How to Avoid the Common Mistake of Selling on Pain
Pain is a very powerful sales tool
Buyers typically don’t care about you and your company. They have no interest in your features and benefits. They are really only concerned about themselves and their company. If you can get a buyer to open up to you about their problems, and if you can solve them, then you are in a much better place to make a sale.
This is where many sales people run into problems
The traditional approach is that you contact a buyer, you ask them about their pain and then you are in a great place to win a client! However, what happens if a typical buyer is approached by a sales person they do not know and asked to talk about their company challenges? Very few are prepared to talk about these issues to someone who has only just contacted them. As a buyer, when new sales people asked me about my pains I usually told them where to go!
How do you persuade buyers to talk about pain?
The conversation is much easier if you already know about your prospect’s pains. I often make an approach along the lines that I help my clients overcome a certain problem. Often the prospect then replies that they suffer that issue too. I have started the pain conversation without the prospect having to explain their issues to me. However, this only works if I know what my prospect is likely to respond to.
How do you know what pain to approach a prospect with?
The answer is surprisingly simple. Talk to another company like theirs. If you have an existing client in a similar sector, talk to them and make sure you understand what is driving them to use print and why they chose you. Your current clients can help you make very effective sales messages.
Learn the exact process I use for this in my book How To Stop Print Buyers Choosing On Price. The premium version includes all the scripts and questionnaires that I use.
PS Find out more ideas on how to engage with today’s buyers: download my free e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors and What To Do About Them” right now at http://profitableprintrelationships.com/e-book/ You’ll also receive my regular “Views from the print buyer” bulletin, full of ideas on how to sell print effectively
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Many printing companies are frustrated how hard it is to engage buyers in today’s world. That’s where Matthew Parker can help. He is a gamekeeper turned poacher. Parker has bought print for more than 20 years and received over 1,400 print sales pitches. He now uses his buyer’s point of view to give practical advice to printers. He helps them engage with prospects and customers to create profitable relationships.
Download his free e-book, "Ten Common Print Selling Errors And What To Do About Them" and check out his recently launched book, "How To Succeed At Print Sales: Setting targets, planning the right activities and making sure goals are met."
