“WICA” - Four Basic Customers Needs & Wants

At the simplest level, all customers have these four basic needs and wants. These being:

• Welcome – You as a customer want to feel welcomed no matter what product/service you wish to acquire
• Important – When you purchase a product/service you want to be given importance and want to be assured that it is the right purchase
• Comfortable – With every interaction you have during your  service you want to be sure that it is free from stress or anxiety; with ease you can purchase your requirement
• Acknowledge – You want to be understood at each step of the service. If you have any concerns or queries you want to feel that it is being understood and being addressed appropriately

This is exactly what your customers want from you when they require service from you. This is no rocket science. Like you the customer has feelings and emotions that need to be respected throughout your service interaction.

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Seven Body Language Secrets

Your attitude is very easily projected through your voice. Furthermore, it is projected through your non-verbal communication. In simple terms, this means your body language.

 The five core elements of body language being your:

1. Posture 
2. Facial expressions
3. Gestures
4. Head motion
5. Eyes

So, for all those individuals in sales, customer service or client facing roles please be aware of these seven body language secrets:

1. Your facial expressions can make a world of difference when you are communicating with others. Be careful how you express with your mouth, eyes and eyebrows. Do you want the eyebrow raise action of the Rock?
2. A smile is the easiest way to communicate with another individual. Generally speaking, people who smile tend to come across as happy. This makes its easier to communicate with them. Smiling is great way to establish a rapport. In certain cultures please be aware of who to smile at.
3. With your eye contact you can build trust however staring at the other person to death may just do the opposite. Many people believe that our eyes reveal our thought and feelings thus creating a bond which means you are more likely to pay attention.
4. In many cultures speaking with your hands can be very helpful while in others you have to be conservative with your hand movement. Use your hands to draw someone's attention to an important point, count using your fingers, and if need be use your whole arm to emphasize certain feelings.
5. Ensure your are in a positive state of mind. This will allow you to appear sincere and comfortable with your own body language.
6. By placing your hands in your pockets when communicating with someone may come across as being impolite or rude.  Furthermore, fiddling with an object, or making obscene gestures during a conversation can be extremely off putting.
7. When you see someone with a good body posture you get a sense of confidence from them. Your body posture reveals how much you care about yourself.

A very important thing to remember is that your inner feelings have a direct impact on your body language. So, be good with your inner thoughts.

LARA's Secret to Managing Objections

One of the greatest challenges that you face in sales is objections. You may perceive an objection as a rejection, hostility or doubt that the customer is showing for the product or service at offer.

In fact an objection could be viewed as your worst nightmare. Now, consider when you are buying a product or service you have certain objections. So, like you the customer has the right to make objections.

It is crucial for anyone in sales to be aware that selling is the same as customer service. In today’s world of complex selling, it is not about ABC - Always Be Closing, it is time to focus on ABCV - Always Be Creating Value. During sales your client may have many objections and this you have to manage.

The objection could be on pricing, someone else is the decision maker, customer is just fishing for information or you misunderstood the buying signals. Whatever the reason there is a universal secret you can apply in managing objections. It is known as LARA’s secret and you can apply it to all objections:

• Listen: In many objections scenarios the salesperson hasn’t paid attention to what the customer is saying. The core focus is on a transaction rather than serving and adding value to the customer. So, always make that extra effort to actively listen to your customer

• Accept: Ensure both you and the customer are on the same page regarding what is the objection. So, acknowledge that there is an objection and confirm that both of you are clear on what it is.  

• Reflect: This is a great opportunity for you to get a deeper understanding of the UPB (Unique Perceived Benefit). A UPB is your USP from the customer’s perspective.

• Ask questions: Ask the customer questions that will allow you to gauge for solutions. Thus allowing you to provide possible solutions to the objections so the customer can have a clearer comprehension of the product or service in question.  

When you create value it means you are increasing the worth of your service or product for your clients. Note value is not necessary the price, it’s what the customer thinks that is important. An example comes to mind is both Thai Airways and Emirates are rated 4 Star by SkyTrax (is the recognised global airline rating system). Yet generally Emirates has higher prices but still people use it. 

Avoid being defensive when managing objections, be careful of those negative feelings. Remember, responding to objections as above gives you an opportunity to reinforce the value of your offerings. 


My name is Rohit Bassi and I am the founder of In Learning. My mission is about sowing the seeds of passion to help you outperform yourself by enhancing your core critical skills of communication, leadership and collaboration. I have delivered workshops to the likes of Oracle, Harley-Davidson, Emirates NBD, Emaar, Alshaya, Baskin Robbins, Mazda and many more. Please feel free to contact me via rohit@in-learning.com or call on +971-(0)55-553-2275.