Feel My Pain

People are 10 times more likely to take an action to eliminate a pain. If we know that to be true then why are we not as sales people helping our clients identify their pains in our first meeting(s)? If we don't know their top 5 pains then how can you provide the correct solution to their pain? The answer is; we can't.

Well here is a clue to getting your clients pains identified. This clue may seem so simple but the reality is that it will take practice to be properly executed. You need to ask powerful questions. When you're meeting with a prospect you need to ask questions that are designed to dig and probe exposing the prospects pain. As you keep probing you will find something that when they answer their body language actually changes. They may begin to tense up, sit up, lean forward and/or start complaining about some one or some thing. When you hit this pain point like the dentist who probes your sensitive toothache you need to keep asking questions about that pain to dig deeper so much so that not only do you learn all you can to find a solution but also so the prospect now feels the pain.

When you leave your prospect at the end of your meeting feeling the pain, their sense of urgency is increased like the throbbing tooth ache that needs to be extracted. When you meet with them again to present your proposal you will help them relive their pain points and show how you are the solution to the pains. If done properly, your prospect can not afford to delay taking action on your proposal and solutions.

What are you doing in your sales meetings to help your prospect feel their pains?