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Classifying Buyer Pain

Guest post by: Greg van der Linde

Article Overview: Sales reps that can identify a buyer’s goals and objectives will be in an ideal position to uncover obstacles that are creating pain. Sales reps must understand that a buyer’s pain is their opportunity. The bigger and more urgent the pain, the better reps can properly identify the buyer’s pain classification, and therefore be able to effectively lead with an aligned solution that meets their needs.

Classifying Buyer Pain

Fixing the Buyers Pain Creates Opportunity

All buying organizations experience pain on some level. Pain can affect a single individual, department, or be experienced company wide. Obstacles cause many pains within an organization. Obstacles are also what stand in the way of buyer goals and objectives. Since obstacles create many pains, it is important that reps do not rely on fixing one pain, but the many pains that comprise the entire obstacle. Solving one pain for a buyer is only a part of the solution.

When creating these solutions, reps must be conscious of the different levels of pain that buyers can experience. It is imperative that sales reps act accordingly depending on the buyer's pain classification. These actions are based on the buyer engagement process. By proceeding accordingly, a buyer-centric sales process is created where reps focus on helping their buyers achieve their goals by identifying:

• Suppressed Pain
• Recognized Pain
• Removing Obstacles

Suppressed Pain

Buyers who experience suppressed pain are generally not actively seeking a sales solution.

This is usually the case because buyers have:

• Not found a solution to suit their needs: When buyers discover a pain obstacle they usually seek a solution. However, after some research they may draw the conclusion that a solution for their situation is difficult to develop or does not exist. In this situation, buyers have usually failed to:

-Look in the right place

-Effectively assess their situation properly

-Discover a company willing craft a solution to meet their needs

Buyers tend to associate their issues with the couple of pains that are preventing them from achieving desired results. However, they often fail to realize that these pains, in most instances, are indicators of a larger, far-reaching obstacle. Reps need to make their buyers aware of this situation by helping them see the larger picture, and encouraging them to seek a holistic solution. Holistic solutions completely eliminate the buyer's problem, where as removing a single pain is only a patch work solution, which often results in unsatisfied buyers.

• Not becoming aware that pain exists: Sometimes, buyers may not even realize that an issue exists within their company. They continue doing business as if nothing is wrong. This is an ideal situation for reps to be the first to consult and develop a solution with the buyer. Reps in this position gain the upper hand on competitors.

When reps discover a buyer is in this situation, their role is to help the buyer become aware that the pain exists, and that it is preventing them from achieving the goals they have defined for their organization. This is a good situation for sales reps to be in. Here they have the opportunity to not only help the buyer realize an inefficiency in their business, but can also help shape an ideal solution for the buyer to overcome their pain and improve their results/performance.

• Not realized their goals and objectives are being sacrificed: Buyers could be working with pain and not even realize it. Pain is usually realized when it is too late. For example, many buyers discover pain during year end reviews when the pain has already embedded itself in the company. Pain become realized when buyers analyze their results and realize they have come up short. As buyers begin to analyze their situation, they uncover the root cause of their pain. For example, many buyers realize the cost of "working with the pain" when they review how much overtime they have paid, or how much they have overpaid for supplies. As solutions are explored, other pain points and large obstacles become evident. Pain and obstacles have been identified, and what needs to be done to rectify the situation becomes clear.

Recognized Pain

Reps have opportunities in their funnel when buyers confirm that they have a pain which is preventing them from reaching their goals. Buyers usually have not taken any form of action up to this point.

Once pain is recognized, both immediate and far-reaching repercussions need to be uncovered, identified, and explored with buyers. This is often a discovery, as well as an education process, for buyers in terms of the size and scope of the pain. They also have to get the buyer to recognize the effect the pain is having on their business operations. Reps can leverage this situation and begin to introduce their products as the best possible solution to meet the buyer's needs, while developing an aligned vision of an ideal solution.

A very important and often overlooked step early on is to clearly identify the buyer's goals and objectives. Sales reps have to clearly outline the gap that exists between the buyer's current situation and their goals. This is known as the 'Gap of Need'. This is the launching, and a pivotal point for reps to identify how far away the buyer is from achieving their idea solution. The gap of need is important because:

• The greater the gap of need, the larger and more complex the solution will be.
• The more a solution is aligned to the gap of need, the easier it will be for the sales rep to win the deal.

Removing Obstacles

When reps facilitate and walk buyers through the development of an ideal solution, it is imperative that the buyer is at a point where they want to take responsibility for solving their issues. It is imperative that solution be created. That is, if a problem is important, painful, and urgent enough, the buyer will take charge and seek change. Buyers that accept responsibly are ready to explore possibilities to remove obstacles and also commit resources to an aligned ideal solution.

Reps must always be aware that buyers often have a number of possible versions of solutions in mind. These solutions may be developed either by the buyer, or with consultation from competitors. If competitors are actively involved, then reps must pay particular attention to developing a competitive strategy and must be prepared to differentiate their solution which joins the dots between how the solution actively mitigates the pain, and achieves the buyer's business goals.

The key for reps is to support the buyer's vision of the solution that will remove the biggest and the most obstacles by solving as many of the buyer's pains as possible.

Botton Line & Business Impact:

Sales reps that follow a disciplined approach to identifying and highlighting the gap of need that the buyer is experiencing, while differentiating their solution from any competition that may exist, will effectively move opportunities through their funnel.

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Article Tags: buyer engagement process, buyer pain, classifying buyer pain, goals and objectives, need identification, obstacles, pain identification, sales process, sales reps



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