The only way to give your customers good service is to understand their needs. You can have the best product in the world, but if it doesn’t fulfil the client’s needs, then the product is of no value to them. You should know your customer’s needs well enough to anticipate or sometimes predict what they expect from you.

To understand your customer’s needs, you have to make a concerted effort to gather as much information about the customer as possible. A very important question most salespeople neglect to enquire about is why the customer is interested in your product. Salespeople spend

Question: What do you want?

Answer: I want a fuel-efficient car which is reliable.

Information it gives the salesperson: Type of car.

Question: Why do you want the car?

Answer: My daughter is going to college and we want to buy her a car.

Information it gives the salesperson: Type of car as well as the type of person who will drive the car.Now that you know who the driver of the car is, you can recommend a fuel-efficient car that is reliable and a car that will be suitable for a student. So, dad gets a fuel-efficient car and daughter gets a funky student car. Customer’s needs can be grouped into 4 categories, and these categories can help you understand their needs better and influence them to buy your product. Figure 3.1 illustrates the FRAP module that you can use to help you better understand your customer’s needs, but it is still crucial to have in-depth knowledge about the product.