Zach Selch uses the "5 Whys" method to teach salespeople how to uncover what customers really need. A customer asking for a garage patch actually needs to keep birds out. When his own customers demanded specific wiring, asking why revealed they wanted reliability, letting him sell a better solution.
Chapters
I'm sure you've heard the whole idea of the 5 Why concept. And it started out as an operational thing, was developed by Toyota in the '50s. But I use it a lot for sales. And I've heard it actually from Sandler too. Sandler, who I have nothing to do with, also talks about the 5 Whys. And 5 Whys is a really great way to dig down. What do I mean by that? Well, the story people like to tell in training is they'll say somebody comes in and says, well, I need a patch. And you say, why? And they say, well, because I have to cover a hole. And you say, well, why do you have a hole? And they say, well, because a bird, you know, punched a hole in the side of my garage. Why would a bird do that? Well, the birds like to come in in the winter. They attack. So, So you sort of say, okay, so what you really need isn't necessarily a patch. What you're looking for is a way to keep the birds away from your garage. And maybe I can sell you a, you know, something that scares the birds. Thank you. Maybe I can sell you something that scares the birds for $500 instead of a $2 piece of plastic to patch that up, right? And I can tell you in my real life, in the last product I sold, we had an issue where very often People would come and they'd say, well, you have to have a certain specification. Now, we had developed a way of wiring our system that was revolutionary. It saved a lot of money. It was actually much more robust and safer, but people would say, well, I need it to be wired a certain way. And we'd say, why? And it always came down to the fact that they wanted it to be more robust, more reliable. So if you If you dug down, they would say, well, it has to be reliable. It can't be like that. It has to be reliable. And you could say, well, if I could prove to you that it's just as reliable or even more reliable, would you accept it? So you take a look and what are we talking about? We're talking about 5 whys, right? So then they say, you dig down again. You dig down again and you say, well, why? Why do you need that? Why? If we can dig down, we're starting off and we're saying, well, why? And we're getting an answer, but that doesn't help us. And then we say, why? And we're getting another answer. And then we can go, well, why? And that digs us down to what we really need, that little kernel of truth that we can use to provide a solution to the customer and help close the deal. So it comes down to those 4 Whys to get to that kernel of truth that's going to allow us to close the deal. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help.
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