Connect the Dots

Jacqui Sakowski
July 31, 2009 | COMMENTS

Customers don't buy the products and services that you sell for what those products and services do. They buy your products and services for the outcome of what they do—for the difference that your products or services make.

As sales professionals we all know we have to conduct "needs analysis" with our customers. It is one of our primary tasks to ask lots of questions to uncover the needs that the customer or their business has. And then we must show the customer how we can meet those needs by telling them about our company and about our products and services.

It is essential when telling the customer how we can meet their needs that we take the time to make a strong connection between the customers needs and what we offer. And we need to do so in a way that demonstrates that our products and services will meet those needs differently (meaning better) than our competitors solutions.

So that there is no room for doubt in the customers mind that we can meet their requirements, just as we underscore key pieces of text or use bold to make words stand out on a page, we need to highlight what difference using our products and services will provide to the customer with a real tangible focus on the outcome.

When providing loans to customers, financial institutions must ask about what the money will be used for to ensure that it's an appropriate use of such monies, but also so that they can make their offer of the right kind of loan to fit into the lifestyle of the customer or the business. A line of credit that can grow and decrease according to need may be better for someone with a project with a somewhat arbitrary expenditure pattern than a loan that provides all the money at the beginning and is paid down regularly over a predetermined timeframe.

Explaining how these different products work and showing how the customer can use the money in different ways to address different issues will demonstrate how you serve the outcome that the customer seeks. Don't assume that your customers will make those connections for themselves. Don't assume that your customers are paying as much attention to the issue as you are. Connect the dots for them, and then get their feedback about if they think what you offered can work. Ask if the outcome you described is desirable to them. Ask if the difference you can make is a difference that they seek.

Your buyers are smart people and they will get your message faster and make buying decisions sooner, when you provide the guidance they need to connect the dots.

Jacqui Sakowski is president of Sakowski Consulting, LLC, a sales training firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Contact her at 608-218-9003 or Jacqui@sakowskiconsulting.com.