The Weakest Link

By Steve Kraner, TopLine Solutions, Inc.

Have you ever wondered, "Why doesn’t my product or service sell?" or maybe it was closer to, "Why don’t these idiots buy my product?" If you imagine the sales process as a chain, you can narrow your problem down to one of two weak links - it’s either the product you’re trying to sell or the way you’re trying to sell the product.

What You’re Selling
Solutions in search of problems will fail. People need to have a personal and compelling reason to change. If they haven’t identified a need, more than likely, they aren’t interested in learning about the solution. An excellent example is the free software that keeps showing up in my mailbox. Do I rush to load in onto my computer? Not a chance. I don’t have a compelling need for this software, and I am not willing to commit to the monthly payment after I use my "free" hours. I need a REASON before I’m willing to make a commitment to even evaluate the product, let alone turn over my credit card number. So, I keep the CDs and use them as coasters or ice scrapers.

What are the reasons someone purchases a product? The three most common (and powerful) are:

Pain - something I’m currently experiencing and want to get away from.
Fear - a future pain I want to avoid.
Gain - a future gain that I perceive to be better than my existing state.

Of the three, pain is by far the most compelling and common reason for buying. However, entire industries are based on the idea that people will make changes and investments to avoid fear (insurance, Y2K, disaster recovery and off-site backup). As for gain, people will make personal sacrifices and spend money to attain a gain.

For example, I want washboard abdominal muscles, like those guys in the magazines. I do crunches and sit ups like mad. I finally got frustrated and sought advice from the guy who owns my gym. He said, "Steve, I’ve seen you work out. You work hard and I’ll bet you have washboard abs. You just have a little laundry on the washboard!" He was right, and I ended up hiring him as my personal trainer until I lost my laundry.

To succeed, become a PAIN SEEKING MISSILE. Figure out what pain you can fix with your solution. Then figure out who might have that pain. If you cannot clearly state the pain, fear or gain that your product or service addresses, and who might have it, then the product is the problem. You are a solution in search of a problem and that's not viable.

Steve’s Rule of Market Viability
The size of markets depends not on the elegance of the solutions that are available, but on the pain, fear or gain that is their basis.

How You’re Selling
Ok, now you’ve clearly identified how your product or service eliminates a pain or fear, or offers a gain. You know exactly what type of prospect needs your solution and they still aren’t buying. In that case, how you sell might be the problem.

To sell successfully, you need to follow these steps:
1) Get to the people who have the pain, fear or gain.
2) Get them to think about the pain and how it’s personally affecting them.
3) Then get them to OPEN UP AND TALK TO YOU about the pain.

Notice I haven’t mentioned your solution yet. You should not be talking about your solution at this stage of the evaluation. Like a physician, seek first to understand – then diagnose. Only after you thoroughly understand the problem and more importantly, the prospect feels like you understand the problem, are you ready to properly prescribe a solution where it's clearly needed.

4) Finally, you have to help the prospect come to the realization that the cost of the problem (to them personally) and the impact of the problem (to them personally) exceeds the cost of change. If you can do all that, you’ll clearly be selling the product.

Techniques for Uncovering Pain
How you approach people in this process is fundamental to your success. For example, what’s the difference between ‘unsolicited advice’ and ‘help’? Don’t just keep reading. Stop, think, and answer that question before you move on. If you have trouble understanding the difference, think of your mother-in-law. If that doesn’t work, you can borrow mine for a week.

The difference is one is given without a request (remember the software showing up at my house?) and has just about as much value - the other is being given at the request of the recipient.

So, what do you do if they aren’t asking for help yet? One very effective technique is to start the conversation with a third party story. Gently suggest that, "Sometimes your colleagues tell me that they have a problem with XYZ - do you ever see that?" or "This probably doesn’t apply to you, but some of my other clients experienced XYZ when they ABC’d, does that sound familiar?"

The point is, people are hesitant to be the first to admit they have a problem but are always happy to join in and admit a problem when they realize they are not alone. Your job is to show them they are not alone.

Rules of Pain
There are three rules of pain (fear or gain).
Rule #1 Everyone has pain.
Rule #2 Everyone wants to get rid of pain.
Rule #3 No-one wants to admit to their pain.

We can and often do lie to ourselves. It’s not just buyers – it’s basic human nature to hide pain. First we hide it from ourselves. Then we, by default, hide it from other people. All living creatures seek pleasure and avoid pain. Humans have at their disposal tactics that other creatures don’t. We can avoid pain through exercise of our intellect and imagination. Denial, avoidance and suppression keep pain from entering our consciousness, so we can avoid feeling it.

Prospects don’t walk around broadcasting their problems and fears. On the contrary, they do everything they can to hide them from view. They wrap their pain in protective layers of denial and rationalization. If you’ve been in sales longer than a month, you’ve heard these tactics in action.

Generalization	"I might be interested."
White Lies	"I’m just looking."
Minimization	"We’ve done it this way for years, I’m sure we can live without it."
Intellectual Smoke Screen	"We’ll be conducting a thorough review of our options before we decide to move forward."

The end result is that buyers aren’t open and honest about their pains, fears and gains with the very people who are most able to help them. In disguising their pain from sales people, they hurt themselves.

Uncovering Pain
As a salesperson you must be a master of carefully penetrating the buyer’s defenses, so you can help them discover their hidden pain and take action to fix it. The challenge for the salesperson is to keep the buyer feeling comfortable throughout the process.

A surgeon uses a scalpel to get to the problem. A psychiatrist uses carefully selected questions to do the same for patients. The salesperson’s tools are the same. Ask the right questions in the right way and you’ll help your prospect reveal the problems you can fix.

Rules for Finding Pain:
1. Ask questions with sincere interest and caring curiosity.
2. Listen to the answers and always, always take notes.
3. Keep them focused on the problem. They may try to divert the conversation by bringing up unrelated topics, changing the focus to price, or skirting around the issue. Always bring them back to the problem.
4. Don’t stop until they have convinced you (not the other way around) that the pain, fear or gain is important to them – protecting their self-esteem along the way.

All of these techniques are a lot easier to talk about than actually execute. But that’s why good sales people are very highly compensated. It’s a hard job, and most people don’t succeed. Will you be the exception to the rule?

Steve brings his dynamic leadership skills, honed by his training at West Point and experience as a paratroop commander and entrepreneur. A risk taker with a track record of successes and a taste for breaking new ground, Steve can walk the talk and sales teams buy in to his innovative approach to selling. He is a nationally published author on the topic of software sales, sales management and negotiating.

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