Here's how you can adjust your sales strategies to cater to evolving customer needs.

Clients change, and so should your sales game! Listen closely! What are their current challenges? Maybe their needs have shifted. Once you understand that, you can tailor your approach to show how your product or service solves their specific problems. Think of it as a conversation, not a sales pitch. Clients appreciate feeling heard!

Every salesperson asks questions. However, every salesperson does not understand the difference or the impact of an open ended vs a directive question. I use open ended questions in the beginning to help my prospect feel comfortable simply sharing their thoughts with me. How did you get started in this business? Are you seeing new competitors pop up regularly? Its easy to transition to a directive question from here. When you think about the most painful termination in recent memory, what do you think would have help that person choose to stay at the organization? When you ask a directive question, it is important to have a follow up for more understanding. looking back, do you feel you could identify when that person started to disengage?

Industry knowledge is imperative when your goal is to create a "wow" factor for the buyer. Analytics are not a new concept, the way they are packaged and delivered to clients is what has changed. You no longer need to be a data scientist to gain useful insight from analytics. This increased ease of use has brought the value downstream within a companies org chart. These conversations used to be firmly aimed at the c-suite, not any and all departments can and should be using analytics within their process. A construction company, a school, or a non-profit etc. all track different KPIs. Find out the most relevant KPI to the industry of your prospect and build your case around those specifics.

If I am in a position to ask someone for their business, it means I can do the following at a minimum. - Articulate to the prospect what their issues are, what their end goal is and how my solution would play a role in getting them to the desired end state. - Clearly state what the day-to-day responsibilities of those involved in the evaluation are. - Already introduced a client of mine in their same industry, building confidence that we can help them with their industry specific needs. I think its also important to tell my prospects that the most important thing to me isn't making the sale, it is making sure they have a good experience evaluating with me. My goal is to be a competitive option, not position myself as the only option.

Tell your customers what you got. Treat them like humans. Stop trying to sell them. If they have 2 brain cells to rub together- they will know you’re doing it. Problem solving and empathy, simple.