Finding Prospect Pain

Sales Training

Michael Halper

What is Pain

• Something not working well – Causing a negative impact

• Something could be working better – Results are not as good as could be

• Are things great, good, ok, or could be better ?

– Great or good: probably no pain– OK or could be better: likely pain

Why Pain is Important

• No pain no change

• No pain no reason to meet

• Attention

• Connection

• Information

• Qualification

Three Levels of Pain

Technical Pain

• Processes• Systems• People

Slow, broken, or manual processesPoor system or employee performanceLack of reliability

Business Pain

• Revenue• Costs• Services

Low revenue / market share / close rateHigh cost of goods sold / labor costPoor delivery of services

Personal Pain

• Income• Career• Work Environment

Low bonuses, commissions, compensationNo recognition, no promotions / career pathHigh workload, poor work–life balance

Six Pain Symptoms

1. Something not working well

2. Something could be working better

3. Process are time consuming

4. Errors are being made

5. High costs

6. Low revenue

Not Working Well

Vehicle has mechanical challenges and not operating correctly

• Symptom: The vehicle breaks down about three or four times a year.

• Root cause: The systems and processes that vehicle uses are old or faulty and not

working well

• Technical pain: We are not be able to get to our destination

• Business pain: We are not able to complete deliveries, and this causes a decrease in

revenue and customer satisfaction.

• Personal pain: We have to work late when this occurs, and that takes away time we

would normally spend with our family.

Could be Working Better

Vehicle is slow in terms of speed and performance

• Symptom: We are not able to travel as fast as we would like or need.

• Root cause: We are not using the right size or type of vehicle for our needs.

• Technical pain: It takes us a little longer than needed to get to each destination.

• Business pain: We cannot complete as many deliveries decreasing revenue.

• Personal pain: Our compensation will be less.

Processes are Time Consuming

Vehicle has manual features and controls

• Symptom: It is time consuming to perform the tasks needed to operate the vehicle.

• Root cause: Manual processes and systems

• Technical pain: It can be very time consuming and labor intensive to fully operate the

vehicle.

• Business pain: Decreased our efficiency in completing our deliveries and this could

impact our revenue and costs.

• Personal pain: Our compensation will be less.

Errors are being Made

Vehicle’s speedometer displays the wrong speed

• Symptom: We have noticed that speedometer is not showing the correct speed.

• Root cause: The device that is monitoring and displaying our speed is faulty.

• Technical pain: We never know truly how fast we are going and this can impact us

from a safety and vehicle operation standpoint.

• Business pain: Could result in traffic violations and fines or create potential for

accidents.

• Personal pain: Operating the vehicle with unreliable information could make it unsafe,

and this could potentially lead to physical injury.

High Costs

Vehicle is not fuel efficient.

• Symptom: We have higher than normal fuel costs.

• Root cause: Vehicle not be very fuel efficient or could be a fuel leak or the system

might not be operating perfectly.

• Technical pain: This lack of fuel efficiency means we are having to stop to refill our

fuel more than we would like to and this is costing us valuable time.

• Business pain: We are spending more money and time on fuel and this is impacting

both revenue and profitability.

• Personal pain: Decreased profitability could mean a decreased bonus.

Low Revenue

We are not making enough money.

• Symptom: We have lower revenue than we would like.

• Root cause: Not able to optimize the use of the vehicle.

• Technical pain: Not able to complete enough deliveries

• Business pain: By not accomplishing as many meetings and deliveries, our overall

revenue is lower than we would like.

• Personal pain: The low revenue is impacting profitability, and that will decrease our

profit sharing cut at the end of the year.

Why Pain is Tough to Find

1. State of denial

2. Case of latent pain

Four Tactics to Uncover Pain

1. Rating questions

2. Give pain examples

3. Wish list questions

4. Disqualify

Rating Questions

• Adding a scale of 1 to 10 to a question

“How happy are you with the level of service from your current provider, on a scale from one to ten?”

• Provides opportunity for follow-up

“Great. Do you mind if I ask why you gave a rating of 8? What would need to be changed to get you to a nine or a 10?”

Give Pain Examples

• Sharing examples of pain that other prospects or clients often experience

“We work with a lot with businesses that say it is time consuming and difficult to run a global report. Is that something that you can relate to?”

• Can share one example or share multiple during a cold call

Wish List Questions

• Asking questions to identify what the prospect would wish to change

“If you could wave a wand and have any functionality added to your current system, what would you add?”

“If you could eliminate any of the existing challenges, which would you get rid of first?”

“If you could eliminate any of the existing manual processes, which would you automate first?”

Disqualify

• Disqualify the prospect from having pain

– “Well, it sounds like you all are doing pretty good.”

• Prospect will either disagree with your disqualification or confirm it

• Last resort tactic to try to uncover pain

Identify Impact

1. Impact on a technical level

2. Impact on a business level

3. Impact on a personal level

Magnify or Minimize Pain

• Magnify Pain– Identifies that the pain impact is

problematic– Qualifies a prospect– Helps to create a lead

• Minimize Pain– Identifies that the pain impact is

marginal– Disqualifies a prospect– Avoids creating a low quality lead

Using Pain to Improve Emails

• Identify the pains that you help to resolve– Not able to generate leads

• Build content pieces– 3 Ways to Generate More Leads

• Send email with content piece– Develop a pain focused subject line

• Pain will help to grab the prospect’s attention

• Track “clicks” and “opens”– Prospects are self-qualifying – Make follow-up calls to “clicks” first, “opens” next

Key Takeaways• Pain is something that is not working well or could be working better for your

prospects

• It is important to find pain because if there is no pain, there is no real reason for your prospects to meet with you and purchase anything from you

• There can be three levels of pain – technical, business, and personal

• Pain can be very challenging to uncover on a cold call and there are some simple to use tactics to help with this

• Once you have identified pain, continue to find out more and how that pain is impacting the prospect

Messaging Workflow

Product

Value

Pain

Qualify

Objections

SalesScripter

www.salesscripter.com

What do you sell? ___________

How does it help? ___________

What problems do you fix? ___________

What questions should you ask? ___________

1. Asks all the key questions 2. Maps answers to document library

If You Want More Help• The Cold Calling Equation – Problem Solved

– Available on Amazon - $15.95

• Web-based training program– Week 1: Ideal Sales Process and Communicating Value– Week 2: Finding Prospect Pain– Week 3: Ideal Prospect and Qualifying– Week 4: Dealing with Objections and Getting Around the Gatekeeper– Week 5: Building Rapport, Interest, and Credibility– Week 6: Generating Leads and SalesScripter Overview– Week 7: Improving the Connect Rate– Week 8: Inner Game– Week 9: Managing Prospecting Meetings and Managing Sales Cycles– Week 10: Improving the Close Rate and Disqualifying

• SalesScripter– www.salesscripter.com – Walk-through services available

• SalesScripter Demonstration – Every Thursday

www.salesscripter.com | info@salesscripter.com | 713-802-2026