The difference between client wants and needs
When I started Salmon Labs, I fished (hey) around for advice as best as I could. And one of the best bits probably came from Simon White:
“When you find the people, ask them what’s getting in their way - that usually suggests needs - rather than what they’re trying to achieve - which is more often the wants.”
Yes. Yes. Yes. I absolutely love this. It’s such a lovely reframe that I want to explore more in client conversations, and I encourage you to do the same. It pairs well with some other mental scripts for having these conversations, perhaps at least in my feed most popularised by folks like Justin Welsh:
What's coming ahead?
What's standing in the way?
How does this impact you right now?
How can I help?
This stuff ain't a secret, but it is a muscle that you and I need to exercise to keep it strong. And it takes a bit of practice to embed this as part of a smooth conversation, instead of it feeling like a stiff interrogation. But it’s the sort of stuff that, as we do more of it, becomes almost… obvious. Almost as if not doing it would be the crazy thing to do in conversation, really.
I don’t mean with this that every conversation you will have from now on will introduce a biz dev bro level 9000 energy you never thought you had. What I am saying is that, in a strange way, you end up having a sharper sales instinct around where people are experiencing problems, and a more self-assured ability to simply ask if that’s something you could help with. And the ability to tolerate it when people say “no” or “not right now”.
It always feels personal to be on the receiving end of a response like this. But if you think about every time you said to someone “sounds interesting but time’s not right yet”, you realise it rarely is. If I had to put a figure to it, I would say 95% of the time deals don’t close because the circumstances aren’t right (time and money), even if the chemistry and people are right.
Which then begs the question, how do you keep that conversation alive so that, provided chemistry and people are right, once a circumstance arises, you’re top of the list and ready to help? It’s almost as if mental and physical availability works for people too. What an insane concept that would be.
