U – Uncovering what the customer truly needs requires an ability to ask the right questions. “Can I help you?” is not the type of question I’m talking about. In fact when I’m asked this question I always respond with “That depends on what I want.” Or worse still “No, just looking around.” Sound familiar?

You need to get good at asking the right questions to elicit responses you can work with. This is a skill that can be learned and I have taught hundreds of people how to use questions to uncover what the customer truly needs. Let’s go deeper!

Speak to anyone who has ever had to sell something and they’ll tell you that unless you have the decision maker in front of you, you’ve got no chance of closing the sale. You need to find out how the customer makes decisions and who makes them. So you need some questions to help like “Who is involved in the decision making process?” and “Is there anyone else that needs to be taken into account during the decision making process?”. These questions will uncover whether the true buyer is standing in front of you. If not, your chances of making a sale are significantly lower.

Getting a sense of what the customer’s situation is, requires you to ask some questions that establish a background. These questions typically focus on understanding the customer’s history, complexities, and boundaries to the situation. For example “How many customers do you have?” and “What is your best selling product?”. Others like “how long have you been in business?” and “Tell me a little bit about how your situation has developed over the past 12 months”. This line of questioning is all about setting the scene. From there we start uncovering where the issues and opportunities might exist.

I call the next series of questions “Probortunity questions” because I’m a firm believer that wherever there’s a ‘problem’ there’s also an ‘opportunity’. Sometimes a customer is not trying to resolve a problem, but rather capitalise on an opportunity or something positive. Therefore, Probortunity questions can go either way. For example “What is the number one thing keeping you awake at night?” This is a classic question to uncover issues. At the same time though I would ask a question on the flip side like “If this issue was dealt with, what opportunities are there for you?” Depending on the type of business you have, this line of questioning can uncover lots of selling opportunities.

Once you uncover a probortunity, it’s important to understand what the impact is of the current situation and what it would be as a result of using your products and services. This is all about uncovering where the benefits are that your products can provide and what the cost of not using your products and services might be. This starts to delve into the emotional side of the customer and this is important because people buy based on emotion! Questions like “What has it cost you to date?” and “What’s the impact likely to be if you don’t address this now?” are great ones. Others like “Where do you see the value in resolving this situation?” and “What will your situation be like when you resolve this issue / take advantage of this opportunity?”

From there, it’s all about digging deeper! Don’t be a surface dweller! I have seen too many people simply accept the first thing that comes out of a customer’s mouth and they go straight into “product flog” mode. No one likes it, and you’ve probably missed the real situation that your customer came to see you about in the first place!

Ask lots of questions. Listen actively. Confirm your understanding of what the customer has told you with the customer. Then make a recommendation based on that shared understanding.

Naturally there’s more to this. This should get you going. Practise this skill and a whole new world will start to appear in front you. Not to mention, your customer will feel like you’re truly connecting.

Next week I’ll explore the S – setting some standards that everyone in your business must have to ensure the customer experience is delivered in a positive, consistent way every time!

Build massive momentum!