What are Your Prospect's Compelling Needs?

Think for a moment about the best sales presentation you’ve ever made: you did your research on the prospect, you put together a killer PowerPoint deck, you gave them all your reasons to buy, tons of features and benefits, and you even cut them a deal on the price. But the prospect didn’t buy! Why?

The reason is that people don’t buy features and benefits; they buy solutions to their problems – that is, prospects buy for their reasons, not your reasons. The problems your prospects may be experiencing often result in “pain.” And why is “pain” such a powerful motivator for people to take action? The reason is that, although we typically make decisions intellectually by analyzing the data, the facts, the pricing, the reviews – we ultimately buy emotionally. If you doubt that, think about the number of spur-of-the-moment impulse purchases you have made. Did they make sense? Were they the least expensive? Or did you buy based on some sort of emotional satisfaction you received?

Of the gamut of emotional stimuli a person is likely to experience, they can all be categorized into three underlying emotions: pleasure, fear and pain. And of those three, we know that most people will go much further out of their way to alleviate pain than they will to acquire pleasure.

So, in the qualification process with your prospect, it’s imperative that you uncover any “pain” you can potentially solve with a well-thought-out questioning process – one that uncovers the problem the prospect is experiencing, the reasons for that problem and the personal impact the problem will have on the prospect by not solving it. Without “pain,” it will be difficult for a buyer to act on your proposed solution with any sense of urgency. The rule is “No Pain, No Sale!”