The Pain Conversation
The best investigators are the best closers. What you do before you make the presentation, the diagnosis you perform on the prospect, is the most important element in a complex sale. When prospects believe you understand their challenges better than your competition does, they have more confidence in you as a solution provider. Think of the confidence you have in a doctor’s prescription after he completes an extensive diagnosis. Selling is no different.
Discovering the prospect’s real pain is a process. It’s a series of questions that is designed to take the prospect from an intellectual, big picture level to an emotional level describing personal consequences and commitment. Here are the types of questions that will help you become a world-class qualifier.
When a prospect says, “We’re just not getting the kind of support from our widget vendor that we need,” you’d follow up these questions…
- “Can you tell me a little more about that?”
- “How long has this been a problem?”
- “Why do you suppose this is happening?”
- “What other problems is it causing?”
- “What’s the financial impact?”
- “What have you done to try to fix the problem?”
- “How did that work?”
- “What happens if you don’t fix it?”
- “How does it affect you personally?”
- “Who else besides you cares?”
- “What priority does this have?”
- “What does a perfect solution look like?”
- “Do you think I have a good understanding of the issues you’re trying to resolve?”
Summarize and Feed Back
- “So what you’re saying is…”
- “Let me see if I understand…”
Keeping Buyers Talking
- “What else is there?”
- “Can you elaborate on that?”
- “Is there more?”
You will discover that the pain conversation is just that…a conversation and not an interrogation. You will ask a question and the prospect will answer, typically providing information that satisfies 1-2 of the other questions. Don’t be too literal with this series of questions. They are designed to provide you with the exact information that you need to qualify the prospect for pain. They work!
Pain Rule: The prospect must convince you that there’s a problem, that the problem is serious, and that it’s important to find a solution. If there is pain, and you do a thorough job of asking the right questions, this will happen.
Self-Study Assignment: Record yourself asking the above pain questions as if you were with a prospect. Be as realistic as possible. Listen to this recording over and over until you have the questions memorized. This is the fastest and most effective way to learn how to qualify for pain.
