As usual, every time I read Seth Godin’s blog, my brainwaves begin oscillating at some peculiar, sometimes resonant frequencies – the mark of a good thought leader – the ability to cause resonance within that cavity betwixt the ears.
Seth’s premise in his post Sell the Problem is that most marketers try to sell the benefits and features of a solution to a problem that companies don’t necessarily recognize they even have. That when your prospects don’t wake up in the morning dreaming about how to solve that problem, or go to bed worrying about how much it’s costing to ignore the problem, they aren’t going to pay any attention to your solution either.
While I agree with his premise, I have a slightly different take on the real culprit. Whether we recognize something is a problem or not, most companies have more problems than they can possibly solve.
So what happens? Things get prioritized – and only the most important problems rise to the top of the list and get funded. Everything else, however valid a problem, must simply wait.
Trying to sell people on the problem isn’t the answer (in my opinion). Instead, finding ways to connect your solution to the highest-priority problems which are already funded and which the prospect is desperate to solve is where the best opportunity usually exists (there’s always an exception – like selling to non-consumers, who don’t believe there is a solution available).
Highlighting the problem is fine, so long as solving it is already a funded priority, especially when budgets are so very tight – as in today’s challenging economy. Trying to establish that priority is usually not a profitable way to run a campaign or business. It’s far better to find those who actually have the problem, recognize it and are motivated enough to pay for it to be solved – now – or at least soon.
So to sell more, we must identify the problems that companies (B2B) or people (B2C) are most desperate to solve. Then we can push their inherent pain buttons and offer them a solution to problems they already recognize they have. That’s a lot easier than selling them the problem.
Of course, it requires actually knowing what the customer’s most desperate problems are, what’s causing those problems to exist, the impacts of those problems continuing to exist untreated – and then it is possible for marketing and sales to push the pain and urgency buttons effectively so our solutions truly resonate within the mind of customers.
So my belief is it’s better to spend more time up front making sure we understand the problems that already cause customers pain and urgency, and which causes a desperation sufficient to prioritize funding high enough to buy a solution.
That’s far easier than trying to educate prospects on why they need your solution (or trying to sell the problem to them).
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Salesmen have a term for the “desparate buyer”; they call them “low-hanging fruit.” Unless your company is the market share leader in your space, it just makes sense to first target customers that appreciate the problem for which your company has the solution.
Exactly. It’s a lot easier to pick that low-handing fruit than climb up that tree. Of course, if all the low-hanging fruit has been picked, it’s time to grab the ladder!
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