Ouch, that hurts. How to make the pain big enough.

Probably the number one objection to buying that we hear today is “I can’t afford it”.  There are two ways to deal with this, which one works best?

Remembering that if we absolutely believe, knowing what we know about the customer’s situation and our solution, that the customer should buy, it is our duty to make sure they do.

A few years ago I went to the doctor.  I had slept awkwardly I think and my shoulder was hurting, a lot.  I couldn’t relax my arm or rest it anywhere.

So I went in to see an orthopedic specialist.  I think he knew what was wrong pretty quickly and he knew the solution was a steroid injection right into the joint.  It is a very unpleasant procedure, for a coward like me.

So what did he do?  He didn’t offer me the treatment immediately.  He started to rotate my arm under the pretence of diagnosing the condition.  It hurt.  He prodded it and poked it.  It hurt more.  He stretched it and pulled at the joint until it felt it was ripping apart.  After a while, his attention was almost more than I could bear, the pain was so great.

He then said, “you need an injection into the joint.”  Between gasps I screamed, “give it to me now”.

No objection, I just bought the solution.

There are two common ways to overcome the ‘price’ objection.  One is to make the product so appealing that the prospect cannot see being without it, but in today’s economy, that can be a long time in coming.  The other is to make the pain of not having the product too great to bear, whereby no price is too high.

Sometimes we have to poke and prod a bit to make a sale.

How do we make the pain big enough to warrant the sale?

     The problem.  If we start on the basis that our product or service is of course solving a problem, we should first establish the extent of the problem.  It is a diagnosis and the method is questioning.  What is the problem, how big is it of itself?  How long has it existed and is it getting bigger?

     The impact.  Now we want to know what impact this problem is having on the life or business of our customer?  What are the other areas that are affected by the problem?  Remember we are of course purely focusing on the problem, but we have to keep in mind our solution and guide the conversation accordingly.  Often it is only as we examine the impact that the problem starts to take on proportions inviting an immediate cure.

     The implications.  And if we don’t cure the problem, then what will happen?  The problem itself might not get bigger, but some of the resulting implications may grow.  Here we may be building in a time element and potential urgency to the requirement.

To make this work, we do need to have a really clear understanding of our prospect and of our product or service.  We must take time to think of the likely impact and implications of the problems we solve so that our diagnosis can be thorough.

The ‘Buying Balance’ at work in all sales says that the size (or pain) of the problem should exceed the size (or pain) of the cost.  Get your prospect crying with pain and your solution will be that much more palatable.  We sometimes have to be cruel to be kind.

Comments

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