CWS Customer Needs Assessment & Sales 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which question is most effective for uncovering a customer's emotional motivation for purchasing water treatment?
- What is your budget?
- How many gallons per day do you use?
- How does your current water situation affect your family's daily life? (Correct answer)
- What brand are you considering?
Correct answer: How does your current water situation affect your family's daily life?
Open-ended questions about daily impact reveal the emotional drivers that motivate purchasing decisions beyond technical facts.
Question 2: A CWS dealer is presenting to a customer who has city water with a chlorine taste complaint. Which treatment is most appropriate to recommend first?
- Reverse osmosis system targeting nitrates
- Point-of-use activated carbon filter to reduce chlorine taste and odor (Correct answer)
- Water softener to address hardness
- UV disinfection system
Correct answer: Point-of-use activated carbon filter to reduce chlorine taste and odor
Activated carbon is highly effective at adsorbing chlorine, chloramines, and associated taste and odor compounds.
Question 3: What is a 'trial close' in the context of a water treatment sales presentation?
- Offering a free trial period for equipment
- A question that gauges the customer's readiness to buy without asking for a final commitment (Correct answer)
- Closing the sale at a discounted trial price
- Presenting a product brochure before the demonstration
Correct answer: A question that gauges the customer's readiness to buy without asking for a final commitment
A trial close tests the customer's buying temperature with a question like 'Does this solution address your concern?' without pressuring for a final decision.
Question 4: Iron staining in toilets is typically red-brown in color. At what iron concentration (in mg/L) does the EPA set the secondary maximum contaminant level?
- 0.05 mg/L
- 0.3 mg/L (Correct answer)
- 1.0 mg/L
- 5.0 mg/L
Correct answer: 0.3 mg/L
The EPA secondary MCL for iron is 0.3 mg/L, above which staining and aesthetic problems typically become noticeable.
Question 5: A customer is concerned about lead in their drinking water. Which treatment technology is most effective at removing lead at the point of use?
- Water softener with ion exchange resin
- Reverse osmosis membrane system (Correct answer)
- Sediment filter with 5-micron rating
- Ultraviolet light purifier
Correct answer: Reverse osmosis membrane system
Reverse osmosis is one of the most effective POU technologies for lead removal, achieving high rejection rates.
Question 6: Which of the following best defines 'consultative selling' as applied to water treatment?
- Presenting all product features regardless of customer needs
- Focusing solely on closing the highest-margin product
- Diagnosing the customer's water problems through questions and testing, then recommending tailored solutions (Correct answer)
- Offering the lowest price to beat competitors
Correct answer: Diagnosing the customer's water problems through questions and testing, then recommending tailored solutions
Consultative selling positions the dealer as a trusted advisor who diagnoses before prescribing, building long-term customer relationships.
Question 7: When assessing a customer's water usage patterns, why is daily water consumption volume important for sizing equipment?
- It determines the price of the system
- It ensures the system's flow rate and capacity match household demand without pressure drop or premature exhaustion (Correct answer)
- It is only relevant for commercial accounts
- It affects the color of the control valve selected
Correct answer: It ensures the system's flow rate and capacity match household demand without pressure drop or premature exhaustion
Undersized equipment leads to inadequate treatment and poor customer satisfaction, while oversized equipment wastes resources and money.
CWS Customer Needs Assessment & Sales 3
Which question is most effective for uncovering a customer's emotional motivation for purchasing water treatment?