Modern technology sales aren’t about the features and functions of a product. They’re about how the product solves your customers’ specific business problems.

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To help you understand what those business problems are before you even make your first pitch, use a technology sales assessment. These assessments help you focus on the right solutions for your customer, making the sales process straightforward. This blog post looks at technology sales assessments and how to make sure your assessment process is as smooth and successful as possible.

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What Technology Sales Assessments Are

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Technology sales assessments provide a way for you to assess the technology needs of your potential customers. Unlike technology audits, they’re a lightweight selling tool to help you better understand your customer’s business and the specific problems they’re trying to solve.

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Conversely, technology audits are more comprehensive because they focus on product features and functions. These audits are often confusing and can slow down the sales process because they might include information the customer doesn’t need. They aren’t ideal for sales professionals who need to move deals quickly and efficiently through their pipeline.

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Use technology assessments to better understand and focus on your customer’s technology needs. They give you a chance to build rapport and establish trust between your company and your potential buyer.

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Components of an Assessment

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Technology sales assessments aren’t one-size-fits-all because you should tailor them to your customer’s specific needs. However, you can generally expect to find the following items in a technology sales assessment:

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• A review of your customer’s business and the specific problems they're trying to solve.
• An assessment of their current technology environment, including their hardware, software, and any integrations in place. Ensure that you cover infrastructure, security, managed support and services, and telecommunications.
• Possible outcomes categorized for each component using different color codes: low risk (green), medium risk (yellow), and high risk (red).
• A risk score to help the client can quickly visualize the severity of the issues.
• A list of potential solutions for the problems identified during the assessment process.

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5 Ways to Ensure a Successful Technology Sales Assessment Process

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To make sure your assessment process is successful, follow these practices:

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1. Be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish with the assessment. Know what problems you’re trying to solve.
2. Tailor the assessment to your customer’s specific needs.
3. Keep the assessment process as simple and non-invasive as possible for your customer.
4. Explain the issues and solutions in a non-technical way, avoiding any technical jargon that might confuse your customer.
5. Follow up with your customer after you complete the assessment to make sure they understood it; learn about any actions you need to take as a result.

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Other Ways Assessments Help Close More Deals

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Besides helping you build a stronger relationship with your customers, technology sales assessments have the following benefits:

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• Helps remove objections: People tend to believe what they hear and see and are often willing to pay more for higher-quality products and services. However, that only happens when they know why they must buy and what makes the increased cost worthwhile. Your sales assessment helps your customers understand the value of your offerings and how they’ll benefit from them.
• Enables easier upsell: Once you explain the value of your services, you can create packaged deals to make your prospects more inclined to purchase them without paying full prices for any add-ons. You can offer free trials, discounts, and other sales promotions for these secondary services to make them more appealing and maximize your MRR.
• Leads to higher close rates: When you gather information for your clients, communicate the risks within their IT environment, and recommend ways to tackle these obstacles with specific services at your disposal, you create a more compelling sales proposal. Every pitch has a better chance of being fruitful, and close rates should increase.

Clients appreciate when you tell them what they need to do to improve and run their businesses more effectively. IT sales assessments solidify your business connections and add an emotional touch to those relationships.

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One Tool For Your Technology Sales Assessment Needs

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Learn about your customers’ business problems before you make your first pitch by conducting a technology sales assessment. To ensure a smooth process through the technology sales assessment process, use a sales acceleration tool, like the one from Zomentum, to help you. It offers everything you need, including audit templates, digestible analytics, and a do-it-yourself proposal builder based on your assessment intelligence. Request a free demo.