Too many salespeople try to sell before understanding prospects’ most pressing challenges. To illustrate, can you imagine a doctor giving you a prescription before understanding your symptoms? Of course not. That’s why salespeople create a needs assessment, also known as a sales needs analysis. We use it as a checklist or diagnostic tool with our prospects. Like what a doctor or mechanic would use before writing a prescription or estimate. Ready to position yourself as a knowledgeable solution provider? Keep reading and learn the 10 sales needs analysis questions you should always ask prospects.
Also read:
- How To Talk To Prospects & Have Effective Sales Conversations
- Separating Suspects And Prospects: Improve The Leads In Your Funnel
- How Sales Reps Can Identify & Resolve 4 Common Customer Pain Points
How do you assess prospects’ needs?
You can diagnose your prospects’ symptoms by creating a needs assessment. It’s a helpful benchmarking tool that compares prospects’ processes to what you consider the industry standard or best practice. As a result, the sales need assessment results often make a case for making changes to make improvements. That’s where you come in.
How do you start creating a sales needs analysis?
The best way to create sales needs analysis questions and assessments are by reviewing several aspects. These are your offering, approach, philosophy, and process. Then re-phrase these statements in the form of scale statements.
For example,
“I have created an assessment to understand prospective customers’ needs and position myself as someone who can provide solutions.”
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 is ‘Completely disagree’ and 10 is ‘Completely agree’)”.
Then send the needs assessment to the prospective customer. Ask them to complete it and return it before the appointment. Doing so will allow you to customize your presentation to address their challenges. As a result, you’ll start to position yourself as knowledgeable and the ideal solution provider.
10 sales needs analysis questions to ask
- “What challenges are you facing?”
- “What have you tried to overcome those challenges? Did it work? How long for?”
- “What would success look like?”
- “What are your short-term and long-term goals?”
- “What are your buying and success criteria?”
- “What do you perceive as your greatest strength? Weakness?”
- “What are you hoping to accomplish in the next year?”
- “What’s the ideal outcome?”
- “How does your company evaluate the potential of new products or services?”
- “Where would you put the emphasis regarding price, quality, and service?”
Prefer to watch, rather than read? Discover how to identify prospects’ needs and position yourself as the ideal solution provider, right here in this video.
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