Potential Buyers as clients, I would target the dry cleaning industry as a whole. I would find where they gather for their meetings, find the opportunity to be there as an invitee, in general, somehow infiltrate their environment. I would tell them that I would like to be involved in their business, reveal what they like and what they don't. I would start writing articles for their professional magazine, speak for free at their events. I would strive to become necessary for them, then they could become necessary for me.

I always have a plan of operation. I don't know how you can win battles without having such a plan. Although this is not a war, strategic planning is necessary before moving on to drawing up a specific plan of action.

Question: How do you deal with dissatisfied customers who have problems because of you?

Answer: Whoever has problems, I give my home phone number. This is the responsibility of the president of the firm. He is the main person when complaints and claims arise. Two things must be brought to the attention of the president: one is when someone on the staff is acting in a questionable way, and the manager should know about it, and the second is when the client has a serious problem, and the only person who can do something is company president.

Question: Are your employees doing the same marketing as you?

Answer: Not all. I would like them to carry it out, as this could make their life much easier and help them earn more. It seems to me that you can earn much more on services than directly on sales. Service stations sell more cars than car dealerships.

Question: What special efforts do you make to close the deal?

Answer: One client told me that he would not be able to meet with me, as he was flying to Chicago. I asked him:

What time are you leaving tomorrow morning?

Airplane at 7 am, flight 1260 Philadelphia-Chicago.

Then I asked if I could fly with him, to which the answer was yes, of course. I called the airline, booked a ticket and found myself in a seat next to the person I needed. Thus we got two hours for business negotiations. I got off the plane with the concluded contract and gratitude from the client for the readiness to meet his circumstances. I flew home on the next flight.

So I did it repeatedly. I even had to fly to Los Angeles. In this way, I got a client for myself - two hours to Chicago and six hours to Los Angeles. After all, this is my client. He belongs to me. He has nowhere to hide, he cannot get rid of me, he cannot evaporate. He has no choice but to sit in a chair next to him.

Finishing the conversation with Sid Friedman, we present fifteen of his secrets on how to win the trust of the client.

1. Promise less, deliver more. Otherwise, the following may happen,

The average customer buys five insurance policies during their lifetime, from four different insurance agents. This happens because:

3 percent move to another place of residence;

For 5 percent, marital status changes:

9 percent refuse your services because someone offered a better price:

14 percent were disappointed in the product or service they bought:

68 percent refuse your services due to inattention and indifference to the needs of the client,

2. Always give a 100% guarantee. If we were forced to live with a 99.9% guarantee, we would drink unsafe water for an hour every month, there would be two risky plane landings at Chicago airport every day, 16,000 letters would be lost every hour, and every week there would be 5 0 0 incorrect surgeries.

3. Always and in everything be a professional. Professionalism is visible in the actions and knowledge of

how to achieve the goal. A professional always tries to achieve the best re

As a result, the Professional is always dissatisfied with himself.

4. Always have a notebook with you. If you hear or read something and like it, write down that idea or phrase.

5. Treat your life as an exciting journey. Monitor your business growth. Be who you want to be. First, determine the destination. What is your goal? Second, are you aware of your strengths and weaknesses? Third, plan your trip.

6. Have the courage to dream big. See color dreams. Imagine what you are trying to achieve, Consider it in every detail. Draw, And the most ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.

7. Above all, be yourself. You should not strive to "become me". In this case, you will be a second-rate copy of me. You are the original. Borrow some traits from those you admire. Mentally replay events like a tape. What does not suit you, simply erase from this tape. 8. Control your time - thus you will be able to manage your life. This is done as follows:

Draw three columns on a piece of paper. In the heading of the first column, write "URGENT", in the heading of the second - "IMPORTANT", and in the third - "OTHER". Always carry this leaflet with you.

9. Remember the four rules for controlling your time (the HR principle*). Put all the papers on your desk in one pile. Now take the top one - you won't put it aside until you

Execute it, or

Postpone it to the future (but put a date on when you do it), or

Pass it on to someone else to execute, or

Destroy it.

10. Find out what everyone else is doing and don't do it. Stop competing. Start creating.

11. So form your image, image, so that others associate it with all the best. So work on yourself so that people start to take an example from you. Work on eliminating negative traits in your character and behavior.

12. Be able to recognize the behavior of losers. The following are some well-known behavioral characteristics of underdogs:

They are too busy with themselves, they don't have time for anyone else;

They cannot bear any responsibility;

They differ in inflexible behavior:

They do not perceive the picture as a whole, do not dare to invade an unknown area;

They refuse to obey, would rather lose than follow instructions and win;

They are lazy, will not spend a drop of their talent and time without asking for a raise;

They only criticize and shame others, constantly look for excuses for themselves and say that these problems are unsolvable.

13. In contrast, here are the characteristics of the winners: they have a sense of humor; they don't give up until they've done their job: they do whatever it takes to succeed; their lives are well balanced. In life, besides work, there are many other things;

They are goal oriented;

They perfectly understand how you feel, sincerely give you all their attention;

They have a correct idea of themselves, a good psychological state.

14. Don't take yourself too seriously, but take your business seriously.

15. Whatever happens, I can do it. Just eight words that will provide you with a guide for life.

Mass media: newspapers

Attracting Potential Buyers through newspaper advertisements

Throughout the book, we will give you tips on how to use different media to gradually turn Potential Buyers into Advocates of your business. Let's start with newspapers, since they are a fairly simple way to attract the attention of Potential Buyers.

FACT: Newspapers reach more than 113 million adults every day in the United States. On average, six out of every ten people claim to read them cover to cover. Nine out of ten read only the most important news. If your business is looking for clients based on their gender, remember that nine out of ten men read sports pages, and eight out of ten women read leisure, gossip and entertainment pages.

The majority of newspaper readers are newspaper subscribers (seven out of ten), which means guaranteed home delivery of newspapers to your Potential Buyers, unlike radio or TV, which only reach their ears and eyes if the viewer or listener turns on the TV or radio .

Newspapers are a very important medium for your business because more money is spent on advertising in newspapers than advertising in any other medium - approximately $34 billion a year.

Because so many people read newspapers every day, newspaper advertising can be a great way to introduce Potential Buyers to your product or service.

On a national scale, newspapers eat up about a quarter of all funds spent on advertising, but if we talk about local advertising, then newspapers account for about half of all money allocated for advertising (followed by television and the so-called "yellow pages" - a special type of telephone directories, each of which accounts for 13%.

Below we will give some recommendations on how to write headlines, text and illustrations for advertisements, that is, we will share the experience that we have gained over the years in attracting the attention of Potential buyers to your business.

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Before turning a newspaper page, the reader's attention lingers on it for an average of four seconds. During those four seconds, he primarily looks at the headlines of the articles. Therefore, it is best to write the title in such a way that the reader has a desire to read it to the end,

The average woman only reads four advertisements in a newspaper, so the heart of the matter should be in the headline - what's new, freshest, the only one, top of the line, using keywords that can get a potential buyer to read your ad.

1. Promise a benefit or arouse curiosity. Remember that people buy only two things in the world: solutions to their problems and pleasant sensations. Think about these two criteria the next time you sit down to write an advertisement for your products and services. Emphasize the benefit that a person will receive by buying your product, not the properties of the product itself. If the shoe you are selling has a cushioned insole (product feature), say it is "shock-absorbing" (benefit). If the suits you sell are made from a blend of synthetics and wool (property), say they are "year-round" (benefit). Advertisements with headlines promising benefits are read by four times as many people as those with headlines that promise no benefits. Charles Mills, vice president of O. M. Scott, the world's largest turf grass grower, says, "People are interested in their lawns, not our seeds."

2. If possible, indicate the name of the product in the title. It's the name of the product, not the name of the company. Put your name somewhere else in the ad, but not in the title, unless it has some special meaning. “ONLY IN (store name). YOU WILL FIND (product name)." Most people like to see their company name at the top of an ad, although the bottom part is just as good. Be sure to include your address, phone number, and the name of the person you can contact for more information.

3. Well (and often better than a short one) a long headline is perceived. Headlines longer than ten words read much better than short ones.

4. Don't try to be smart just for show. One recent ad for cars with catalytic converters was headlined "ARE YOU ALLERGY TO CATS?*" A reader with such an allergy will certainly pay attention to this ad, but it has nothing to do with cats.

5. Be guided by any "main idea". The great advertising expert, David Ogilvy, said, “Unless your advertising campaign is built around some basic idea, it will wander in the dark like a ship in the night.” You must find something special that is in the product you advertise. The more of these "highlights" you put in the ad text, the easier it will be to sell the product.

6. Only sell one idea at a time. Otherwise, you will only confuse the reader.

7. Appreciate the word "new". The product is "new". New solution. Ads with the words “new”, “new” in the title perform 20% better,

8. Use specific words in your ad title because they work. These words include (but the list is not limited to): new, free, amazing, just appeared, guarantee, you, now. If your advertisement is addressed to a specific audience, then also indicate its name in the title (asthmatics, rheumatism patients). Here is an example of a “working” headline: “TWO MONTHS AGO I WAS CALLED BADDLE.” You can be sure that bald men will pay attention to such a headline,

9. Include an indication of the local origin of your product. Supermarkets advertising the sale of local products report a sharp increase in turnover. People like to identify with a local product. They are proud that they buy "their own". It is for this reason that Senator Mondale won the election in Minnesota and Dukakis won the election in Massachusetts, although they lost them in almost every other state.

10. "Don't show off." Double entenders, puns, headlines that are designed to attract attention but are not meaningful do not work. There were commercials on cable television in which famous people said things like “Murphy Brown is 60 minutes on.” Each of these advertisements began with the template “Okay, although this is not true, but if it were for real ...” Most people immediately stop paying attention to such advertisements. We once wrote the headline for an advertisement for winter overalls that were purchased in Finland like this: "TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THESE OVERALLS, WE HAVE BEEN TO HELSINKI AND BACK". You can’t say anything, it’s funny, but she didn’t contribute to the sale of overalls.

A week later, we ran the same ad again, but the headline was changed: IN THE THIRTY YEARS OF OUR COMPANY, WE HAVE NEVER SOLD THIS ONE PIECE IN SUCH A SHORT TIME. This headline helped us sell sixty-three overalls. People read this headline and said, "These jumpsuits must be something amazing!"

11. Place the title under the illustration. Why? Because that's how people read. Take a look at any newspaper or magazine. If your ad looks like an editorial, then the readership immediately increases.

12. Don't capitalize headlines. If you type your ad title in lowercase letters INSTEAD OF TYPEING IT LIKE THIS, you will also increase your readership. This happens because a person is used to reading exactly the lowercase letters with which this sentence is typed. Yes, of course, the heading will be typed in large typeface size, but still in lowercase letters.

13. The title should be clear. John Caples, headline writer and former vice president of advertising agency BBD&0, said, "When people see your ad, they think of completely different things." Don't make them think. Make them act.

14. The title must be believed. I will believe the headline "HOW TO LOSE 5 KILO IN TWO WEEKS" and not believe "HOW TO LOSE 5 KILO PER DAY". That's the difference.

15. The title should have been designed for your contingent. For young mothers and grandmothers in their sixties, the headlines of advertisements should be different.

16. Tell a story. People like to read different stories, and if your story is interesting, then the headline can get them to read the whole text. Here's the headline we used for men's workwear ads: "THE FIRST TIME WE SEE THEM AT THE HOTEL CRILLON, PLACE DE LA CONCORD, PARIS." And so it was in fact. The first time we saw these thick, rough overalls was on a hanger in the hotel bathroom. Back home, we ordered them for our store and our title helped us sell them!

17. Problem solving. It dawned on us that on children's raincoats you can place the initials of the child in the form of a monogram. Most children's raincoats are predominantly yellow in color and cannot be distinguished from each other in the school locker room. Therefore, your child often returns home in someone else's raincoat. Our headline read: "THIS CLOAK IS NOT MISTAKEABLE BECAUSE YOUR NAME IS ON IT." They sold out in three days!

18. Fulfillment of a dream. John Caples wrote the classic, "THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SIT AT THE PIANO." The ad helped sell a mail-order piano course.

20. Last but not least, don't forget the headlines! If you think this is just ridiculous and isn't, take a look at the car and food advertisements in your local newspaper. They either have no headings (only the company name at the top), or are full of meaningless phrases like "MIDWINTER CLEARANCE", which means absolutely nothing.

In conclusion. Try different titles for the same product. John Caples said that when he tested different options, one of them could be twenty times more effective than the others.

For many years, sets of four notebooks were successfully sold thanks to the ad "BUY THESE FOUR NOTEBOOKS FOR ONLY 99 CENTS", until someone offered the same product, but with an ad that worked much better: "BUY THREE NOTEBOOKS FOR 99 CENTS - THEN ONE, ADDITIONAL, YOU WILL GET FOR FREE!"

Only one in ten readers will read the text of your advertisement. The whole art of the headline is to get attention and keep it while reading the first few paragraphs. If you succeeded while he reads the first 50 words you write, then most likely he will read the next 250. Do not underestimate the power of the impact of words, even a single one. Here are some examples.

Shampoo sales were doubled by a single word. The instructions said, "Wet your hair, apply shampoo, and rinse thoroughly." And the clever copywriter added one word: “Repeat.”

Well-known businessman Elmer Wheeler was famous for his inventing various phrases that increased turnover. One diner wanted to increase sales of milkshakes. In those days, some customers wanted to add an egg to the milkshake, which naturally increased its price and, accordingly, the profit of the enterprise. Wheeler came up with something that tripled sales: When a customer ordered a milkshake, the cashier would ask, "Would you like one egg or two?" - to which almost everyone answered: “with one” (and some - “with two”),

The cosmetics firm Helen Rubinstein couldn't understand why the big department stores were turning down the free shopping apps that the firm offered them. We analyzed the problem and gave the answer:

You have used two incorrect expressions. First, the headline read: A GIFT FROM HELEN RUBINSTEIN. It shouldn't be like that. The gift must come from the specific department store where it was offered.

Second, if your store is high-end, don't offer "free coupons" to customers. Such coupons are given in supermarkets. Do you give gift certificates? The same product, but the words are different. By making these simple changes, Helen Rubinstein made sure that almost every department store took part in the advertising campaign of the company's products.

When you visit Disneyland, you are not a customer or a customer - you are a guest. One simple word dramatically changes the level of treatment - after all, people are much nicer to guests than to customers.

I like that our British relatives call life insurance companies "insurance". In this sense, it seems to me that I pay money to "insure" and stay alive, while the name of American similar firms says that I will win only if I die.

So, when you take on the text of your advertisement, remember the importance of each word.

Here are twenty tips to help you make great ads.

1. Get on with what matters most…as soon as possible! This is what most advertising educators can teach you. It is necessary to "load" the first three paragraphs as much as possible. The beginning of your text should emphasize the benefits that were reported in the title.

2. Write in short sentences. No more than twelve - fifteen words. Paragraphs should not be very long, consisting of two or three sentences. This will allow you to have enough free space on the area of your advertisement and make it more accessible for perception. Remember that the reader is not "reading" but rather "skimming through".

3. Do not type wider than three inches (about 10 cm). This is due to the fact that just such a space is covered with one glance. This is especially true of the usual newspaper font (11.5 points in size).

4. Don't exaggerate. Don't try to prove that your product is "sweeter than sugar". Promise less, deliver more.

5. Be specific. Kipling's "six faithful servants" are still working - What, Where, When, Who, How and Why *:

I have six servants

Agile, remote

And everything I see around

I know everything from them.

They are at my behest

Are in need.

They are called: How and Why,

Who, What, When and Where.

6. Speak as if you were speaking to someone at home simply, freely, clearly.

7. Type your text in a serif font. This is how the text is written. It has a special “serif” at the end of each letter, which makes the text more convenient for visual perception. And THIS TEXT is typed in a sans serif font. You can see for yourself how difficult it is to perceive.

9. Write in present tense. Never use the past tense. The present tense implies that everything is happening right now, while the past symbolizes something outdated, of no use to anyone.

10. Use understandable words and famous names. I once wrote an advertisement for a new song that said, "...this is the best music I've heard since Glenn Miller died." I showed this text to different people, and almost everyone who was not yet thirty asked: “Who is this Glenn Miller?”

11. Use the recommendations of those who actually buy your product. Using neighborhood customers in ads is much cheaper than using celebrity names, and almost as effective as them. (“Look, here is a photograph of Mary Simpson! Because I know her ...”)

12. Specify the price. Once we prepared an advertisement for children's mouton fur coats. They were very expensive, and the advertiser advised us not to list the price. We persuaded her: “Then why did you buy them if you are not sure that you can sell these fur coats?” Nine out of ten newspaper readers say that price influences their buying decisions and product choices. If you do not specify a price, you will not be able to influence Potential Buyers.

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And it is necessary to work with them (clients) in different ways. But how and with whom, let's figure it out today. In 4 steps...

Step 1: Understand how many clients you need.

Not theoretically, not from the category of “it would be nice”, not for the next decades, but within a month. For the month of August, to be completely realistic. How many clients do you need? The math is very simple. You need to divide your sales plan (in rubles) by the average bill. We will not operate with the frequency of purchases and other nuances. Enough for a first approximation.

Step 2: Decide who not to sell to at all.

Cut off low potential. Customers who are not able to buy your product (service). Or the cost of selling it (for this group of clients) will not cover the financial result “at the finish line”. Of course, a student can also try to offer a brand new Lexus. And even hold 3-4 unsuccessful presentations, 7 test drives, hand over 8 sets of selling materials, make 9 clarification calls. But with a male leader aged 32-55, the same number could bear fruit in 1-2 approaches. There is a second question...

How to quickly assess the potential of a client?

After all, not every male executive aged 32-55 is able to buy a Lexus. One has no money, the second is fired from his job, the third bought a car a year ago and just went to your salon at lunchtime to pass the time. And the fifth loves Mercedes very much since childhood. And here already one appearance is not enough. It is necessary in the first third of the funnel of questions (there is such a tool) to assess the potential of the client. Good for this

Marker questions:

There should be from 2 to 4. What's so difficult, you say. Nothing if all people were honest, and buyers and sellers were not afraid of each other like fire. One could simply and calmly ask: “Tell me, are your plans to purchase a brand new Lexus?”. And then: "In the next 2-3 weeks?". That's just not the case in real life. Marker questions should essentially be "from afar". At the same time, according to the answers to them, you can clearly identify the client in one of three groups:

Low customer potential. Solution: do not develop further and do not apply efforts.
standard potential. Solution: develop the client according to the standard structure of the transaction No. 1.
Big deal. Solution: work according to an enhanced special scheme (deal structure No. 2).

History of my company

For the service area, we decided to choose the following as one of the marker questions: “Tell me, how many staff do you have in the operation and maintenance of the engineering systems of the building?”. All response options were divided into 3 groups. Low potential, standard and high. And even a newbie in sales, using this and 2 more questions in the needs identification zone, could “sort” customers into target groups. What to do next, having understood that the potential of the client is “passing” (standard or high)?

Step 3: Define a client development strategy for a standard potential.

What will you try to offer first? How do you build a touch system? What negotiation strategies will you use? At what point do you decide to stop trying if all X attempts fail? When will you resume trying to "lift" a client after a failed first attempt? These are just some of the questions that need to be answered. Important point! In the standard potential zone, any employee of the sales department can work independently without involving experts. Experts are experienced employees of the sales department (and not only) of your company. You will need them for large transactions, but more on that later…

Step 4: Develop a strategy for the development of the "dream client".

For the case of high potential. Higher stakes are already at stake here and your task is to put heavy pieces on the “game board”. Expert! There are at least two reasons for this:

1. "Dream Clients" can't stand dilettantes and newbies. And random: “Well, will you ride with the breeze?”. Like an invitation to a Lexus test drive with a sharp transition to “you” ... It can forever cross out the prospect of your rosy and mutually beneficial relationship.
2. The result of 1 large transaction can cost 10 standard ones. Compare the volume of shipments to the best customer with the average bill of the company. In my companies, this is the order!

There are 2 important questions left.

Who should be an expert?

In my opinion, it can be the head of the sales department, the heads of technical departments, experienced fighters of commercial divisions, the director of the company (as an option). For our "commercial special forces" we created in 2009 the "Schedule of Employment of Experts in Commercial Work" and obliged us to help businessmen. Only within the allocated windows (2-3 hours per week in total). Please do not forget and think over the motivation system for your heavy artillery.

Question two. Is it possible not to call an expert to help in a major trade?

It's up to you to decide and you need to look at the specifics of the business. I would oblige beginners to work with an expert (in large transactions) without reasoning. And then I looked at the "combat experience" of the seller and past merits.

Think for yourself customer potential assessment technology and further development strategy options (see above).

1. Create 2-4 marker questions to assess potential.
2. Describe the criteria for low potential.
3. Select the zone of standard potential and the development strategy of client No. 1.
4. Decide from what potential you will work according to the enhanced special scheme (development strategy No. 2).
5. Discuss with key people and set a standard.
6. Test in "trial operation" mode.

Hello! In this article, we will walk you through the process of identifying customer needs.

Today you will learn:

What is a need;
How to properly build a dialogue with the client in order to identify his needs;
What types of questions exist and how to apply them correctly;
What mistakes should not be made when determining the needs of the client.

As the number of companies in the market grows, so does the power of the consumer. Screens are full of advertising messages, promoters invite customers with discounts, and supermarkets hold tastings to increase sales. But all your customer acquisition efforts can be useless if you don't know what your customer wants.

What is a "need"

Identifying the customer's needs is the second step in sales, but it's really necessary to start thinking about identifying needs much earlier. But let's first deal with the very concept of "need".

Need - Needs embodied in specific goods and services. From this follows another concept - needs. Unlike needs, needs are innate, they are everything without which a person cannot continue his life. Need manifests itself in human needs.

Needs are:

In safety;
In belonging to any group (class);
In comfort;
In reliability;
In novelty.

In addition, needs are conjugated and non-conjugated. Associated need - its satisfaction entails the birth of another need. For example, you bought a blouse, but now you need a skirt to match it. The task of the consultant is to detect both needs (before the second one arises) and satisfy them.

As mentioned earlier, identifying needs is the foundation of the foundations in the sales organization. But for the first time, it is necessary to think about what our potential consumers need at the planning stage, that is, marketing, as a process of identifying the needs of the target audience, should come before production (or purchases, if).

Any should be built around the needs of a specific target audience. Otherwise, you will produce (or purchase) a product that will gather dust on the shelves of a warehouse or store.

Take as a basis the main principle of marketing: "Do not sell what you have produced, but produce what you can definitely sell." And for this, every decision of an entrepreneur must be supported in order to determine the needs of the target audience.

Now let's talk about the sales process itself.

The entire sales process consists of five steps:

Search and evaluation of the buyer;
Determining the needs of the client and establishing contact with him;
Product presentation;
Elimination of disagreements and objections;
Conclusion and follow-up of the transaction.

Why it is necessary to determine the customer's need in the sales process

In fact, if you successfully completed the first two stages of the sale, you can be sure that the client will buy your product. At the same time, the process of finding and evaluating a buyer should be treated as a preparatory stage before determining the needs of the client. Let's find out why the correct identification of needs is so important in the process of selling a product.

Firstly, the customer came to you to solve their problem. The same product can solve completely different problems.

Example. A man wants to buy curtains. The consultant asks the potential buyer about the design of the room for which the curtains are selected, finds out an acceptable price range and demonstrates the best options. But the visitor leaves without buying. What is the seller's mistake? The thing is that the consultant did not find out what benefit the client wants to receive from the purchase, in other words, he did not determine the client's problem. We specifically took curtains as an example to show that even the simplest product can solve several problems at once. For example, curtains can carry two functions: decorating the room and protecting from the sun. In our example, the consultant was solving the problem of decorating the room, and the client wanted to protect himself from the sun's rays. This mistake led to the collapse of the deal.

Secondly, without knowing the customer's needs, you will not be able to fend off his objections, and this is the fourth stage of the sales process. Any objection of the client is a doubt that it is your product that can best solve his problem. You must rid him of these doubts, otherwise the client will simply leave you for competitors.

Thirdly, in the process it is very important to make it clear to the client that you sincerely want to help in solving his problem. This cannot be done without understanding the problem itself.

Needs Identification Methods

And now, the client is already in your store. How to understand what he wants? He needs to tell you about it himself, there is no better way yet.

However, all people are different. Someone happily shares their experiences with others, while someone is silent like a partisan. An individual approach to building a dialogue should be applied to each client.

This leads to two methods for identifying customer needs:

Questions;
listening.

Both tools must be used in the process of building a dialogue with both an open client and a partisan client. But in the first case, we should listen more, and in the second, we should ask.

I would like to immediately draw attention to the fact that your dialogue with the client, regardless of whether he belongs to one type or another, should not look like an interrogation. The speeches of the consumer should take up most of your dialogue with him. A good salesperson is like a good psychologist. The task of these specialists is to identify and solve the problem of the client, and for this it is necessary to bring the “patient” to a frank conversation and listen to him.

How to identify customer needs

Let's get back to sales. Where to start a conversation?

Recall the first stage of the sales process - finding and evaluating a buyer. You should not immediately approach a potential consumer and impose on him a product that he does not need.

Forget about the annoying question for everyone: “Can I help you with something?”. At the time of the first contact with the client, you should already know how you can help the visitor. To do this, watch him for the first 30-40 seconds, this will allow you to determine the type of product that the client came for.

Example. You are a salesperson in a women's clothing store. The visitor pays the most attention to strict trousers in office style. Start your dialogue like this: “Good afternoon, my name is Anna. Today in our store there is a new arrival of the office collection, as well as discounts on the old arrival of this line up to 50%. Come on, I'll show you."

5 questions to identify customer needs

After the client has agreed to accept your help, you need to include questions in the dialogue.

Questions are of the following types:

Closed questions- all those questions that can be answered unambiguously. You should not abuse them, otherwise you will not get the amount of information that you need. Example: “Do you like dress pants?”
Open questions- questions that require a detailed answer. But here, too, danger lurks. If the client is not interested in continuing the dialogue, then he will try to quickly escape from the store. Example: “Which pants do you prefer?”
Alternative questions These questions already contain several possible answers. Example: “Do you prefer skinny pants or dress pants?”.
Suggestive questions- are necessary when the client himself is not yet aware of the need for himself. Example: “When choosing trousers, it is very important to determine what time of the year you will wear them, if you buy them for the summer, then light natural materials will suit you, what do you think?”
Rhetorical questions- atmospheric questions. They serve to maintain a conversation, form friendly relations with the client. “You want your pants to fit perfectly, don’t you?”

The advantages and disadvantages of each type of questions are shown in the table.

	Advantages	Flaws	Tasks
Closed questions	It is easy for the client to answer them	Turn dialogue into interrogation; Provide insufficient information	Getting more information; Obtaining basic information in working with guerrilla clients
Open questions	Allow to receive the most complete information from the client; Allow the client to speak	They can do a disservice and scare away the client; The seller does not always decode the answers correctly, which can cause the client to leave forever; Take up a lot of time	Starting a dialogue
Alternative questions	Allows you to get enough information about the basic need; Not as intrusive as open-ended questions	Prevent the identification of related needs	Definition of the basic need; Motivate the client to action; End of dialogue
Rhetorical questions	Contribute to the formation of a friendly atmosphere	take time	Formation of the atmosphere
Suggestive questions	Contribute to the formation of the need; Push to action	Can confuse the client	Formation of need

In addition to the above, you can use clarifying questions. This is especially true if you are working with open questions.

As a result, you should receive a kind of client questionnaire, which will contain all the necessary information.

Listen right

Now I would like to pay attention to the process of listening. It would seem that there is nothing difficult in listening to the response of a potential client, no, but it is not. If a potential buyer sees your disinterest, then you will lose him forever.

Dialogue is a kind of game with a client, in which you must adhere to the following rules:

Do not interrupt the interlocutor. First, let them speak and only then ask clarifying questions;
Maintain eye contact. This will allow you to understand the client's mood regarding the further continuation of the dialogue;
Give up the idea of interrogating the client. If a person does not want to make contact, he is closed, then you should leave him alone;
Suggest options. This will make it possible to interest the client in further continuation of the dialogue, because they really want to help him here;
Keep up the conversation. The main techniques for maintaining a conversation with customers are shown in the table.

Make time for the client's related needs

When you have suggested a suitable trouser option, start the dialogue again and offer a product that satisfies the associated first need.

For example, our customer has just got a job that requires an office dress code. This means that she can be offered a blouse, jacket and accessories. But to understand whether your client needs this product, you should still be working on identifying and satisfying the first need.

Thus, the process of identifying needs consists of four stages:

First contact with the client;
Identification of the problem with the help of questions;
Listening to the client and offering options;
Satisfaction of related needs.

Needs Identification Exercises

To be confident in your abilities, you need to practice. To do this, get together in a small company (from three people) and play the game “Who am I?”.

Its rules are simple: you write the names of famous characters (literary characters, famous personalities, cartoon characters) on stickers and stick them on each other's foreheads, so that the person you stick the sticker on does not know the name of which character you wrote.

Then everyone tries to guess whose name is written on his piece of paper. He does this with the help of questions to which the other participants in the game can only answer “yes” or “no”. If the questioner receives a negative answer, then the move is passed to the next participant.

Errors in identifying needs

Let's summarize and give the most common mistakes that salespeople make in the process of identifying customer needs:

Don't Focus on Closed Questions. If the client does not make contact, then it is better to leave him alone, and not to arrange an interrogation;
You must discover several needs. Always look for related needs, this will help build customer loyalty and double sales;
Do not present the product in the process of identifying needs. You can offer an option, but you do not need to praise it. This will only create the illusion of imposition and lack of choice for the client;
Be educated. Interrupting a client is the worst mistake a consultant can make when selling and identifying a client's needs;
Stick to your goal - selling a product. Don't let the client get sidetracked and turn the sales process into an appointment with a psychologist. Your task is to solve the customer's problem, but only with the help of your product.

Thus, we got acquainted with the basic principles of determining the needs of the client in the sales process. These principles apply to both face-to-face and telephone sales.