Sales Force Marketing - Salesforce.com CRM:
The CRM Process – Importance of Needs

As more and more business owners and managers are learning that customer relationship management (CRM) is more of a process than a transaction, they are wondering where to begin. If you’ve studied marketing at all, you’ll know that crm consulting experts always recommend focusing on a company’s needs. This article will focus on one step of the crm process: understanding your customer’s wants or needs.

Normally people in the personal finance industry distinguish between wants and needs. A want is something that you simply want, but don’t actually need. However in the marketing world a need encompasses both wants and needs. For example people don’t need to drink beer, in fact they would probably be better off without it, but they drink it anyways and in large quantities. In marketing, we call any human desire a need, whether it is a good one or a bad one.

Do you know your customer’s needs?
A good way to find out whether you understand your customer’s needs is by asking yourself what you offer them. If you find yourself saying, “I offer them blue widgets” then you’ll know that you are on the wrong track. However if you find yourself saying “I offer them a device that fills their need to communicate, to have clear skin, to feel better, to have fun, etc. Currently that device is blue widgets, but I’d change it in a heartbeat to fill their needs”. If this is what you are saying then you are on the right track. It is not about providing products, it is about fulfilling basic human needs.

How do you find out your customer’s human needs? This is the age old question in marketing and it hasn’t changed. If you can find out people’s needs on a deep level then you can make some serious money. It’s the great thing about people, if you honestly help them with something that they feel in their heart that they need (whether they need it or not) they will be yours.

Not only does fulfilling needs lead to money, but more importantly it leads to personal satisfaction. There is something very exhilarating about seeing a person who needs something and being in a position to help them. The best in the business realize this and they become rich not because they want money but because they want to help.

In order to understand someone’s basic personal needs you need to be a compassionate person. Spend time with your customer’s and really listen to their problems, hopes, and dreams. Of course you can’t do this all day every day, but try to schedule a time to do it on a regular basis. If you personally can’t do it, find a team in your organization that can.

Other methods for finding out customer’s needs include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and social media methods. Note that all of these methods are flawed in some way, but they are still valuable tools to beginning the crm process.

Building relationships involves understanding customer’s needs. Understanding needs requires compassion or the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and really feel what they are feeling. If you can understand someone’s needs and help them, not only will you gain money, but more importantly you’ll gain the satisfaction of helping someone else.

Source: Alex G. link

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