Every salesperson, from rookie to veteran, agrees that our job is to satisfy the customer’s needs. All too often we assume that the prospective customer has issues that need to be addressed and, when we drop by, we hear their needs and simply offer solutions to resolve the problems. Much of this is due to sales people not realizing that there are two general categories of needs; uncovered and discovered.
The uncovered needs are the ones that the prospect already owns and aware of. They are uncovered usually during a first call. For example, during the interviewing process the prospect tells the sales person that they have been receiving numerous complaints from tenants due to poor comfort issues. This is music to our ears. Another common example of the uncovered need is when the prospect tells the sales person that, when they have a problem, it takes far too long for the service contractor to respond. One of my favorite memories is when a prospect told me that his tenants were constantly complaining of foul smells in the building. I found that the outside air intake was in the side of the building and within a couple of feet of the dumpsters. We do hear these existing needs from prospects, however, not nearly often enough.
I find many prospects have no clue as to why their energy bills per square feet are much higher than other similar buildings in the area.
Far more common are the problems and needs that prospects have, but are not aware of. This is the discovered need. I find many prospects have no clue as to why their energy bills per square feet are much higher than other similar buildings in the area. Building owners and managers rarely compare their energy bills with their neighbors. Another example of discovered needs would be malfunctioning damper linkage. I have seen many times that a damper arm is loose or completely dislodged. When this applies to the outside air dampers, it typically isn’t known until discovered during a salesperson’s initial inspection. This situation doesn’t manifest since the system will simply run longer and harder to compensate. This means that the building seems to be comfortable but wasting an enormous amount energy. The same applies to dirty filters and coils. The only two ways this is discovered is through rising energy bills (usually gradual and not noticed) or when a sales person is performing the initial inspection.
Another way of discovering problems in the building is to visit with tenants prior to making the first call with the decision maker. Often times the tenants will be more open with comfort problems than the decision maker.
All of this information leads to a strong argument for digging deeper. It is very typical for a prospect, during a first call, telling the salesperson that they have no problems. This is the very reason why we need to hang in there and push to get agreement for a building/equipment survey. Many times I have discovered a major problem that would never be detected any other way than by a visual inspection. It is pretty common to find dirty filters and coils, however, “dirty” doesn’t seem to be a huge problem to building owners and managers. Easy fix, just clean them. The prospect needs to be made aware that, if the most obvious of problems like dirty filters and coils exist, what else on the more complex issues are being ignored.
Another way of discovering problems in the building is to visit with tenants prior to making the first call with the decision maker. Often times the tenants will be more open with comfort problems than the decision maker. This is valuable information to take along with the first call on the final decision maker.
Push hard to get to the roof or the equipment room. This can be the game-changing portion of the selling cycle. Some problems that seem to be small, can lead to much larger and costly problems. A $100 relay that is failing and causing short cycling of a unit will eventually take out a compressor. When a prospect tells you they have no problems, don’t necessarily believe it. They just don’t know.
