What is the best way to train sales people to better understand their customers needs?

In the real world of sales, there is already plenty of training in product knowledge and process methodologies. Even the approach to "better understanding customer needs" tends to be built around a process of structured questions, culminating in product answers.

What's in short supply is an approach that teaches something very simple--how to listen. Yet pure listening is one of the most powerful tools available for a salesperson.

The most powerful part of listening is not what you hear--it's the statement you make by the act of listening itself. Listening to another human being without attachment to outcome is a sign of respect; and the response to being respected is to listen in turn to the other person. And what more can a salesperson ask than to be listened to?

Teaching listening in this way requires one fundamental change in the approach to sales--it means you have to give up the mono-maniacal focus on closing the sale. You can't really listen to someone if your sole objective is to get them to do what you want. That sort of attitude bleeds through, and every customer knows when they are being treated as a means to the salesperson's end.

True listening requires a different approach; to play the odds, trust the numbers, and try not to always be closing. If you do this--listen to each customer, genuinely--then the odds of buying will go up. You just can't force it at the individual level.

So--the best way to train to understand customer needs, given that they're already saturated with product and process, is to focus on listening--for the sake of the customer, without attachment to the sale.

Great question, Lauren.

In my experience, the best way to train a sales person to understand the customers' needs is by making the sales person be the customer.

My first sales position was with a software company that sold inventory and point-of-sales solutions to the automotive aftermarket. All new hires went to a two week sales training class at the company headquarters. We were taught in a classroom setting about the challenges and problems faced by our customers, and how our products solved those problems.

A year later, the company began a new approach to training:
Each new hire would be trained by an existing customer. The company paid a successful customer to put a new sales rep to work in their business. Over the course of a month, the sales rep would follow a prescribed path of responsibilities, changing every few days, so that over the course of a month, they'd experience personally and first hand each of the challenges faced by the customer, and how our software systems would improve the ability of the customer to face the challenge.

The first-hand experiences gained by the new sales reps gave them strong first-hand knowledge of the customers' world.
Over time, these reps showed a higher level of sales performance, greater customer satisfaction, and overall longevity with the company.

The best way to know the customer is to be the customer.

I hope that helps, Lauren!

Jim Watson
JL Watson Consulting
http://jlwatsonconsulting.typepad.com/my-blog/

Customers are too busy to commit further time to a sales person who hasn't understood their needs (or tried hard enough to do so). So ... give your sales people feedback, in the form of buyer action metrics, that let your people see + understand what % of all their sales conversations were GOOD conversations, as proven by buyer committing more time to the process as an outcome of the last conversation. With simple feedback like this, the learning's personalized. The lessons learned are learned from practice. Trust this adds some value. - John

If we wait until they are hired, we have waited too long to address the issue. This should be addressed before the job offer is made.

Helping your salespeople develop their sales-empathy and an inner eye and ear that is tuned to the Prospect. Always trying to see the opportunity from the Prospect's perspective. I call it getting into the Prospect's head.

It's more than just listening, although listening skills are critical, it is knowing what to listen for.

Good points all.

In addition, I'm a big believer in creating win-win situations and making staff accountable for their actions. In short, make it in the best interests of Sales people themselves to ensure they are in touch with the customer needs.

One way this can be done is by tying their compensation very directly to the customer experience. So, for example, ensuring that any returns or cancellations are netted off their gross sales when calculating commissions will give them personal incentive to ensure they are selling the most appropriate product to the customer in the first place. To do that effectively, of course, they need to actively listen and engage!

Brad

This is a wonderful question that successful selling requires the answer to.

For inbound and outbound calls, 5 to 7 questions that creates an evaluation of what a customer needs and wants. Then put them on the phone and review the answers by asking a series of questions.

People do as people see. The follow-up questioning teaches listening skills; how to listen and what to listen for. The classroom and seminars cannot replace hands on learning and training. The necessary ingredient is a sales manager, coach, or mentor.

I know the best way! :)
Make your sales people's income dependant from their result, like enterpreneurs who are as good as their last result! Set to your sales people only basic salary what covers their basic needs and invoices paid. THE ONES who are ambitious enough, believe me, they are starting to listen, find out customers needs and close the deals to get sales. Because, THEN their income based on how they are able to get sales from customers! ...and this helps you to see who are really ready to run for sales=their salary!

Helping your employees understand that all customer service needs to be personal. When an employee stops seeing the customer as a "Customer," or "Patient." or "Member," or "Client." or whatever word is used to describe that person, but rather as another human being with wants, needs and desires. he or she can make choices that might be different.

Recently, I got to have the experience of a United Airlines gate agent treating me as another human (http://successfulsales.blogspot.com/2011/03/united-gate-agent-wows-with-simpl...) and it was wonderful

All customer service needs to be I to I. One human to another.

1) Put them in their customers shoes (like Chick-fil-a did with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v0RhvZ3lvY)
2) Give them an employee experience that sets the bar for the experience they will be expected to give customers

Neither of these approaches is easy. Both make getting to the goals of understanding and empathy simpler. Both of these ideas work extremely well.