How to Conduct a Needs Assessment for Sales

1. Choose Your Questions

As you create your form, ask for leads' contact information plus 1–3 basic needs assessment questions; too many questions might scare them off. A web form may ask for contact information such as the lead's name, company name, phone number, email address, and job title. It could also ask for the goal they need help reaching, their key objectives, the main problem they want to solve, and the extent of support they want from you — you can offer dropdowns, as shown below:

Example web form needs assessment

Some companies include a slightly higher number (5–6) of needs assessment questions on the form to further qualify leads. These can be questions like “Which software are you currently using for {task}?” This provides more data to assess fit and allows leads to potentially skip over the second stage (the questionnaire) and go straight to a discovery call. Test this out if you’re spending too much time qualifying leads.

2. Add the Form to Your Website

The process to set up a form depends on your website platform (e.g., WordPress). Your service likely offers a template form and directions on how to customize it. Enter the questions to include on the form, and select where it lives on the website — generally, this should be the page with the most traffic. For the concrete steps, read this article on how to put a form on your site.

3. Evaluate the Lead's Answers & Reach Out

After a lead submits a form, marketing assesses their level of qualification using a lead scoring point system. Or, a sales rep evaluates the answers on their own by making sure the specified need is something their business can satisfy, referencing their ideal customer profile (ICP). The rep might also manually research the lead to see how well their attributes, like job title or responsibilities, match their ICP.

1. Decide Which Questions to Ask

Pick questions that relate to your product or service and the pain it solves, and consider using multiple choice, multiple answer, and open-ended formats. To get the most comprehensive view of your lead's needs, ask questions about their pain points, their goals, and the level of support they're looking for (e.g., extensive onboarding or a quick setup). The optimal number of questions is 3–5, as this is small enough that it prevents your lead from tiring out before finishing the form.

Below, we've broken out these question formats and included a question type for each:

• Multiple Choice Questions: These are best when you want to learn about the level of service the lead is looking for. Simply ask "Which level of service are you looking for?" and allow them to choose between extensive onboarding or a simpler process.
• Multiple Answer Questions: These can find out your lead's goals so you can offer a specific product or service. For example, ask "Which main goals are you working toward?" and allow your lead to choose increased revenue, more efficient processes, and/or other priorities.
• Open-Ended Questions: These can gather more detailed information from a buyer, so they're good for businesses wanting to learn about the lead's pain point in their own words. "Briefly describe the main pain point you're experiencing" would work well.

These are general questions, but your questionnaire should be as personalized as possible to your specific lead type. A physical trainer will ask about a lead’s fitness goals and current physique, while a B2B cybersecurity tech brand might ask about their history of data breaches, their current vendor, and what they worry about most in the domain of cybersecurity.

Regardless of your industry, ask pain point, goal, and service level questions that help you see if the buyer’s needs match those of your ideal customers. To ensure you compare apples to apples and make an accurate qualitative determination regarding leads' level of fit, ask every person the same needs-related questions. Using a repeatable framework, you'll only allow pipeline entrance to leads with high likelihoods to buy, thereby saving you time.

2. Create Your Questionnaire

A Google Forms questionnaire is a free, easy way to write a list of questions in a variety of question/answer types that an SAL can receive, answer in their email inbox, and submit. When you’re done, you can reuse this form for each SAL. Google Forms also collects and houses all the answers your leads have submitted, enabling you to run analyses on your leads.

To get started on creating your questionnaire, head to Google Forms and start a blank form.

Google Forms page

Once inside a form, begin by naming it something that will help you remember its purpose. But, also make sure the name is something that will make a good impression on the recipient. The name “{Your Company Name} Needs Questionnaire” is perfectly fine.

Then, it’s time to create your 3–5 questions. Include only one open-ended question, and put the rest into multiple choice, multiple answer, or dropdown formats. This forces the lead to answer in terms you understand, and therefore helps you control the lead qualification process. Plus you can analyze the data. It’s also easy to fill out, so few leads should drop out of the form.

3. Send the Questionnaire to the Lead

Once you’ve written your questions, send the form to the lead’s email address. In Google Forms, the “send” button is in the top right corner of your questionnaire. The form will appear as an email in the recipient’s inbox, so give them context by adding your company name to the subject line and writing a short message telling them why you’re sending this questionnaire and what will happen after they fill it out. This increases the chances that the lead fills out the form.

Here’s an example of a subject line and message to include with the questionnaire:

Example send questionnaire

Checking the “collect emails” box at the top will gather the submitter’s email address in your responses section of the Google Form, which can help organize the responses. Checking the “include form in email” box allows the recipient to fill out the questionnaire directly in the email.

4. Update the Lead’s Status & Establish Next Steps

Once the lead has returned the questionnaire, you can find their answers in the responses section of your Google Form. You’ll also get an email alert when they submit. Now, it’s time to evaluate their responses and put them up against your ICP. Does the lead look like a typical buyer? Do they have a need that you can solve? If so, qualify them to SAL status. If not, email them telling them politely that it’s not a fit, and discard the lead.

If the lead or their business shares attributes with your current clients, but they described a need that you cannot satisfy, put them back into the marketing team’s domain. They can then advertise and market to them, educating them about your product or service and the problem it’s actually meant to solve. Perhaps you can sell them down the line.

1. Schedule a Discovery Call

At this point, you’ve deemed a lead worthy of a discovery call. This often means an inbound lead's demographics or online behaviors have reached a certain lead scoring threshold from marketing, or they’ve filled out a web form or questionnaire that tells you they have needs you can satisfy. You’re now going to spend 20–60 minutes asking them questions that assess their level of fitness to buy.

To schedule this call, reach out and ask the lead if they’d be open to a call with you. Say that during the call, you’ll ask questions to see whether they’re a good fit to receive value from your product or service. Here’s an example of an email you might send to an MQL or SAL to plan the call: 

Example email to schedule discovery call

The lead should respond favorably to such a request since you’re showing them you’re dedicated to figuring out how to best serve them. If they put some time on your calendar, it’s time to start researching the lead before the call.

2. Research the Lead

Before deciding which questions to ask a lead in your live needs assessment, learn a bit about them. You can research them in one or all of the ways below:

• Peruse Their Social Profiles and Websites: Find their interests, hobbies, job responsibilities, and day-to-day activity. 
• Look Into Their Customer Journey: Figure out what marketing material they’ve consumed and how they’ve explored your website. This information can help you predict their potential needs and develop more personalized questions. 
• Check the Forms They’ve Filled Out: If you conduct online needs assessments with web forms and questionnaires, look over the information your company has already collected. If leads complete these forms, they’ll expect you to check them before the call.

Besides qualifying a lead, another goal of a live needs assessment is to build rapport with the lead. Often, this is achieved by discussing matters relevant to the lead’s position, life, or desires.

3. Pick Questions to Uncover the Lead’s Needs

Usually, reps use question frameworks to assess a lead’s fit. A common framework is called BANT, which requires sellers to learn about a lead’s budget, authority (decision-making power), needs, and preferred timeline. The N in the BANT framework is the needs assessment portion, where you ask questions about their needs to see if your product or service can meet them.

Before the call, write down 2–3 needs-related questions that will help you understand their pain points, goals, and support needed from you. On the same page, write 5–6 other qualification questions that specifically assess the other parts of the BANT lead qualification framework. If you’re doing an in-person needs assessment, such as with a lead who just walked into your store, have these questions memorized.

Here are some generic yet effective needs-related questions for a live needs assessment: 

• What inspired you to reach out to us?
• What can we help you with today?
• What problems are you currently trying to solve?
• Which goals are you trying to reach? 
• What is your top priority right now?
• What is the reason for your dissatisfaction with your current vendor?
• What kind of support are you looking for from your next provider?

As you choose your questions, plan to ask every lead the same ones so you can compare their answers against your ideal customer — this will help you make a qualitative judgment on how well their answers line up with the needs your company solves.

Keep in mind that the number of pre-planned questions you need to ask to understand their need depends on the complexity of your solution and clients. A store clerk might just ask “What are you looking for?” while a financial advisor who creates specialized investment portfolios for individuals with specific financial situations and goals might have to ask up to 10 questions to grasp whether they can meet the buyer’s needs.

4. Ask Your Questions

Ask your chosen questions and listen attentively to the lead's responses. Remember to uncover their goals, their pain points, and the level of service or support they're looking for. This will help you understand what they see as success, what's getting in their way of reaching that success, and what they want from you and your team.

If needed, ask scenario-reactive questions so they expand on their answers. The better you understand, the more likely you are to correctly qualify or disqualify them. For example, look at this hypothetical exchange between a CRM software sales rep and a lead: 

Seller: What inspired you to reach out to us? (pre-planned question)

Lead: We need some help tracking our customer interactions.

Seller: And how are you currently handling this? (scenario-reactive)

Lead: We do it with pen and paper.

Seller: Alright, and how many customers do you currently have? (pre-planned question)

Lead: We have 100 but are growing.

Seller: Growing how fast? (scenario-reactive)

Lead: Well, we just started a new marketing strategy that’s doubling our lead generation every day. It’s hard to handle all of them.

Perhaps this buyer wanted to track leads but was unaware that the CRM could also automate some of their lead qualification actions and make their lead volume manageable. This is why it’s crucial to expand on your pre-planned questions when needed. Now the seller has more ammo for their sales pitch, presentation, and proposal when the time comes. The more needs you can create in the buyer’s mind, the more likely you are to close the deal.

5. Label & Confirm the Lead’s Specific Needs

After you’ve done your exploring and have a solid understanding of what your lead needs help with, regurgitate their needs back to them in your own words. Labeling and restating the needs ensures that you are correct in your assessment and that you’ll give them the right solution, and it prevents you from assuming false needs and qualifying someone you can’t help.

To restate their needs, say, “It sounds like you need some help with {main problem or goal}. Did I get that right?” If the lead says no, don’t worry — this is common and easily resolved. Simply continue asking them more questions until you think you understand, then ask again. If they’re reasonable, they’ll appreciate your taking the time to listen and understand them. When they say “that’s right,” it’s time to decide whether they’re qualified or disqualified.