“Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward.”
—Charlie Munger
Top sellers in today’s marketplace are masters of many things: among them is the ability to keenly understand what’s really behind their prospect’s need for the product or service solution they’re buying.
It’s rarely apparent. You must dig for it.
If you overlook this, you risk more than missing out on being able to sell more in less time. You also undermine your ability—and your duty—to understand what’s behind your customer’s critical business issues. That includes identifying who within their organization chart are the true buyers influencing and executing big decisions behind-the-scene in their operation.
UNDERSTAND WHO DOES WHAT…AND WHY
In sales, the source of the ask on the customer’s side is where you find the source of the urgency. It means that when you are qualifying an opportunity, you must skilfully take backwards steps to find out who first has a direct stake—financial or otherwise—in the deal. That’s not apparent without first asking probing questions during your initial point of contact.
Seeking clues and finding answers here are crucial to your success. It matters, because as Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once observed: “Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.”
Consider the following case studies that illustrate how gaining a better understanding of the originating source of a buyer’s need in a sale creates better, more profitable outcomes for you…and for your customer.
In the first example, a client of mine provides a platform for e-commerce businesses. Typically, their buyer is someone in an IT or anti-fraud department. But in fact, that’s just who was tasked with finding a solution to a problem first diagnosed by someone else. In this client’s case, the source of that demand was a C-Suite executive whose job was on the line to find a range of solutions to reduce operating losses and boost profitability. Armed with that knowledge, my client’s sales team was able to better frame a solution with optimal value to that otherwise hidden C-Suite source. They pitched and sold many products instead of just one—and with a larger ROI. Meanwhile, the competition was stuck pitching their one product only to the IT department.
In the second example, another client of mine sells a data analytics platform to a buyer in the finance department of a large organization. Thanks to some skillful digging by the sales team to undercover the source of the buyer’s ask, they learned the company was facing a risk of stiff fines from a government agency and needed solutions that could fully address several data-security matters. The legal and compliance teams at this business had a lot to lose financially if a solution wasn’t found. Again, deeper knowledge proved to be a profitable kind of power.
BEYOND THE BUYER: THE HIDDEN DECISON MAKER
Insights into what—and who—is behind your buyer’s need for your solution puts you in direct contact with the real decision maker who would otherwise go unnoticed in the sales process. Typically that behind-the-scenes individual is far less concerned with solutions narrowly designed to meet some budgetary goal. Instead, they have much more latitude to consider larger solutions that convincingly solve the underlying problems that they have diagnosed within their own operation.
To strike gold in that “above-the-payline zone,” you and your sales team must be ready to ask leading questions to get more information out of the buyer.
For example:
- “Where did this need come from?”
- “Who asked you to look into this?”
- “Who else in your organization has talked about the need to solve the problem you’re working on?
- “How concerned is your company’s leadership team about this issue?”
GET BETTER OUTCOMES…FASTER
Your buyer contains multitudes (to borrow an old expression). With a deeper understanding of the incentives behind their need for your solution, you and your sales team will get to know the primary driver of behavior behind what they are seeking. You must bring that behind-the-scenes person to the forefront of your sales process. This will create deeper urgency, set better priorities and boost budgets: all of which are part of creating better outcomes for everyone in the deal.
Good lesson