Dangers of Customer Self-Diagnosis

By Rich Blakeman

I’ve had the same family doctor for more than 20 years - the kind of doctor you can actually have a conversation with as both a friend and as a professional.

“For the sales professional, there is the risk of being commoditized and having the value of knowledge and experience reduced to nothing.”

During a recent visit I asked about his business. I expected to hear about malpractice insurance, health care policy, or the changing financial landscape. What I got was something entirely different.

"The web is driving me crazy," he began. "Patients are self-diagnosing, going to this and that website to explore their symptoms. They come to me thinking they know exactly what's wrong with them and precisely how to treat it."

With easier access to information, much the same can be said for buyers in today's marketplace. This trend has manifested among both prospective clients and current accounts. In fact, customers who have worked with your organization for some time are often more susceptible to self-diagnosing. They may feel they thoroughly understand your business and can effectively prescribe a solution from your offerings.

Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

This trend of clients self-diagnosing is prevailing. Customers continually report that they:

• Know exactly what they need.
• Have corralled what they firmly believe their options are.
• Decided what they want to buy from you, including the terms and price.

Instant availability of information creates opportunity and risk: the opportunity to know more, faster, and the risk of misinterpreting needs so much that the wrong solution is proffered.  For the sales professional, an even larger risk lurks: the risk of being commoditized and having the value of knowledge and experience reduced to nothing.

Typically, three common symptoms of this are observed.

Symptom 1: They Think They Know

The most common early symptoms of this challenge can be identified quickly.  Inquiries typically come from lower level buying influences who may describe themselves as being at the final stage in their buying process.. 

In a slightly more advanced circumstance, the initial contact may be akin to a "beauty contest" - a one-time opportunity to propose and present along with a small number of other competitors - with no apparent opportunity to do any due diligence.

The immediate reaction we see among sales professionals is unfortunately the least effective: defensiveness. Rather than launching into a sword fight with the customer, sales professionals must instead demonstrate the kind of customer-focused skills that will differentiate them from competitors. The first action should be a check of the organization's and the individual salesperson's credibility.  

Is there credibility with the customer's organization and individuals? What can be done to enhance it? Weak credibility limits the ability to alter the perception a customer might have of a needed prescription.

There are times when this symptom comes at the end of a mind-numbing investigation of solutions - whether they are certain of what problem they are trying to solve or not.  Their self-diagnosis causes them to freeze and the easiest path to a smooth thaw may well be a set of precise questions, helping the customer clarify their needs and business conditions.  Instead of a devout focus on existing solutions, customers need help navigating down a path that will uncover their desired business results.

Symptom 2:  Shopping the Incumbent

In some cases the self-diagnosis is driven by a more specific motive that may significantly decrease your odds of winning from the beginning.

Your customer may be using you to leverage the incumbent provider.  The flavor of the inquiry is the same but the purpose is not. Likewise, the approach toward these customers should be tailored.

The key here is to understand a customer's motive and assess the likelihood of winning almost immediately. How much resource can your organization afford to apply? Is there a unique way to leverage the opportunity?

Symptom 3:  Drawing a Line in the Sand

The most dramatic sort of customer self-diagnosis comes when the customer draws an absolute line in the sand and is unwilling to respond to any attempts to change.  The organization has fixed on what they want to buy (converting the sale into a transaction), and are not only looking for you to quote and fulfill, but to do so on their exact terms.

Traditional wisdom would say an organization has only two choices in this circumstance:

• Sell the wrong solution, or at best case, a non-optimal solution, hoping for the best while taking profit.
• Walk away from the opportunity, letting a competitor take the transactional business and (hopefully) fail. Your organization may be positioned to pick up the pieces.

Bethany Schultz, Miller Heiman's vice president of client engagement, regularly uses the concept of "if / then."  It's not that you can't do the deal, Schultz says. It's not about lying on the tracks in front of the train.

"Your responsibility is to be very clear with the customer about the implications of the path on the other side of the line in the sand," she says. "If we deliver what you're asking for the way you want it, then here are the things that are necessary to make it successful."

It's possible to keep professional demeanor and uphold responsibility to the customer,, drawing your own line in the sand as to how to meet the customer on their terms while assuring the greatest possible odds of success. 

The Final Prognosis

In his 2009 book "Planet Google," Randall Stross describes an environment that strives toward "the ultimate goal...to provide Google's software with enough personal detail about each of its visitors that it could provide customized answers to the question,'What shall I do tomorrow?'"

The pace at which digital information exponentially grows will quicken and the sales profession will need to learn to adapt appropriately. Along with this acceleration goes the need for the sales profession to lead, not merely respond to, the trend.  While sales organizations can enjoy an advantage in the researching of their prospects and customers, they must expect that their prospects and customers will also have done their homework.

Richard Blakeman