Most sellers stop their needs analysis work at the account level and don’t probe their prospects for personal bias.

All KDMs come to the table with personal motivations and agendas, yet they won’t readily offer them unless you probe.

Here are a few of the so-called "table stakes" of account needs analysis:
> deal timeline
> decision timeline
> company/account goals
> objectives and strategies
> budgets
> KDMs (all those with a vote)
> buying/consideration process
> obstacles

And, here are some of the categories that need probing for each individual buyer:
> objections (personal bias)
> power weight (individual influence)
> motivations and agenda
> perceptions of company process, goals, etc.

Whether you’re probing for account needs or building insights into the individual’s perspective and motivations, the information-gathering process requires an incremental approach. Interrogating buyers doesn’t work too well, so you have to be orderly in collecting all this info.