How to deal with customers who equate needs with goals

You also deal with customers who have only specific needs and products in mind. A customer might think she is satisfying her specific needs and that buying those specific products are her goals. They are not. You know the type. "Just give me a price on what I need and I will call you if you get the job." This person is the boss and that is that. You need a lot of willpower not to throw out a price and duck—and wish her (and you) luck.

Resist the temptation. You do not want to react to her specific product requests without either of you knowing her measurable goals. The risks of unfulfilled expectations run high. What do you do?

With diplomacy, you stick to helping the customer to define her goals. Once defined, customers do not become defensive if you ask them to review how their proposed product choices achieve those goals. Leave your product recommendations out of these discussions; it is too self-serving and you lose credibility. You want the customer—on her own—to come to the same conclusion you have: She is making the wrong purchasing decisions and her goals will prove it.

When a customer compares her specific product needs against measurable goals, she comes to one of two conclusions. She either proves herself right and proceeds as planned or she starts looking at different alternatives. If you are in market segments where customers' goals match up to your unique strengths, they look at your alternatives. You now have a powerful force on your side; no one knowingly makes bad decisions, not even customers who prefer competitors.

Harry, an extremely technical customer, walks into a computer store. True to form, he starts blurting out abbreviations such BIOS, SDRAM, LDAP, and the like. He needs to buy a math coprocessor, a 120-MB RAM video card, and sophisticated multimedia software to upgrade his computer. The initial urge of Joan, the salesperson, is to say, "How many do you want?"

Instead, Joan wants to build long-term business relationships and repeat business. She helps her customers achieve their goals on a consistent basis. Therefore, the question she asks is: "What are you trying to accomplish with these components?" Harry cannot help but feel that Joan has his best interests (goals) at heart. Harry explains that he wants to use these components to more quickly create video productions with stereo sound. Joan advises Harry that those types of applications consume a lot of memory. She recommends purchasing 500 MB of RAM to prevent his computer from crashing.

Joan probably could have sold him those components without knowing his goals. However, in doing so, she risks that a week later a frazzled customer returns complaining how the parts she sold him did not "work." His computer keeps crashing because of out-of-memory errors. He demands his money back and is never seen again.

Significant differences and outcomes exist between trying to satisfy needs and helping customers achieve their goals.

Determining Which Goals You Can Achieve

The only customers' goals you pursue are the ones your products achieve. Your potential goes up as the number of your features— especially unique strengths—that could achieve their goals goes up. Although you think about specific products in this planning stage, do not mention specific products to the customers until you find out their purchasing requirements.

Market Profile sheets motivate you to think about goals in ways customers in specific market segments do. You think about which goals you would want to achieve if you shared their organizational characteristics and positions. For instance, what would be your goals if you were the vice president of manufacturing for a personal computer manufacturer? One of your main goals would probably be minimizing production downtime. You then think about which unique strengths or strongest features of your products best achieve those goals. In addition, which systems of evaluation will accurately reflect the achievement of customers' goals via your unique strengths?

The following five-step evaluation can help you to fill out your Market Profile sheets accurately:

1. Review your past sales successes to see which types of customers produce the most wins.

2. Determine which organizational characteristics they have in common.

3. Classify them as market segments.

4. Evaluate the top three sales in each market segment for the goals, measurable benefits, and systems of evaluation they used.

5. Review with your two top customers in each market segment what you think their goals, measurable benefits, and SOEs are. Solicit their feedback for additions, deletions, and modifications.

Using this process, you will also end up with references that have measurable dollar savings—and customers who understand why doing business with you is a smart and well-thought-out decision.

Protecting Yourself Against Bust Cycles

When selecting which market segments to pursue, one final analysis—economic sensitivity—remains to be taken into account. Economic sensitivity is a measure of how a market segment (and the customers within it) will react to changing economic conditions. It includes the following three categories:

1. Cyclical. The market segment follows the general economy. If the economy is booming, so is the market segment. If the economy slows down, so does the market segment. Typically, market segments in the manufacturing sector are cyclical in nature. For example, in a strong economy, people buy new products to support growth and replace old ones rather than repair them.

2. Countercyclical. The market segment goes in the opposite direction to the general economy. If the economy is booming, the market segment slows down. If the economy slows down, the market segment grows. Typically, market segments in the service sector are countercyclical in nature. A weak economy means people repair products rather than replace old ones.

3. Noncyclical. The market segment includes companies with both manufacturing and service business units. Therefore, these market segments will redirect their investments (that is, sales opportunities) depending on the direction and condition of the economy.

The key to consistency is to make sure you balance your market segment so value-driven and profitable sales opportunities exist during all three economic conditions.