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Your Prospects Aren't in Pain

Guest post by: Sharon Drew Morgen

Article Overview: When I hear sellers say that buyers have 'pain' I ask how long it would take them to get to the hospital with a broken arm. "Immediately." Why? Because they're in pain. But buyers don't buy 'immediately' and have had their problem for a period of time.

Your Prospects Aren't in Pain

When I hear sellers say that buyers have 'pain' I ask how long it would take them to get to the hospital with a broken arm. "Immediately." Why? Because they're in pain. But buyers don't buy 'immediately' and have had their problem for a period of time. If your buyer had pain, they would have fixed the problem already.

THE STATUS QUO IS... THE STATUS QUO

Like all of us, buyers live in systems of people and policies, activies and relationships. Everything within the system is there for a reason: stability gets maintained with rules and processes and job descriptions and relationships. When there is a problem that creeps up, the system creates some workarounds so it can continue working; the problem fades into the background and becomes part of the tapestry of the system, until it grows larger.

When we show up and notice a problem, we instantly believe these folks are prospects because it seems like a fit. But we're not taking into account the system that has accepted the problem and recreates it daily.

Sales acts as if the buyer's problem were an isolated event. But it's not. That's like saying the rash on your arm is an isolated event.

In order for buyers to buy, they need to manage systemic change: they must involve all of the internal managers, department heads, and sundry people who will touch the ultimate solution; without buy-in to change, without designing new rules or roles to manage the change, without replacing the old solution in a way that insures nothing will be severely harmed and equilibrium is maintained, nothing will be purchased.

HOW TO SELL IF THE BUYER DOESN'T WANT A SOLUTION?

What will you do differently if you believe that a sale must be more than a solution placement and actually include support during the buyer's decision journey?

First, put on your Leader hat rather than your Sales hat, and enter the conversation as a detective and help them discover their own clues. What's keeping them from being willing or able to change? How would they know when it would be worth the effort to go through what's necessary to achieve excellence? What would they need to know or believe differently in order to be willing to go through the internal disruption process to enhance something that's already working... well, already working the way it's working?

Stop trying to assess needs or push a solution. Certainly stop trying to get an appointment until the entire Buying Decision Team is ready for change. Instead, enter as a GPS system to help your prospect walk through the change management issues so they will understand the landscape of change. The Buying Facilitation(r) process will give you the skills to lead your prospect through this confusion, with you as the true Relationship Manager.

Selling and buying are two different activities. Help buyers recognize how to bring in change so your solution can easily enter and not cause disruption. Buyers don't need you: they need to solve a business problem. And the business problem involves more of a solution than just your product.

Change the way you are entering. Stop basing your sale on determining if there is a need your solution can resolve. That thinking has only brought you low closing rates and a lot of time wastage. It's time to help buyer's buy.

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Article Tags: buyers pain, prospects, sales, solutions



Related Forum Posts
Re: What works for you? - If you love your work, then there is no pressure. So, pressure builds up when you work for someone else. Actually, Pleasure and Pain are both side of one coin. You need to have both in order to succeed in life. Take risks and rewards are higher. Take less risks, the rewards are less. So, understand your capacity and take charge. Thanks, Robert
Re: Did you buy into the iPhone 3G craze? - Kevin, Arent you the EBay guy?? oh well, we all make mistakes....like me buying new tires at Active Green & Ross after I blew out a tire on the 401. I let the guy scare me into the sale and then when I took my care into my mechanic he told me I got hosed....and to never let anyone scare you into buying stuff again.... anyway, I'm glad you got the new battery in any case. I think we will soon be able to go completely without contracts so we arent held hostage... J
Re: Email Etiquette - [quote="jvprosperity":24jznj58] The P.S. suggestion is good but it depends on the type of communication (e.g. Autoresponder series verses one off emails to Clients or Prospects)[/quote:24jznj58] Andy, You are right. I was mainly referring to Auto Responder emails. To end a normal email, I attach signatures. Takuya
Kevin, are u an ebay expert? - [quote="TheRainmaker":3j4dw900]Kevin, Arent you the EBay guy?? oh well, we all make mistakes....like me buying new tires at Active Green & Ross after I blew out a tire on the 401. I let the guy scare me into the sale and then when I took my care into my mechanic he told me I got hosed....and to never let anyone scare you into buying stuff again.... anyway, I'm glad you got the new battery in any case. I think we will soon be able to go completely without contracts so we arent held hostage... J[/quote:3j4dw900] Are you an Ebay expert? If yes do you have any report on your expertise?
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!


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