Example: There are three fruit shops on one street. One day, an old lady came to the first store and asked, "Do you have plums for sale?" When the shopkeeper saw that there was business, he immediately stepped forward and said, "Old lady, buy plums?" You see, my plum is big and sweet, and it has just come in, and it is very fresh! Unexpectedly, when the old lady heard this, she turned around and left.
The old lady then went to the second fruit shop and asked the same question, "Do you have any plums for sale?" The second shopkeeper immediately came up to him and said, "Old lady, do you want to buy plums?" "Ah," replied the old lady. "I have plums here that are both sour and sweet, so do you want to buy sour or sweet? "I want to buy a pound of sour plums," so the old lady bought a pound of sour plums and went back.
The next day, the old lady came to the third fruit shop and asked the same question, "Do you have any plums for sale?" The third shopkeeper immediately came up to him and asked, "Old lady, do you want to buy plums?" "Ah," replied the old lady. "I have plums here that are both sour and sweet, so do you want to buy sour or sweet? ”。I want to buy a pound of sour plums".
The same scene that happened the day before in the second store; But the third shopkeeper was weighing the old lady's sour plums, and said, "People who buy plums from me generally like sweet, but why do you want to buy sour?" "Oh, my daughter-in-law recently got pregnant with a child, and she likes to eat sour plums" "Oops! Then I would like to congratulate you on the fact that your old man is about to hold his grandson! It is a great blessing for your daughter-in-law to have a mother-in-law like you who can take care of her! "Of course, the most important thing during pregnancy is to eat well, have a good appetite, and have good nutrition!" ”
Yes, nutrition during pregnancy is very crucial, not only to supplement more high-protein foods, but also to eat more vitamin-rich fruits, the baby will be smarter! "Yes! Which fruit is richer in vitamins? "Many books say that kiwifruit is the most vitamin-rich! "Do you have kiwis for sale?" "Of course there is, you see that my imported kiwifruit is big, juicy, and contains many vitamins, why don't you buy a pound and go back to your daughter-in-law to taste it!" In this way, the old lady not only bought a plum, but also a pound of imported kiwifruit, and in the future, she would come to this store almost every day or two to buy all kinds of fruits.
This is a classic case about demand, the first store owner, who did not understand the customer's needs at all, directly promoted the product, so it failed; The second shopkeeper was smarter and asked the old lady what she wanted, did she want to buy sour or sweet plums? It worked; The third shopkeeper was even more powerful and found the demand behind the old lady's needs, and the old lady not only bought a plum, but also a pound of imported kiwifruit.
1) The ins and outs of customer needs are as follows: implied needs, clear needs, procurement standards.
Implicit needs: the customer's statement of difficulties and dissatisfaction; For example: the warehouse transportation capacity is insufficient, and the customer waits too long; Clarify the needs: the needs of the customer directly stated; For example, a new batch of forklifts needs to be purchased. Procurement criteria: the procurement criteria and weights finalized by the customer; For example: forklift load capacity, accessories, training, warranty, payment terms, etc.
The customer's procurement standards are roughly the following six aspects: product **, delivery time, performance indicators, easy operation, after-sales service, brand and strength. According to the customer's critical and non-critical needs, different weight ratios are set for procurement standards.
2) Different customers have different levels of understanding of their own needs, which are in three different stages: implied demand, clear demand, and procurement standards. When the customer is in the stage of implicit demand, he is the least clear about his own needs, but knows that he has problems or is dissatisfied with the status quo, such as: insufficient warehouse transportation capacity, etc.;
When the customer is in the stage of clear demand, the customer's own needs begin to be clear, for example: need to purchase a new batch of forklifts;
When the customer is in the procurement standard stage, the customer is very clear about their own needs, such as: forklift carrying capacity, accessories, training, warranty;
Some customers have clear purchasing standards at the beginning, understand customer needs, and try to meet customer needs, the problem is that sometimes we can't do anything about what customers want; Or when competitors can also meet their needs, they are faced with the best competition. Therefore, we prefer that the customer is in the first stage - the stage of implicit requirements, through the technical communication with customers, gradually from implicit needs to very clear procurement standards, we have a way to change or guide the needs of customers.
3) When the customer has a clear demand or procurement standard, it is relatively simple for the sales staff to find that the demand is satisfied; However, when the customer is in the implicit demand, and its own needs are not clear or unwilling to be express, it is also a time to test the quality and ability of the sales staff. There are three scenarios when a customer is in an implied need:
1) The customer is not willing to say the demand, you need to be careful **: for example, the customer says "your stuff is too expensive" The customer's subtext may be:
I don't think the problem is serious enough to spend so much money?
It's a big deal, and I don't know anything about you, so I'm hesitant.
Now the ** business is not bad, you must use yours, what will others think?
I've heard that you've screwed up on a project.
2) The customer's unclear needs, you need to help him sort out:
There was a woman in a certain place who went crazy and repeatedly went to the county government to complain, and she was incoherent, and if she didn't listen to her, she would scold. The former county magistrate often reprimanded her and drove her away before she could speak. Later, a new county magistrate came, and when the madwoman came to appeal again, he did not ignore it like his predecessor, but asked her tactfully. It took a long time for the woman to make her words clear: it turned out that she had no children after marriage, and her husband's concubine had a child, and after her husband's death, the concubine drove her away and seized her property. Later, the county magistrate made the decision for her, punished the concubine, and returned the property to her, and her illness was cured.
It makes sense to compare the customer's needs to the statement of a mad woman, when the customer expresses the demand, their expression usually has the characteristics of a mad woman: the words are not meaningful, disorganized, and the customer puts forward the product demand, due to its limited professional level, it is difficult to accurately express or sort out the demand, the expression is not expressed, and the expression should not be expressed a lot.
For example, I often encounter the following situation, the customer has a clear training need - requires its junior sales staff to be trained on "how to negotiate and communicate with customers". But in my experience, maybe it's not the real need, or there is a misunderstanding of the concept between the two sides, so I will start from the customer's implicit needs stage and ask what problems exist in the current salesperson, and what is the most important thing to solve? Finally, discover the basic sales skills that customers actually need, how to ask questions, how to listen, how to introduce products, and so on.
3) The hidden needs behind the needs that you need to dig deep into:
Customer: Domestic lubricating oil often causes equipment downtime.
Surface demand: Imported lubricating oil is required.
Hidden Needs: Lubricants and equipment require proper maintenance and a complete training program.
Client: We don't have enough budget.
Surface Demand: * Low product.
Hidden needs: cost-effective products, installments, leases
Customer: The delivery time of accessories of imported brands is often too long, which will affect the production plan.
Surface demand: domestic brand equipment.
Hidden needs: timely delivery of spare parts and regular maintenance
Distributors: Business is difficult to do, don't make money.
Surface Demand: Lower**.
Hidden needs: good market order, need exclusivity**, need credit support, staff training.
This article is from *** Sales Director Information (non-profit organization; CSO Information; Assist sales practitioners to better engage in business development).