One of the most basic tips for salespeople is to know the customer’s needs. Results of a scientific study show how sales managers optimally prepare their sales force for this task – and how they do not. For this purpose, sales researchers Jan Wieseke and co-authors examined well over a thousand sales calls in various industries. The results speak volumes: Only in about one third of the cases did the sales staff correctly identify the most important customer need, for example prestige, price, security and convenience. “This is wasted potential,” judges study author Wieseke. “Because our study shows that it is enough to identify and address the most important customer need in order to satisfy customers in the long term.” This applies not only to initial sales, but also to the after-sales experience. But what can be done to identify customer needs more accurately in sales? to the study summary
by Christian Schmitz and Luisa Kuschke