Focus on the value of goals, not on the pain of needs.
Needs are product focused, goals are customer focused.
Goals provide opportunities to create sales where no evident pain exists.
Knowing customers' goals when they do not will position you as being a customer expert.
You make the progression from needs to goals by knowing:
How market segments choose customers and goals
How customers calculate the value of achieving their goals
How customers make goals measurable
How customers achieve those goals via your unique strengths
Market segments are groups of customers who share the same organizational characteristics and goals. Know your competitors' strongest market segments so that you can avoid them whenever possible.
Organizational characteristics and the position of the person involved with the purchasing decision determine a customer's goal.
Customers' professional goals reflect their personal goals.
Systems of evaluation (SOEs) are the methods customers use to assign value to goals.
If you establish SOEs that accurately assign value to the customers' goals and match them up to your unique strengths, you dominate those market segments.
You use SOEs to convert perceived value into measurable value.
You make goals measurable by making the customer's benefits measurable.
Measurable goals empower you to fulfill customers' expectations by building your products from their goals down, not from your features up.
You want to motivate customers to prioritize goals that are realistic for their circumstances, have a self-imposed sense of urgency to achieve, and are advantageous to your unique strengths.
Market Profile sheets highlight which customers share goals that place the most value on your unique strengths—and on those of competitors.