Using NVC in Sales

Note: This exercise is intended for individual or team sales agents as a way to practice and reinforce learning. Incorporate this practice into your day and, if possible, into your ongoing sales work. This practice shouldn’t take you more than 10-15 minutes a day. Good luck and have fun!

Introduction: NVC stipulates that everything we humans do or say is actually, at the core, in service of one or more of our human needs. This includes needs such as community, purpose, understanding, growth, etc. (for a full list check out this NVC needs inventory)

Exercise: “Needs Matter’

Step 1: Select one of your deals, one where you have already had one or several interactions with your customer. Pull up your notes from your previous call(s) with this person.

Step 2: Looking back on your notes, bring back to mind any moments of hesitation or blocks that came up for your prospect in previous discussions.

Step 3: Exercise your smarts and your intuition combined. Make some intelligent guesses as to what human needs might be hiding behind any reservations or hesitations that came up in the past. For example, when you suggested that you schedule a demo call together, your prospect balked at the idea and said that the marketing rep is needed and is too busy to schedule anything during the next month. This may or may not be true, but it also may be a polite brush-off. Ask yourself what might be the real need blocking their desire for a demo call? Perhaps you stepped into an internal conflict between your contact and said marketing rep? Perhaps she is concerned about the efficacy of your product team to deliver? There may be a whole host of possible needs that are not yet met for this person. You can't know until you ask.

Step 4: Make 2 or 3 intelligent guesses around these unmet needs and write them down. Bring these to your next conversation and ask, with the sincere intent of understanding the other person, if your guesses are correct or not. E.g.: "I thought about our last conversation and it felt to me like..." It’s 100% OK if your guesses are wrong - the most important thing is that you show a sincere desire to understand the other person’s needs.

Goal for the week:
Tuesday: practice “Needs matter” with at least 1 prospects today
Wednesday: practice “Needs matter” with at least 2 prospects today
Thursday: practice “Needs matter” with at least 3 prospects today

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✅Looking for some practice in building bridges of understanding in a disagreement? Have a look at our video “Psychological Reactance Explained” and its accompanying exercise

✅Sometimes it feels like we could all benefit from better listening skills. Looking for some extra practice? Have a look at the video “How to Prepare and Debrief” as well as its accompanying exercise