Prospects need and problems in salesmanship *

The most important part of a sale

The real point of attack in a sale is the prospects' needs. It is quite as necessary that the salesman prepare himself with a complete knowledge of these as it is for him to know his offering thoroughly. His selling talk on his product or service, in order to score, must be directed at the problems of his prospect. This is accomplished by showing clearly that the main points of his proposition have a direct and beneficial relation to the prospects' needs and problems. To do this the salesman must know in detail just what those needs and problems are. This requires careful study and analysis in advance.

Variety of prospects' problems

Obviously, the problems and needs referred to are those which have reference to the salesman's offering. They depend upon a variety of conditions such as the personal position of the prospect and the nature of his business as well as the nature of the salesman's proposition. In the case of staple selling to dealers the problems are usually. those of merchandising a particular line. In the case of specialty selling to the individual consumer the problems that arise are out of the prospect's personal situation.

The skilful salesman will be able to meet prospects upon their own levels, discuss their problems intelligently and help to solve them. He realizes that men are primarily interested in their own problems and difficulties. Therefore he prepares himself to meet them upon those grounds and show how his proposition will help them.

It will be observed that some of these needs and problems will be general, applicable to all logical prospects and hence find a fundamental place in each selling talk. Every business concern in the market for typewriters has the problem of getting typing done quickly and at the lowest possible cost. Other problems of the prospect may be common to certain kinds of business. For example, some concerns may have a condition which makes noiseless typewriters advantageous, despite their greater cost.

Other needs and problems are purely individual. To illustrate, a typewriter prospect might have a problem of recording his thoughts or taking care of his personal correspondence that would make it advantageous for him to have a typewriter in his home and learn to use it. Most companies nowadays train salesmen in methods for handling the first two kinds of cases. The salesman must almost always discover cases of the third kind for himself, either prior to, or during, the selling interview.

Formulating the prospects' problems

Let us illustrate how this principle operates in practice by looking into a few examples. Assume for the moment a salesman representing a large gas company and promoting the use of fuel gas for industrial purposes. His prospects, obviously, are manufacturers of all kinds. Assume further now, that he is going to call upon the general manager of a large baking establishment which is using coal for fuel.

What are some of the industrial fuel problems of this prospect? First, there is the problem of economy and convenience. A labour expense is involved in the handling of coal and the removal of ashes and in the hiring of skilled men for the proper handling of coal burning furnaces which will be eliminated by the use of gas as a fuel. Second, there is an investment of working capital in coal and the occupation of costly storage space, both of which will be rendered unnecessary by the use of gas. It will be observed that these are basic problems common to probably all of the salesman's logical prospects.

In addition, there are involved some problems more or less confined to the baking industry. There is the problem of heat control, the careful regulation of heat to insure uniformity in the baked products. There is also the problem of sanitation. That is, the necessity of keeping the atmosphere clear and wholesome because of the ease with which the prospect's particular products absorb impurities and the danger to the products from flying ashes and coal dust.

The salesman will probably open his talk on one or the other of these problems, and will go into the technical details only when necessary to convince the prospect that his proposition will solve them. It should be understood, incidentally, that we are not discussing here the relative merits of gas and coal as industrial fuels. The coal salesman undoubtedly also has a case. We are merely pointing out, from the viewpoint of the gas salesman, industrial fuel problems which the prospect must be convinced will be solved for him by gas fuel before he can be persuaded to make the installation.

Guidance of prospect through knowledge of his problems

Let us picture now a salesman representing the securities company attached to a large bank. He is approaching an average prospect who, we shall say, is middle aged, married, has children of school age, draws a good salary and has occasionally purchased securities but is not an experienced investor. Picture not only the problems of this prospect in' relation to security buying, but also the heavy responsibility of the security salesman in relation to them.

There will be the question of safety of principal. This may be a paramount consideration or the prospect may have funds of a nature which justifies a sound speculative chance with its opportunity for larger appreciation. The chances are that the investor does not possess the ability to discriminate between an investment and a speculation nor to judge definitely the soundness of a security. He will also have the problem of diversification of investments.

The salesman will want to see to it that his prospect is not over-invested in any one line of business or class of securities, thus getting his investment position out of balance. In all probability the prospect himself will be unable to judge what constitutes a well diversified investment position. Then there is the consideration of yield. The chances are that the prospect, unable to judge what is an adequate yield consistent with a given degree of safety, might easily be persuaded to sacrifice that safety for the lure of higher yield.

Is this prospect thinking in terms of providing through savings and investment for the college education of his children, or for his old age, and therefore in need of a workable system of saving and investing? What proportion of his funds, if any, is it the part of wisdom for this prospect to use in the more speculative opportunities of young organizations with great future promise, or sound companies in new and growing industries?

The prospect is probably not fully aware of these problems. He may have been aware of them in a general way, but has never thought them through, organized them and put them down on paper so as to get a clear conception of his investment needs and problems as a whole.

As he listens to the security salesman with growing confidence they are brought before him in sharp outline and in their proper relationship, probably for the first time. It will not be until the security salesman has analysed these problems and discussed them briefly with the prospect, that he will be in a position to decide what the exact nature of his offering to this particular prospect will be.

The salesman may feel that the prospect has a sufficient proportion of his total savings now invested in railroads and will decide that an increase in public utilities will give balance and proper diversification. If the prospect insists upon taking some speculative chance but, in the opinion of the salesman, needs as high a degree of safety as is consistent with that position, the salesman may supply this opportunity of appreciation by presenting to the prospect a convertible preferred stock, or a bond with warrants attached for the purchase of common under certain conditions.

Finally there is always the factor of marketability of securities which must be considered. An investor desires to purchase securities for which there is an open market.

It will be seen that, through a comprehensive understanding of the investor's problems, the security salesman is enabled to give him sincere guidance and expert advice and to handle his prospect's investment problems as a continuing process. Salesmanship today in any line is a keen desire to serve rather than an urge "to put something over," but the security salesman's position is one of peculiar responsibility.

His is the problem of helping to provide for children and families through wise investment of savings. It is interesting to note in passing that security men who operate along these lines of sincere service to their clientele are prosperous as well as happy, whereas those "high pressure?' men who spirit hard earned life savings and widows' and orphans' funds into highly speculative promotions are out at elbow. He profits most who serves best.

Some special problems of dealers

Let us examine one more example from still another different field of selling activity. Assume now' that the salesman is representing a well known, high grade nationally advertised brand of flashlights and dry batteries. This is a class of goods which can profitably be handled by a great many different types of retail outlets and more or less easily sold as a result of good display.

The salesman is endeavoring to persuade a retailer who has not previously stocked this type of merchandise to handle his line. Naturally, his fundamental appeal to the retailer will be the standard one of additional sales volume from an added line, rapid turnover of inventory and a liberal margin of net profit. What are some of the problems, in addition to these, which may formulate themselves in the prospect's mind as objections and upon which the salesman will have to convince him before a sale can successfully be consummated?

One of the first to be considered will be how to find room for adequate display of the line on shelves, counters, and in show windows in such a way as most effectively to tie up with the manufacturer's national advertising. Then will come the question of arousing the interest of sales clerks in the line and adequately instructing them in its mechanical features and selling points.
It happens that in this line, as in many others, there is some cut-price competition on lines of high-grade goods and low-priced competition on similar goods of lower grade which must be reckoned with.

Whether or not the retailer is aware of this condition, it is one that he will have to meet if he stocks the line. Then there is the problem of handling the goods and stocking them in such quantities as to avoid loss from deterioration. The retailer may demur because of the problem of complaints and adjustments and the possibility of their eating into profits. This is more likely to be true if the line which he is now handling is dissimilar and one in which this problem does not loom large. The salesman will, in all probability, have to satisfy the retailer on this point before the line will be stocked.

Importance of problems in selling talk

These three illustrations, each from a different field of selling, are sufficient to indicate the extent and importance of the prospect's problem and a method of approach to them. They also bring out very clearly the point that there must be infinitely more to an effective selling talk than the mere description of the salesman's offering. It is apparent, too, that the salesman, if he is to impart to the prospect something of the mechanical perfection or outstanding quality of his line, must do it by suggestion if, in addition, he has to stress the needs and problems which lie so much closer to the prospect's heart and interest.

As a matter of fact, in the case of the flashlights mentioned above, it is quite possible that there might be no talk at all on the quality and standing of the line for the reason that the company's advertising has already adequately conveyed that message and there is no question in the prospect's mind concerning it. Advertising probably performs no more valuable service than this one of creating a perfect case in quality and stability, so that the salesman can devote the entire time at his disposal to a talk on advantages to the prospect.

Company cooperation in prospects' problems

In many large concerns, it is a function of the sales or sales promotion department to make intensive surveys and analyses of those prospect needs and problems which are usual to all prospects or common to certain classes of them, and to pass this information out to the salesmen together with suggestions as to how their offering may be effectively tied in.

It is usual, for example, for the large life insurance companies to study the situations of typical prospects for life insurance in different classifications, according to average income, number of dependents, business situation and the like and to work out for each class a suggested solution of the problems of creating an immediate estate, providing for dependents, solving the problem of education of children, and providing an immediate cash reserve in case of death to protect a going business.

This gives to the life insurance salesman a number of ready made approaches to prospects' needs and problems which, with some modifications born of his own study of problems peculiar to the individual, will fit a number of different classes of prospects.

A manufacturer of addressing machines instituted an exhaustive survey of the handling and keeping up of mailing lists and the general problem of customer control. The study uncovered a multitude of costly leaks, common to a large number of businesses, such as heavy percentage of mail returns due to incorrect addresses and failure to keep an adequate check on the mailing list; failure to keep correct records of customers' purchases; neglect to get in touch with customers who had stopped buying for a period; failure to ascertain and adjust grievances; and the like.

These findings were all graphically presented in chart form in such a way as to show them in sharp relief as important problems of the prospects. They presented a picture of money waste and lost opportunities, common to many organizations, in a matter that is often of vital importance and just as frequently regarded as a rather unimportant matter of detail and dead routine. The salesman was enabled to grip the prospect's immediate interest, sell him first on the importance of the solution of his mailing and addressing problems and then fit his machines into the picture and make it complete.

Increasing sales volume and dealers' profits

Considering its high nutrition value and low cost, cheese is a somewhat neglected item on the American menu. A large manufacturer of an extensive line of cheese products decided to look into the matter.

The problems, so far as the dealers who handled the company's goods were concerned, were limited sale and slow turnover of stock.
A survey disclosed the fact that out of every dollar spent for all purposes in the average city thirty-eight cents was spent for food. Twenty-seven per cent of this amount, more than one quarter of the total food expenditure, went for dairy products.

Of the total dairy products expenditure, 15 per cent was spent for butter alone and but 2 1/2 per cent for cheese. The survey further made plain that the chief reasons for the limited consumer demand were: ignorance of the average housewife as to the different types and qualities of cheese and their respective food values; ignorance of methods of preparing and serving cheese as well as of the place it should occupy in a well balanced diet; carelessness and inefficiency on the part of retailers in handling cheese products; failure on the part of the dealer to use to best advantage the dealer helps provided; and inadequate display to tie in with the manufacturer's national advertising.

With the facts revealed by the survey analysed, a plan of educating the consumer by direct mail and advertising, and a merchandising procedure requiring intelligent sales effort on the part of the retailer were evolved. This was given to the salesmen. They sold not merely packaged cheese, but a thoroughgoing merchandising plan which promised rapid turnover and substantial profits to the dealer. The cheese itself became part of the sales program. The plan, essentially a solution to the dealers' problems, enormously increased the sales volume.

A prominent wholesale grocery company made an extensive survey of those problems of the independent grocer created by chain store competition, and developed a service to independent grocers providing a solution to their problems of store arrangement and stock display; mark-up, turnover, cost of doing business and profits; reduction of investment in inventory and speeding up of turnover, by cutting out slow moving items, and too numerous brands, and reducing stocks to standard, quick-selling brands; and, in addition, worked out a plan of centralized buying for the independents.

Changed merchandising conditions, due principally to the chain store, had really forced this company to find a solution of the independent's big problem of staying in business. Only in this way could the wholesale company solve its own problem of continuing to have customers to whom to sell.

A program of procedure

How shall the salesman proceed to get this knowledge of the prospects' needs and problems which is so essential to effective selling? While the representative of a progressive company looks to his organization and its executives for a great deal of constructive help, it resolves itself, in the final analysis, into a matter of initiative and enterprise on the part of the wide-awake salesman.

It is true that executives are giving an increasing amount of attention to this phase of selling. A well organized sales training course will contain a great deal of material on this subject. At sales conferences, whole sessions are sometimes devoted to prospects' needs and problems.

The well planned sales manual will go exhaustively into the relation between the company's offering and needs and problems which are common to all prospects, and to certain groups of them; and will be replete with suggestions as to how the salesman may proceed in discovering those which are peculiar to the individual. In addition, it is, of course, fundamental that the salesman thoroughly familiarize himself with any researches and surveys which his company has made along these lines.

As has been intimated, one of the important activities of an association within any particular trade is to uncover needs, problems, and difficulties which the salesman's proposition is calculated to supply or remedy. The salesman should be thoroughly familiar with his trade association's reports on any such investigations.

Another most prolific source of information and inspiration will be the journals in the trade. In this connection, the salesman should read regularly not only his own trade journals, but those published in the interest of his customers. Government reports, especially those issued by the Department of Commerce of the United States, frequently Contain valuable data.

Information from customers and final consumers

A great deal of information as to problems involved and their solutions can be secured from those who handle the salesman's goods for resale and from the final consumer who actually uses them. The successful dealer who has for years handled the line is likely to' be familiar with its every problem and to have devised effective methods for resale. From him the salesman can learn what the problems are and glean methods of solving them which he can pass on to other customers.

Many times goods remain on a dealer's shelves because of some problem of the final consumer which the dealer has not adequately met—usually because he lacks a clear conception of what that problem may be. The salesman, if his line is not moving, can make a brief survey among his dealer's customers, discover what the general attitude is toward his goods and from that investigation not only work out a plan that will move the goods for that particular dealer, but also develop it suitably for his other prospects and customers as well. One of the objects of the National Lead Company's survey already mentioned was to discover why house owners do not paint more frequently and just what should be done to educate them to do so.

As a result, the paint dealer and the contracting painter were given suggestions for bringing the painting problem of the house owner sharply to his mind and thus selling him a painting job.

Objections often define problems

In nearly every sales interview involving an important sale, some of the objections voiced by the prospect will arise from his problems and difficulties as he sees them. Far from being an obstacle to the sale in such a case, the objection will serve definite notice on the salesman of a problem which he must convince his prospect will be solved by his offering before the sale can be consummated. The alert salesman will not meet these objections, successfully or unsuccessfully, and then forget them. He will make a note after each interview of those which he feels will be at all common to any class of buyers.

He will then proceed to study them so as to be able to handle them to best advantage. He may proceed by setting each one down separately and making a careful analysis of the problem and its seriousness from the prospect's viewpoint. This will indicate the facts which constitute the problem. The analysis will require a great deal of careful thought, but it will be a necessary basis for intelligently meeting the problem.

The salesman will next develop a brief, pointed talk designed to meet the prospect's viewpoint and, insofar as it is an obstacle to the sale, to remove or change it. It is not necessary that the salesman write out each talk, but he must think it out most carefully. This detailed analysis of the prospect's problems as indicated by his objections will enable him to fix clearly in mind his planned methods for meeting them.

Developing the plan to meet the problem

Let us illustrate this method of analysis and development of plan. The salesman represents, we shall say, a real estate concern. He is offering an attractive residence property in a Chicago suburb at $20,000 and his prospect is a department head in a manufacturing company at a salary of $8,000, is forty years of age, married, and has three children of school age. He lives in a seven room apartment in the city and pays $200 per month rental. His principal problems, with reference to the salesman's proposition would be as follows : the health, comfort and safety of his family; rent expenditures; the community life offered by the location; and the matter of accessibility of the home.

Now selecting for analysis the problem of rent expenditure, the reasons why this is a serious problem would be these: large proportion of income spent for rent; steady advance of rent in Chicago apartments; difficulty of saving and investing because of rent expense; and nothing tangible at the end of the year but rent receipts.

A satisfactory sales talk touching this problem would be: "I need not tell you, Mr. Johnson, that when a man rents an apartment in Chicago he must pay out about one-third of his income for rent. The chances are that in the near future it will be even more than that. Five years ago an apartment like yours could have been rented at $150. Two years later it would have cost you $175. It now stands at $200 and rates are steadily advancing.

At the end of this year you will have spent twenty-four hundred dollars with nothing to show for it but a handful of rent receipts. This makes it practically impossible for a family man to save and accumulate any property—the expenses of a reasonable standard of living wipe out his income. What most men need more than anything else, what I daresay you need, is some sort of compulsory system of saving that will enable you to take that rent money and put it into a tangible property which will represent an investment."

This illustrates the salesman's analysis and method of attack on one problem. He will repeat this process with each of them. All four can thus be handled briefly and effectively. The salesman can draw on his knowledge of conditions for supporting facts, and handle each of the questions which arise in the customer's mind in exactly the same way. By a process of plain logic he can reason out whatever objections the prospect is likely to bring up and incorporate them in a sales talk similar to that above.

Advantages of this preparation

In every important sale there is an element of contest. It should be clearly understood at this point that the salesman is not attempting to take undue advantage of the prospect. We may assume safely that the prospect needs the offering, can use it to advantage, or that in some way it will add to his profit, comfort or pleasure. However, as we point out elsewhere, sales resistance is part of the selling process.

It is therefore an advantage to the salesman if he can get the prospect to see his problems clearly and frankly admit his needs. It may be said that in this way he puts his prospect on the defensive. He can accomplish this by bringing urgent needs and pressing problems vividly before him. It cannot be assumed that the prospect has his problems in relation to the salesman's offering clearly in mind. The prospect knows them in a general way, of course, but the salesman presents them in such a way as to bring them to the foreground of the prospect's consciousness as pressing problems —demanding immediate solution.