Here’s a controversial statement — don’t sell to goals, sell to pain. It’s all about spotting “Pain Points” and leaning into them.
There’s a clear difference between goals and pains. And that difference can make or break your deal. Goals are an end state your leads want to reach. They hope and plan to get there. But it’s just an idea. Pains are real obstacles — present and felt — which prevent your lead from achieving their goal.
Getting to a desired end state is not about imagining the goal over and over again. It’s about moving forward by achieving tasks and overcoming challenges. Sell to a goal, and you probably won’t move much. Sell to how you solve specific challenges (the pains your lead is facing), and momentum will come naturally.
For example, your lead might have a goal to speed up product releases. Is it enough to say that your customers can quickly develop and release new products? No — the truth is you have no idea what their problem is or if you can really help. This makes you far more likely to misqualify the opportunity. Also, it can make you seem disingenuous. People are (rightfully) wary of the salesperson who just paints a perfect picture and says, “buy now.” In these instances, it often will feel safer and easier to delay action.
Instead, ask questions to learn about 1) what they want to achieve, 2) how they want to achieve it, and 3) why they’re not already on a path to success. You might uncover information that makes your job easier. Perhaps their product development timeline includes a lot of resources devoted to debugging software. But your customers don’t do that, because of how your solution speeds up the process.
Here, you’ve pinpointed specific pains that you will remove — the time & resources they devote to debugging. Now buying from you is much more justifiable — it’s more believable as a “fix.” They see a challenge they have to overcome if they want to achieve their goal. And, if they can’t fix it by themselves, then they will have to buy something.
In other words, Pain Points provide the “why” they should buy. So, show up as a problem solver; an informed consultant to project-map a solution. Leverage any competitive advantages you have (especially unique advantages) to ensure they buy from you.
You can create and win more opportunities! “Outbound Sales Demystified: Generate Leads and Close Deals” is a tips & tricks go-to guide for sales tactics, as well as a comprehensive overview of successful B2B selling strategy.
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