Ryan Dohrn says the problem with needs assessments isn't the concept but how salespeople use them to find wants instead of actual needs. Wants bring short-term satisfaction; real needs build loyal customers. He recommends identifying the need first, then suggesting solutions, especially since buyers got more emotional after COVID.
Hey friends and fans, Ryan Dohrn here answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. And friends out there, be patient with me. We get a lot of questions that come in, so if we don't feature them on the podcast or on the YouTube channel, I'm almost always going to send you a little video back or write you back. So keep those questions coming, ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, next question comes from Robert in Boston. Hey Robert, how are you? Ryan, why are you so vocal about not doing needs assessments? I find it to be one of the most important part of my sales process. And Robert writes, what gives? So Robert, I want to be really clear, and I'm glad that you asked this question because a lot of people get confused. I'm not saying you're confused. A lot of people just miss something. I am not against a customer needs assessment. Au contraire, I am not against that. Just like I'm not against consultative selling. What I'm against is many people use them to determine a customer's wants rather than determining what a customer needs to do with your company. See, it's called, Robert, a customer needs assessment. I guess I'm getting a little forceful here with Robert. Robert, it's called a customer needs assessment. You really should be determining what they need, not determining what they want. The problem is so many of the questions that are being asked, so many of the questions being taught by national sales trainers and sales gurus out there— by the way, always watch out for people that call themselves a sales guru, okay? They're asking questions that are actually leading towards what somebody wants and not what they actually need to do. There's a distinct difference. What somebody wants, if you deliver what somebody wants, great, you're gonna have a happy customer. But I believe you will not have a happy customer for life. See, what I wanna do is I wanna drill in what is they need from me, not what they want. What is it that they need? I wanna guide them Towards what they need to do. Because if I give them what they need and not just what they want, I typically, Robert, have customers for a lifetime. So I'm not against needs assessment, needs assessments. I would just ask you to consider, are the questions you're asking or the path you're taking with the customer needs assessment, does it guide you actually towards what they need to do? Or are you doing a good job of guiding them towards what it is they need to do with your company? It's one of the reasons, friends, that I'm so big on recommendation-based selling. Very rarely in a sales day, and before recording these videos and podcasts, I'm selling just like all of you. I'm really big on really asking very good questions that guide me towards what they need to do. I'm really big on recommendations because I know from past experience, I know from doing these sales calls, I pretty much almost always know what they need to do, but I don't want to come across as preachy or a know-it-all, you know, things like that. So I kind of have to ask the questions, but typically I can recommend things to them that they need to do to guide them towards a path of being more successful with me as a software company, as a media company, as a realtor, whatever your circumstance is out there. But Robert, also never forget, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it. Okay, and they're not. People try to write books about it. Just recognize that a lot of the books that have been written in the '80s and the '90s, I mean, the past is calling. They want a lot of that advice back because we're selling at a different time right now. One of the things I speak about most often, not only speaking on selling amidst economic uncertainty and embracing changes in your sales game, but is we're doing things different now. Things are just different. People are a lot more emotional now than they've ever been before. And also, just because it worked in the past doesn't mean that it works past COVID, right? We're just living in a different time. So, Robert, I hope that's helpful to you. I hope I didn't come across as too preachy. I hope you'll embrace what it is that I'm sharing. And I hope you now and everybody recognizes I'm not against the good old CNA. I'm just against some of the outcomes that come from it, because some of those outcomes will lead to a shorter happy customer. I want a long-term happy customer. Robert, reach back out to me. Let me know if I was helpful in answering that question. Keep your questions coming. ryan@ryandohrn.com is the email address to use. I would love to come to your office. I'd love to motivate your sales team. I'd love to speak at your national sales meeting. I promise I will pump them up and get them to sell more for you. Reach out to me over at ryandohrn.com. All right, friends, we'll see you next time.
