The salesperson of today is a problem-solver who works in conjunction with the customer to identify any issues that the customer has and then uses that information to offer solutions to the customer’s problems or situations. The tricky part of this situation is ensuring that the problem that the customer is attempting to solve is the actual problem that exists.
For example, a customer might come to you saying that they need a specific type of software. You could just sell the customer the software and that would be the end of it. Or instead, you could ask the customer questions in order to determine what the problem is that they are trying to solve. You may then be able to:
- Offer a better product or solution than the specific one the customer asked for
- Offer a broader solution that the customer didn’t even know they needed or wanted
- Offer additional products or services that enhance your sale and also exceed the customer’s expectations
- Identify additional needs that the customer has which you can then offer to resolve with other products or services
- Determine that you don’t actually have a product or service that will solve the customer’s problem
The final point above may not seem like a solution you would want to offer. But the fact is that telling the customer the truth will establish you as a reliable, trustworthy source of information for the next time they need something.
One simple problem-solving tool is to use something called ‘The Five Whys.’ It is simple because it uses the question ‘why’ up to five times in order to help get to the root of a problem. But remember that it is indeed a simple tool – if you are dealing with a more complex problem, you may need to learn other problem-solving skills. An example of how to use this tool is shown in Figure 4 below. Notice that in this case, it’s not necessary to use five ‘why’ questions to get to the root of the problem.
| Customer | Salesperson |
|---|---|
| I need a copy of your ABC billing software. | Might I ask why? |
| We are having problems keeping track of customer bills. | Why are you having trouble? |
| We do it by hand, but now our customer base has grown so much that we can’t keep up. Correspondence in general is difficult. | Why is correspondence difficult? |
| Because we have about 10 different pieces of information that have to go out to different customers in addition to the bills. Keeping all that in order is quite a challenge. | It sounds to me like you need more than a billing system – it sounds like a customer contact management system is what you really need. Why don’t I show you some of the benefits it could provide? |