SKILL
Need-Fulfillment Selling Strategy Understanding dominant buying motives takes the guesswork out of selling
RON WILLINGHAM
Imagine, for a moment, you’re watching a couple in a car dealership as they closely examine the fanci- est and most expensive car on the floor. You walk over to them and...what do you say? Do you im- mediately tell them of all the benefits of luxury cars today? Do you talk about how rich they’ll feel sit- ting inside this miracle of technology? Do you hand them the keys to take a test drive?
Before you do anything, stop and ask yourself the following questions. How do I know what they really need? Do they know what they really want? They may really be shopping for a pickup truck. So why waste your time – and theirs – on a fancy, expensive car they don’t need or even intend to buy? We all have needs. Customers are
8 | DECEMBER 2016 SELLING POWER © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
no different. High-performance sales- people recognize customers’ needs and they advance to the head of the pack by practicing “need-fulfillment” selling. By focusing on the customer’s needs for pride, profit, pleasure, or peace, they solve problems and meet needs. This is customer- oriented selling. In the case of our
couple, the salesperson must first isolate what the needs are by asking them need development questions – open-ended, indirect questions that give information in return. For instance, in the automotive industry, the traditional way to sell tires is to explain each model, tell its features and benefits, give the cus- tomer lots of information, then see which one he or she will buy. Working with Jim Brown, director of manpower training for Western Auto Supply Co., in Kansas, I took a different – a more professional and profitable – approach. I trained store managers in the first step of need ful- fillment selling, asking need develop- ment questions like: What kind of car are you driving? What kind of tires have you bought before? How have you liked them? How many miles have you got on them? How much longer do you plan to keep your car? How many miles per year do you drive? Who else besides you drives
WRIGHT STUDIO /
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28
