It’s called NEADS and now isn’t that an interesting way of spelling ‘needs’. Today i’m going to share with you one of the most basic necessities for a successful sale, this one I learned from the Jedi master himself Tommy Hopkins.

N – What do you have Now? Nearly everyone you speak to will have an existing product or service and it’s important to establish what this is. If they don’t that’s still great but what’s important here is that if you know your competition (and you do because you take the time to research them) you can set a baseline.

E – What do you Enjoy about the product or service? It’s such a simple question but a lot of average salespeople miss this step. Once you know what your customer enjoys about their existing product or service then you can include these benefits into your offering and get ready to build on what they already have.

A – What would you Adjust – If they could adjust something about their product or service what would it be? Sometimes people won’t have an answer here so what you can do is make suggestions based on advantages or other benefits that your offering has, for example; A car salesperson looking to sell a new convertible to a potential buyer could ask

“I know that you enjoy the convertible roof on your car but I also know that it isn’t fast enough for you to open or close it at a set of traffic lights. Wouldn’t you agree that this would be a great improvement to your existing car?

D – Is the person you’re speaking to the Decision maker? There is no point in pitching to the person who is only there to collect information. Once great sentence you can use when you are speaking with the decision maker to confirm that no one else will need to get involved is;

“If we are fortunate to satisfy your needs today who other than yourself will be involved in the final decision?”

S – Provide a Solution. By this stage you should have all the information that you ‘neaed’ to create a solution for your soon to be customer. I have two final tips for you to remember when presenting to people.

1. People don’t invest in your product they invest in the benefits they receive from it.

2. Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you’ve told them!

If you work with this structure I would love to hear how it has performed for you, and if you know of any way to improve on it please share. Happy Selling everyone.