You’re struggling to understand your customers’ needs. How can you make sure you’re on the right track?

To ensure you're understanding your customers' needs effectively, actively listen to their feedback, engage in open-ended questioning, and utilize tools like surveys and data analysis. Regularly review and analyze customer feedback, seeking validation for proposed solutions. By adopting a proactive and iterative approach, you'll be on the right track to delivering value and building strong customer relationships.

Few things I have learnt over a period of time and found useful: 1. Give yourself the grace that you might not be knowing everything OR understanding everything. So just be curious because that shows intent and everybody including customers expect a patient and intent listener 2. Just ask “tell me more” or “can you elaborate a little more on this topic/ point you just mentioned” The above points work great when the customer is open to speak. If in case they are rigid: 1. Feed them certain pain points which other organisations in same /similar industry have been facing and ask if they are able to resonate with it. The answer could be yes or no. If yes, you have been able to unearth one and just ask “tell me more” :)

—Listen carefully— Sounds very obvious I know but this fundamental is missed by a lot. To be better at this, I personally follow the principle of SEARCH. S - Be Silent E - Echo what the customer just said A - Articulate the key response in your mind R - Respond CH - Check how they take it Doesn’t just end here because one can only get better at this if he/she keeps practising it. So make it a habit.

When asking questions ensure that you are aligning them with research done on how your customers products or services are being perceived in the market. This will ensure that you have their attention.

Minha principal pergunta aberta é aquela que já abre toda a conversa sobre como descobrir o que exatamente aquele cliente pode me falar sobre os problemas que ele enfrenta. "Qual é a única coisa que você gostaria de mudar ou melhorar em seu dia a dia na empresa?" Obviamente que aqui podem vir respostas das mais diversas e criativas e você pode adicionar depois do "gostaria" algo do tipo ... em seu processo de compra ... em seu processo de análise de projetos Assim você consegue entender o que realmente está "doendo" para aquele potencial cliente.

It starts with being curious. Having a solid understanding of the customer's business, prevailing trends in their industry and their competitive position relative to their peer group will make a big difference in asking the right questions

In my experience the most effective approach to understanding individual customer needs is through; 1.Active listening by paying attention to what customer is saying verbal and non verbal. 2.Building rapport by introducing myself and asking open ended questions to show interest. 3. Showing empathy by acknowledging customer emotions and perspective. 4.Recap what the customer has said to ensure i have correctly understood.

This is the key to success in understanding your customer needs. A sales rep needs to be curious to be able to dig deeper and understand what the customer needs. Something that has worked for me and my teams is making a matrix that includes: a) Departments that face the challenges we solve b) Roles in the departments being impacted by the current pain points. c) Main KPIs or goals from those departments/roles. d) Priorities from those departments/roles Then you can make a list of questions to uncover what you need to understand.

Engaging in a conversation with open-ended questions is inviting the listener into a conversation, rather then asking yes/no questions be curious, put the effort to understand better, show interest, build trust, summarise and repeat

More Communication Sending written confirmation of what you understood. Before implementing fully share a draft report to understand whether you are on right track or not

Never be satisfied with superficial level descriptions of the prospect's needs. Ensure that you follow a conversational framework to do discovery and have your questions be properly situated depending on the answers prospects provide. This helps your prospect understand that you are listening. Remember that more than metrics, people's lively hoods depend on reaching specific goals. So don't take any voiced frustration or expectations for granted. Acknowledge where they are coming from and don't dismiss their answers and comments as trivial, instead dig deeper and genuinely try to help them.

The stoics valued intentional listening as an essential skill. They recognized that most people are terrible listeners. Even when they ask questions, they often lack the patience or awareness to truly understand the response. Instead, they interrupt, interpret, give advice, or share personal experiences. Good listeners are rare, which is why we often pay therapists to listen to us. When we have the opportunity to speak, we can organize our thoughts and better understand our own problems.

The most common reason I see for a lack of understanding of the customers' needs is that people don't listen; they just do so at a surface level. What I mean by this is they can't be bothered to use deep questions to truly understand the need, or at least they're not doing it. What I mean by this is people, for whatever reason—fear or lack of motivation—are not asking the deep questions and enough questions to understand the prospect's needs. Because questions come from listening intently, you become curious about what the other person says, so you want to learn more.

Spending time with your Technology Sponsor and their Business Champion discussing the Business Problem or project. Ask open minded Open Questions, take notes, mind map the process so to make sure you get to the relevant pain. Validate that pain. Great customers will always work openly with you to help define the problem and agree the Compelling Mechanism / Event. Use MEDDPICC processes as this can really help cover all aspects of the project. Having a joint close plan with your champion will help reduce errors. All of these points will help better understand your customer.

Reviewing past Interactions can be an effective way to understand the customer's needs. Take a look at the customer's purchase history, interactions with your company, and any feedback they've provided in the past. This can provide valuable context for understanding their needs and preferences.

Establish open channels for feedback on your website, in your app, or through customer service to encourage ongoing communication. Use social media platforms to listen to what customers are saying about your brand and industry.

Si hay algo que aplico en mis procesos es siempre una escucha activa. Además, hago que se note. Asiento, interactúo y cuando terminan de exponer resumo lo que han dicho para que ellos también se sientan escuchados, algo que le gusta a todo ser humano :) Es algo que parece simple, pero que requiere entrenamiento y una cierta dosis de real preocupación por resolver las necesidades del potencial cliente. Una locura? :)

Acredito que a empatia neste contexto é bidirecional: primeiro, é importante ouvir atentamente o cliente e, segundo, é essencial reconhecer que você também está ali para aprender e não possui todas as respostas para o problema que ele está expondo. Muitas vezes, nos precipitamos, imaginando que sabemos o que oferecer, e acabamos não prestando atenção aos detalhes e nuances que podem existir.

Listening to the customer or Voice of Customer (VoC) is the most important and effective way to understand their requirements and total needs with all the nuances and information given to your Solution Team to enable a total “vision match” of the solution to the customer’s expectations.

Tools like Google Analytics can provide insights into customer behavior on your website, helping you understand what interests them or where they face issues. Analyze the customer journey to identify touchpoints where customers engage with your brand and where they might experience friction.

BANT can be helpful if the lead is completely cold. You might not be able to gain the answers to every question for BANT, so you have to choose what is more important for you to know.

Este conceito não tem mais utilidade no dia a dia, pois muitas das coisas que preconizam este framework podem fazer você perder ótimas oportunidades de negócios. Na verdade, hoje são muito mais amplas as maneiras de avaliar não só as necessidades dos clientes, mas também as possibilidades de que eles possam ou não ser compradores em potencial de suas soluções. Na minha opinião, metodologias como "Engenharia de Valor" são muito mais eficientes.

The framework will depend on your sales process, type of customer, CRM, and organization. Everyone recommends multiple frameworks but all of them won´t work for you, you need to make a proper assessment to understand exactly what you need to measure, identify and qualify.

BANT is a solid framework for part of the discovery process and forecasting. I start with NEED. First, I uncover the problem, what their ideal solution is and what their business drivers are (What will happen if they don't fix it? How much is it costing them now? Is finding a solution a priority?). Then, I determine their requirements, buying criteria, what other solutions they are considering, who will be involved in the decision-making process and who has buying AUTHORITY. Next, I ask if they've allocated a BUDGET and time to resolve the problem and how high of a priority it is. I ask when they want to have a solution in place and how much time they've allocated for the proof of concept phase and forecast acording to their TIMELINE.

The BANT framework, developed by IBM in the 1960s, remains useful for quickly qualifying business opportunities today. It considers Budget, Authority, Need, and Timing. However, SPICED, a newer model, better suits modern SaaS sales as it delves into Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical events, Decision criteria/process, and Engagement. In my team, we use BANT for pre-qualification in the Discovery Call. From the Demo Prep Call onwards, we apply SPICED not only for a more precise needs analysis but also to increase our Customer LTV by realizing recurring impact for the customer over the entire customer relationship.

Needs analyses are essential in the sales process to determine the fit between customer needs and solution offerings. Poor needs analysis leads to a higher deal loss rate and reduces sales productivity and efficiency. Operating without a needs analysis is like flying blind. Prospects who are unwilling to provide detailed information often are not seriously interested or lack experience in evaluating solutions. Understanding this helps streamline the sales process and ensures that the solutions offered truly meet the actual needs of the customers.

Your first need to define what constitutes a great deal / great customer. Once you have done that, define what qualification criteria you need to assess for during the sales process and most importantly, what pain you need to find for them to make a great customer. Once you have done this, establish something like a scorecard or qualification framework that reps follow during their sales process. Test them on it during weekly review in the deals further down the pipeline.

(For software) I request a high-level overview of what they’re trying to accomplish before I set up a Discovery call. I prepare a list of qualifying questions that are specific to their use case, their industry and role. In addition to gathering their requirements and buying criteria, it’s important to know what other solutions they are considering and what they are basing their decision on before the demo. I also ask if they have a master list of their criteria and if they can share it. If they don’t, I create one and include it with the agenda that I send before the demo to show how we compare against the other solutins they’re considering. Alternatively, I’ll share a customer success story that is relevant to their use case.

La clave de este punto no es sólo analizar o escuchar las que tiene tu prospecto, sino sumar con tu experiencia y conocimiento y, después de recabar información, y de manera pro activa, intentar trabajar conjuntamente para explorar escenarios que tal vez no habían tenido en cuenta ( cuatro ojos ven más que dos !! ) Cosas que vienen de la escucha activa... y de preocuparse realmente por sus problemas

Super critical to creating an open feedback loop between you and your customer or potential customer is to check and re-check what you believe to be true. You've already listened to their needs in your initial analysis and developed a good summary of their situation, focus areas/key goals, and challenges. At every checkpoint with a customer, spend a few minutes to re-align on these elements, as they shape the foundation of your relationship. Create the space to be told there has been no change in their priorities or to be informed some of their focus has shifted, in which case you can update what you know to be true. Especially relevant during an evaluation in a sales process; always ask, "What's changed since we spoke last?"

One of the best approach to understand customer needs. In my experience I had seen software solutions restructured based on feedback’s are most successful.

If you sell across diverse industries, it can be challenging to keep up. Aerospace & Defense can be extremely challenging. I dedicate time on my calendar every week for market research. I keep a folder of industry articles that I set aside for ”self-study” time. Attending conferences, networking groups and webinars is another great way to stay in the know. I create “cheat sheets” for each industry I sell to with relevant links and information about standards, compliance, technologies, etc. I like using ap slike Google Docs, Confluence and OneNote to organize my resources. I also create cheat sheets for each product I sell, including value proposistions, templates, features, roadmap information, etc.

In my experience, we had built few software solution and find difficult to sell. Over a period we understood that same businesses follow different practices when it comes to execution, this critical scenario reduces our revenue as we were not in a position to satisfy every customer. Onboarding cost for every customer increases. Later we dedicate our time to understand customer needs and market trends frequently that helps us to built a single solution which can be implemented for businesses that follows different strategies. Moving forward we realise that “Keep learning and Improving” is the key for success.

Understanding and adapting to customer needs is continuous, driven by changing market trends and competition. Continuous learning through industry resources and structured needs analyses across sales cycles is critical. By gathering insights on customer needs, market trends, and technological advancements, and sharing them across teams, we ensure our strategies stay agile and responsive, maintaining our competitive edge.

Some customers also struggle to explain their need or worse know their needs. Using other customer use cases can be a strong tool to explain and look for a match

If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out what makes your customers tick, it’s time to roll up your sleeves. Start by talking to them directly. Conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups to get inside their heads. Pay attention to their feedback, both positive and negative. Analyze data from your website, social media, and sales to spot patterns and trends. Don’t be afraid to admit when you’re off track and adjust your approach accordingly. Remember, understanding your customers is an ongoing journey, so stay curious, keep listening, and be ready to adapt.

Put it in straight, people buy people not the product or service. Be authentic in your approach. Sale doesn’t happen in a day if customer couldn’t identify their pain point or challenges in business. Be a consultant, help your prospect to identify the pain point which literally stops their growth. Offer them authentic solution. Rest assured.

Put yourself in the customer's shoes to understand their perspective.Involve support teams to gain diverse insights. Adjust strategies based on evolving customer needs and feedback.

Simply ask the customer if you are on the right track. For example, "I understood the scope objective in the DR test is to restore access to storage systems with an 6 hours RTO, am I right?" If you are faced with a complex case/client/industry, check that all the conclusions you have reached are correct and do not assume anything.