The Needs Analysis is no doubt, a critical step of the sales process. Execute properly and and you pave the way for a higher probability sale. Execute poorly and you disconnect!
Here are several of the mistakes I see sales professionals make. I’ve included several tips on how you can ace your next discovery call.
1) Failure to have the proper selling environment. This includes everything from not having enough time, to allowing people to tell you “we know exactly what we want so you don’t have to ask us those questions” etc. Let’s be clear. We need to be respectful and control the meeting without being controlling (there’ s a huge difference) but by the same token, would you go to a Doctor’s office and say “Put away that Stethoscope Doc. It’s my bladder so I just need you to work up a quote on surgery?” Selling should never be different. If someone is rushing your due diligence to the point that you know that this will be a “screw you” down the line, get the screw you today instead and insist (respectfully) that they allow you to be the professional you are.
2) Allowing Your Discovery Call To Take On A “20 Questions Guessing Game” Vibe. Maybe it’s the impatient New Yorker in me coming out, but I like to cut to the chase and ask a question at the start of my needs analysis that goes like this “Granted I called you . . . what prompted you to take this meeting today?” It gives me a direction to go in 9 out of 10 times and saves everyone the annoyance of questions that have nothing to do with “where it hurts”.
3) Asking a sh*tty question. This includes everything from questions that you could have answered yourself by taking a time to research to weak questions that don’t serve you or the prospect.
4) Asking a good question at the wrong time. When we jump right in with a more intimate question, a prospect might think “Who the heck is the person to ask me that? I don’t know them or trust them” and then they shut down on you. Personally, I like to ease into my questions by starting with more situational types of questions and then increasing the intensity at a pace dictated by my read of the prospect.
5) Answering your own question. Don’t laugh. It happens more than you think!
6) Asking a clichéd question: Example “What keeps you up at night? “On a scale from 1-10 how is your present service?” “What would it take to make them a 10?”
7) Asking a set up or “salesy” question. These are the questions that they see coming from like a hundred miles away. My favorite “If I could show you a way to blah, blah, would you seriously consider blah?” I think the 80’s called and wants their monkey style kung fu back!
8) Being so attached to your questions on paper that you don’t follow up on the answer or allow the conversation to “go there”. My best suggestion here (aside from being flexible enough to allow a “discussion” to occur) is to memorize by the topics your questions fall under. This way when a conversation goes from something that’s a deadline issue to a communication issue, you know how the questions execute out of sequence.
9) Not asking continuation questions and racing to your next question. The best information you can get is usually when a prospect is encouraged to continue or expand. You can facilitate that by simply following up their answer with: “Tell me more” “can you give me an example of that?” “what happened as a result?” and even using some strategically placed (get this) silence. People have an innate need to fill silence. Let it be your prospect. One disclaimer: If you wait too long you might get a “Bless your heart” and a pat on the head.
10) Asking questions that are so full of prefacing and tangents that they confuse the prospect.
11) Making the Needs Analysis an interrogation instead of a conversation.
12) Failure to validate feelings. When someone tells you about a challenge or an incident, don’t race to the next question, acknowledge and validate.
13) Asking too many closed questions.
14) Allowing Unproductive Tangents. Part of your responsibility as the professional is to facilitate a process without being controlling.
15) Committing Any Combination of the 4 deadly sins: Interrupting, talking over, finishing thoughts, rushing the prospect’s answer.
16) Considering a Needs Analysis A One Time Thing: I hope you highlight this one. I see so many people who conduct a brilliant needs analysis, win the account and then never do it again. Things change my friend.
And there you have it;
16 discovery call mistakes you need to avoid!
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- 30 ways to find buyers with a much higher degree of urgency to do the deal NOW!
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- How to establish your authority … BEFORE you even have your first meeting with your prospect. How to set the rules of engagement and outfox your competitors during highly competitive situations.
- 9 “Insurance Policies” you MUST take out with EVERY prospect!
- 10 forms of “evidence” that reduce doubt, skepticism and objections.
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