the 5 “whys”

Five “whys” in sales that are critical to success. This method has existed since the 1930s and was developed by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota cars, one of the largest automobile manufacturers today. Essentially the five whys are not specific questions such as who what where why and when, but they are a series of questions that you must ask to find the real pain behind a problem. An example of this is when a client states a problem they are having, ask why they are having that problem. When they answer with something like “our leads are bad”, ask the same question again, “why?”. Doing this over and over again will lead you to the root cause of the issue where you can properly address it instead of addressing a superficial problem that the client THINKS is the problem when in all reality it is something else. This will help any salesperson with retention which is a huge part of sales because when a client has a solution given to them that is not tailored to their needs, someone else will inevitably come along down the road and sell them on a personalized solution which addresses the core issues at hand. This is one of the most important things you can do as a sales person to put your clients’ best interests first. Another application of this which would show how important it is would be in healthcare where doctors don’t just outright diagnose a patient based upon something like a sore wrist, they will typically ask questions like “do you play any sports”, and if you were to say yes they’d ask you “how often”. Their main goal here isn’t to try and be friendly, what they are trying to do is find the root cause to a problem so they can properly address it instead of just giving you Tylenol for your sore wrist.