Investigation Is the Most Important Stage of the Sales Funnel—Here's How to Do It Right

By Rhonda Petit

What is the most important stage of the sales process and why? Should it be building rapport with a prospect? Presenting your product? Discovering what a prospect wants? Closing the sale? Or trying to find new leads and referrals?

Truth be told, investigation is the most important part of making a sale. Why? Because no want, no sale. Rather than wasting your time on a long opening, get down to business and focus on the investigation. This means you’re talking to prospects and getting answers to these questions:

• What is their top priority?
• What are the issues for the priority? What is the problem or level of dissatisfaction?
• What’s the level of urgency? Do they feel like they need to act right now? Or are there more urgent problems than this one?

Once you truly understand who your customer is and what their motivations are, you aren’t working to “make a sale,” but rather to provide a solution to their problem.

Key steps to making a sale

No sales are made until you connect with prospects who have a need that you can serve or a problem you can solve. So once you understand why your product is the best solution to their problem, how do you align your presentation? Follow these steps:

Prioritize understanding the client’s desire and motivation

First things first, what problem does your product or service solve? Second, and just as important, understand what motivates the client. Just like a detective tries to figure out a motive at a crime scene, you should engage in a similar process. Motives allow you to identify your client’s emotions to take action.

The pros know to ask themselves the deeper introspective questions: What do my services and product provide the client, and what is that really worth? Does it serve a need or solve a problem and align with the client’s personal or professional motives?

There are 10 basic motives of human behavior.

• Desire for self-preservation/safety
• Desire for material gain
• Emotion of love
• Emotion of sex
• Desire for freedom of body and mind
• Desire for recognition and self-expression
• Desire for life after death/self-actualization
• The emotion of fear
• The emotion of anger
• The emotion of hate/revenge

There are six basic fears:

• Poverty
• Ill health
• Criticism
• Loss of love
• Old age
• Death

Once you understand basic motives and fears, you can use the information to empathize, connect, and offer solutions. Buyers’ motives tell us the WHY behind what people are looking to accomplish, fix, or avoid. No want, no sale. People buy ideas and benefits, not merchandise, and they buy based on their emotions and justify their emotions with logic.

Truly listen to make sure clients know you “get” them

Make sure you’re fully listening to what the client is saying. Be present—it creates trust. Acknowledge and validate the client by repeating what they’re saying, helping them to feel understood. Step back and say, “This is what I hear you saying. Is that right?”

The client will understand that you “get” them. This is tapping into your emotional intelligence and forming a bond, increasing trust. You’re helping them get out of their head and down into their heart. Because you’ve made that connection, the client will be more receptive, allowing you to make suggestions that they internalize.

It’s important that you don’t present too early. Before you offer your solution, wait until you’ve heard the client’s challenges so you know that your product or service is a great fit. If you start talking about your product too soon, the client may think, “This salesperson has no idea what I want. They’re wasting my time. They don’t know anything about what I have going on. I don’t need what they’re selling.”

The client may then shut down. Once the reticular activating system in their brain closes, you won't be able to sell them anything.

Acknowledge when your product or service is not a good fit

If you are not able to help someone, you still will want to leave them with an impression of increase. Try to suggest someone they can call who can help them, and offer other advice or ideas.

This is a much better plan than making assumptions that ultimately will not provide value to the client. Don’t try to align your solution to a person’s problem if there’s no alignment. You won't be making a sale because they don't need your solution. However, if you truly focus on the needs of the person, they will appreciate the genuine attempt and the recommendations. You are adding value to the client’s life and putting goodwill into the universe—and the universe always repays its debts.

Win the prospect’s trust

Trust has to be present to make a sale. If you get a no from the client, it’s always one of three reasons: 1. They don’t need your product—it’s not a fit; 2. They don’t trust you; 3. They don’t trust themselves.

This is why your conviction is key to your success, especially when the customer has a trust issue. Conviction is congruence of belief in your head and in your heart. You hold the bridge of belief for that person when they don’t hold it for themselves, and when they feel that strength and you’re there with them, they’ll walk across the bridge and trust you to follow.

Your clients will never get to the other side of the bridge if you don’t help them see what their brand-new day looks like—a day with their problem solved. You want to lead them from their heart, not their head. Feed their desires, align with their motives, and be determined to serve them with your belief. Help them cross the bridge.

FAQs in sales

About the Author

Post by: Rhonda Petit

Rhonda Petit is a sales and business peak performance coach and the founder and CEO of 3x5 Coaching, where she works with both corporations and individuals to grow, unleash, and activate more of their true potential and power. Prior to launching her coaching business, Rhonda worked in sales for 35 years with clients at Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. Her book, The Spirit of Selling: Using Universal Laws for Sales Success, contains actionable insight into the universal laws that govern successful selling. Visit her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Company: 3x5 Coaching
Website: https://www.3x5coaching.com/
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