Chapter 3 focuses on the importance of setting up the sale by determining a client’s needs: “[S]uccess in the Obtaining Commitment stage of the call depends on how well the earlier stages have been handled. […] the strongest influence on overall call success is Investigating” (53). In this context, needs are “any statement made by the buyer which expresses a want or concern that can be satisfied by the seller” (55). Investigating discerns these needs and translates them into effective sales tactics.

Though managers tend to call poor salespeople “weak closers,” Rackham’s team discovered that the issue was almost always with the salesperson’s investigation skills. Specifically, talented salespeople use investigation skills to develop customer needs. This skill is less valuable in small sales, making impulse buys more common. Conversely, needs in larger sales grow slowly, require the input of more than one individual, and require a more rational decision-making process.

The process of developing needs has three phases. It begins with identifying minor imperfections, the slight irritants that evolve into problems and dissatisfactions. These problems gradually become more cumbersome until the buyer develops “a want, desire, or an intention to act” (58).