Get face to face with your client

When coaching or recruiting B2B sales folks, I always try to establish whether or not they are in the habit of conducting a well-defined needs assessment for each qualified prospect they see. In most sales processes, this is an extremely important milestone because if your subsequent sales proposal doesn’t “talk to” the right need, the probability of a successful sales outcome is extremely low.

If you’ve qualified your prospect thoroughly, most likely you have determined that they do have a need – but not always. Sometimes a need may exist and be obvious but sometimes the need might be undetermined or non-existent, then you have to work that out by asking the right questions. This is the essence of a consultative selling approach.

Having the right needs assessment in place will pay dividends.