Have you found yourself, in the sales process, identifying the problem (needs analysis or fact-finder) but not quantifying what the problem is? Then the prospect doesn't take action because they don't see the severity of non-action?
In today's blog I want you to have a better understanding of what might be going on, so you feel a little more confident and you know a little bit more about what to do when you get to that point of the conversation.
In the Sandler process we have the concept of pain, which is really the problem your prospect is experiencing, but on a much deeper level. The pain funnel is a way to take a surface issue and drill down into it to see what the true impact of the said problem is. More importantly, it’s a tool to get the prospect to discover whether the problem is something they want to fix or not. You might go through the questions and find out that the problem isn’t a big enough issue and they're not committed to fixing it. But we also have situations where we meet with a prospect and because they don't discover the problem, they procrastinate. Now a year later we run into them again and they have the same problem, it's only worse.
I want to point out today, quantifying pain, so we can identify the problem, and take it deeper through this funnel of understanding. I want to make sure we get to the point of being able to say “what do you think this problem is costing you” and help them discover what the true costs could be.
Typically, you’ll need one or two things (pains) to start that conversation. We then add up the number. If it's not a lot and they say “you know, it's not that big a deal” that's fine because a big part of the sales process is mutual qualification.
If they don't have a problem we can fix, we’ll part as friends.
But many times, what happens if we can walk them through the discovery process and through the pain funnel questions, they have one of those moments. A light bulb will go off.
Now we have somebody who might not procrastinate and actually take action.
When you're in your conversations, keep asking yourself the question:
If I've identified the problem, have I helped them quantify it? Have I quantified it to the level where now they know either it makes sense, or not make sense to take action? And then, ultimately with your solution, they can bring it back to an ROI and how that problem and your solution makes sense to take action with.
Figure out your pain funnel questions.
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