Don't Stop At Pain...Find The Value

Any sales textbook is going to tell you that the number one thing you're looking for when you start talking to a client is their pain.

What hurts?

How long has this been going on?

What, have you tried to solve it?

And that is absolutely correct. I need to know if they are even experiencing pain so that my product can come in and save them.

But once we've established that this person does need help, there is, in fact, a problem here.

We can't stop there.

I need you to keep going because what I'm really after is the value.

What is it worth to you to solve that problem?

These questions sound like:

How long can things keep going the way that they're going?

What happens if you don't solve this problem?

By this time next year, if your mission has not been successful, what are the consequences going to look like?

These will tell me what it actually is worth to the client to solve the problem.

Because if they say, "It would be really nice to have this, but I don't think it would be that big of a deal," it's probably going to be really hard for me to sell them a $20,000 solution.

But if they

say, "If I don't figure out this problem by this time next year, I have to fire people."

"If I am not successful in this project, I get fired."

"We're losing $20,000 a month right now so by this time next year, we'll be out hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Then we've got a real conversation going. b

I can say, "Okay, you just told me that this project is going to cost you $200,000 if you don't solve it. Is it worth taking a serious look at this $10,000 software to try to fix

it?"