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The Very Necessary Needs Assessment

Written by: Marshall W. Northcott

Article Overview: For anyone in a professional sales role that requires any degree of sophistication the skills of uncovering opportunites, identifying needs, revealing shortcomings and exposing gaps is critical. Learn what the needs assessment is and why it is necessary to your success. Read on...

The Very Necessary Needs Assessment

A needs assessment is a consultative probing process which enables you to uncover potential issues, gaps, challenges and opportunities for you to meet and exceed your sales objectives with an existing or new potential account.

Primarily, you need to perform a needs assessment for the following reasons:

• By encouraging the account to speak and offer information during this process you build trust and educate yourself with knowledge that creates leverage for building a solid case for doing business.
• You are able to qualify the account and determine if the business opportunity meets your criteria and is worthy of pursuing.
• The needs assessment enables you to mentally prepare and create a strategy to move the opportunity forward.

You should begin the needs assessment early in the sales process and continue to do so while you are building rapport. It should always be positioned before making any recommendations, doing a presentation (or an information dump) and also prior to asking for the business.

The knowledge gained from the needs assessment empowers you, builds your confidence and provides clear direction for how to proceed, as you move forward in the sales process. It helps you gain valuable insight into the customer or prospect's needs, expectations and perspective. You will know if you have solid grounds for presenting and eventually asking for the business.

The needs assessment benefits the account by establishing your credibility and trust because of the customer or client focus. It increases their confidence in your level of professionalism. The needs assessment makes the prospect more comfortable in doing business with you. It lowers their resistance and removes barriers and objections.

This approach to selling is different and unique because the focus is on asking questions, then listening, learning and educating yourself, while looking for opportunities to be of assistance and do additional business. The typical approach is more focused on the Sales Representative and the desired outcome of a sale.

By using the needs assessment method in your sales interactions you are attempting to:

• Uncover opportunities.
• Lower sales resistance.
• Build a case for doing business.
• Be account focused.
• Gain buy in and acceptance from the customer or prospect regarding the intensity of their problems and or needs and a sense of urgency to take action.
• Work towards a mutually beneficial long-term partnership.

For people who have never approached the profession of selling in this manner and have developed habits by employing a different type of sales approach it is very challenging for them to change. It is however possible with practice and persistence and the difference in results is well worth the effort!

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Article Tags: building rapport, business opportunity, challenges, client focus, confidence, credibility, doing business, gaps, insight, knowledge gained from, leverage, li li, needs assessment, objections, perspective, professionalism, resistance, sales objectives, ul type



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