Sales Qualification 3 of 7 - MANDACT – (N) Need - the reason for the sale

Understanding the business need is obviously fairly important. Without a need there is no sale. Every organisation and person will have many needs.

However, a key challenge around this stage of the conversation is making sure you have identified explicit needs, as opposed to a 'nice to have'. The explicit need should already have been established during the Survey (S) stage of the sales cycle - PISTDC - see overview here: PISTDC taster.

Use this as an opportunity;
• to be clear that the need is being said explicitly by the prospect such as; "We need to fix this issue before the end of the year otherwise the authorities will fine us!"
• to be suspicious if the prospect uses phrases such as;" it would be nice/useful/good to have..."
• to be clear that you are not assuming or suggesting the explicit need
• to be sure that you have heard from the prospect the impact of helping them solving the need.

A habit that is very easy to fall into when having sales conversations is to assume we have heard correctly. A classic example of this is thinking we have identified a real need, when in fact we may have just uncovered something that they would like to do, but are unlikely to actually get around to doing.

This is the difference between having an implied need and an explicit one.

Next installment - "D" - Decision Criteria

Excerpt from our sales training course: "Selling is just a conversation