Resolving Basic Issues Takes Some Basic Questioning

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by Stephen E. Heiman, Diane Sanchez with Tad Tuleja

In a recent article, we wrote about sales call that end up going nowhere, calls where you don't get completely shut down, but where you don't get any sort of commitment either. In effect, these are calls that are stalled. Unless you can give them a "jump," they'll never progress.

When a customer fails to give you anything to move forward on, it's almost always because he sees a personal Lose by accepting your solution, or at the very least, he does not see a Win. Whenever a customer feels he is "losing," there's a Basic Issue involved.

At first glance, Basic Issues seem similar to objections, but there are some clear—and crucial—distinctions.

Overcoming an objection is very different from dealing with a Basic Issue. It's no less than the difference between cause and effect, and sellers who consistently achieve Win–Win outcomes are never content to simply deal with effects. They know that dealing with causes is fundamental not only to getting commitment from the customer, but also to any long–term business relationship.

In the accompanying list, we've listed some possible Basic Issues you might encounter in your selling situations.

Possible Basic Issues

Loss of power

Loss of control

Less leisure time

Lack of skill development

Decrease of personal productivity

Not seen as problem solver

Lack of recognition

Stuck in a rut

Loss of security

Being seen as malcontent

Not invented here

Seen as sub–par performer

Loss of credibility

Lose of freedom of choice

Seen as me–too

Decreased responsibility

Loss of self–esteem

Less time with family

These are, of course, only examples, since the sources of Basic Issues are really unlimited. But they should be enough to give you the idea of what we mean. The list indicates how personal Basic Issues can be. That's the fundamental point to remember about them, and it's why they're often so difficult to resolve. Two related points deserve some emphasis:

First, you should never judge a Basic Issue. A Basic Issue is what someone is feeling, deep down, about what working with you will mean to him. There are ways to analyze and discuss and work with those feelings, but the one thing you should not do, ever, is to deny their validity. One of the surest ways we know to kill a sale on the spot is to suggest to someone with a Basic Issue, "You shouldn't be feeling that way."

Second, never assume that you know what the particular Basic Issue is. Since the "I'm losing" perception and non–commitment are always linked, it's safe to assume when you cannot get commitment that there's some Basic Issue involved. But it's hazardous to assume that you know exactly what it is. Dealing with Mr. Franklin's fear that he's going to lose power, when in fact he's not worried about power at all but about a family situation, will do nothing for either of you but waste your time. As this example suggests, it's easy for a salesperson to confuse one possible Basic Issue for another. That's why we stress the principle of "No assumptions" and why we say that identifying Basic Issues is critical to getting commitment.

Basic Issue Signals
Before you can identify a specific Basic Issue, however, you need to be able to recognize that a Basic Issue exits—in other words, to recognize when your customer feels he or she is losing. You do that by attending to the Basic Issue Signals:

Hesitation

Questioning attitude

Repeated objections

Argument Passive resistance

The signals identified are fairly self–explanatory, and we're sure you can understand why we say a hesitant or argumentative customer is likely to be concealing a Basic Issue. One thing about this list that's not self–evident is that the severity of the signals increases as you go down the list and the probability of a good sale decreases. If you're dealing with a merely hesitant client, you generally still have time to identify and resolve his Basic Issues before the situation deteriorates. By the time you are encountering arguments or passive resistance, it's unlikely you can save the sale.

In many sales situations, moreover, the severity of the customer's Basic Issue Signals will follow a kind of natural downward trajectory over time, going from bad to worse, unless you consciously intervene. In the early stages, you have a certain level of control over where the dialogue is going, but this level inevitably decreases the longer you ignore the Basic Issue. Since every sales call is unique, there is no absolute "signal level" at which you lose control of the sale. Generally, though, once responses have gotten beyond the "repeated objections" stage, it's very hard to turn things around. If you don't intervene by this point, the situation is almost certain to deteriorate further.

When we say, "intervene," we mean something very specific. We mean you need to ask a particular type of question to search out the hidden reason this individual feels he or she is going to lose. We call this type of question a Basic Issue Question.

Basic Issue Questions are designed to reveal the customer's sense of uncertainty or concern that has led to the reluctance in the first place. This is reflected in the key words you should use in phrasing these questions, words such as: uncertain, questioning, puzzled, concern, doubtful, issue, uncomfortable, hesitant, lose, unclear. Since you are trying to elicit information about a potentially gray area in the buy/sell encounter, it's appropriate to ask questions using these key words.

It's hard to give specific phrasing guidelines here because each buyer/seller relationship is different. For instance, one seller might ask the following kind of Basic Issue Question: "Tim, there's something here that's bugging you, and I can't figure out what. I know you're not happy. What's wrong?" But that approach might be too informal in another situation. You have to create your own style of questioning, depending on your individual relationships.