According to the BABOK® Guide, a need is a problem or opportunity to be addressed by the business analyst.
A need may be based on a perceived solution, but this does not guarantee that the solution will actually address the underlying problem or opportunity. Therefore, the business analyst should advise Nancy that there is an assumption that the customer management software will create the desired benefit of more sales, and this assumption should be validated through business analysis activities such as elicitation, analysis, and validation of requirements1. References: 1: BABOK® Guide, version 3, section 3.1.1, page 30.