Sell Problems not Solutions

2. Sell Problems not Solutions

[00:00:00] And welcome to the Sell the Sizzle podcast. This is the show. If you want to sell an idea, a product, or a service, we're gonna share sales techniques with you so that you can be a sizzling success. Let's go.

Welcome fellow Sizzler. Today's episode is all about selling problems, not solutions. Okay, so what are we talking about here? Well, look, most salespeople focus on what they do or how they do it, how their product works, um, and uh, and how you know a little bit about their company, but your prospect is less interested in the what or the how.

They have a pressing. [00:01:00] Need or problem. And they want to know that you understand their problem, empathize with it, and they want to feel as though you've, you know how to solve that problem. And the key here is if you are able to articulate their problem better than they can themselves, you have. Infinite credibility, they'll be looking to you as an expert and they'll be lapping up every word that you tell them.

So how do we focus on problems? Cuz the other thing about if you are able to demonstrate that you can solve their problem, they'll pay a premium for your service. And I'll give you a little bit of an example. Um, we've got three people. Sally, Tom and Leslie, right? And they, and, uh, they, they're all suffering from a splitting headache.

So Sally's head is throbbing and she can't sleep at night. Tom, he's got the sniff sniffles and a [00:02:00] pounding head, and Leslie has a huge headache between her, her eyes and can't concentrate. So they all have the same. Um, knee, they've got a, the same issue. They've got a headache, right? But they'll be drawn to solutions that intimately speak to their problem.

So if they walked into their local pharmacy and wandered down the painkiller aisle, they probably buy the product that identifies most. Strongly with solving their problem. And there's, there are millions of painkillers in the pharmacy. But look, so Sally, Sally's got this throbbing head and she can't sleep at night, and she sees Advil pm It says that it can solve her pain and help her sleep.

Sleep. Tom's got the sniffles and headache, so he's drawn to Advil, cold and flu. And [00:03:00] Leslie, who's got this, Splitting pain between her eyes will go and pick up a packet of Advil Migraine. Well, here's the thing, they've all got the same thing in it. They're all 200 milligrams of ibuprofen. Uh uh. So it's all about the packaging and the, and the other, uh, thing here is that people will pay a premium for those branded.

Names, you know, you can go and get generic ibuprofen at probably, you know, 25% less. But because I think, oh no, I've got a migraine I need, you don't think ibuprofen. You think, oh, it's got migraine on the packet, Advil migraine, and so people will be drawn. To that. So when you are selling your solution, you want to, you want to envelop it, you want to package it around that specific problem.

Let me give you a an example. You know, if you were selling, [00:04:00] uh, you know, commercial, commercial floors, for example, and you are selling to property managers. So property managers, you know, they manage, uh, you know, many, many different buildings. And occasionally, um, their. Their floors need, their floors need upgrading.

And let's take Sam to Tom and Leslie now, we've solved their headache. They're actually property managers. So Sally, she's got mostly corporate tenants in her building. People who are into into business. Um, Tom, he's got an eclectic group of tenants and they tend to turn over much more quickly. And then Leslie.

Uh, she focuses on her buildings are designed for medical practitioners, dentists, doctors, cosmetic surgeons, and they all want a new floor. Like, like they all needed a painkiller for their headache, but their underlying problems. A subtly different. So [00:05:00] we need to find out what they are so we can wrap our commercial floor with the right packaging, cuz they could go to Acme discount flooring and get some basic wood floors or some carpeting and get the generic low Bri price version.

But you want to be able to sell your brand, which has got some cache. So the winner will be the one. Who appears to address the property manager's problems. So Sally, for example, knows her corporate tenants and, and particularly their owners who pay the bills, place a premium on the image. These owners are adamant about creating great first impressions.

So her problem is creating an environment that wows when you enter the building. Your bid. Therefore, if you were selling a floor, should emphasize how magnificent the entry lobby would look. Now Tom, remember his client's turnover quite quickly, so he wants to make sure that he minimizes the, [00:06:00] minimizes the downtime between when his old tenants move out and new ones move in.

So his problem is managing his cash flow. So you, in order to win his business, you wanna demonstrate how quickly you can get in, how, how quickly you can address this quick turn capability that you've got off the shelf stock products and solutions, and the speed of your installation is your core competence.

He's gonna, he's gonna go with you now, Leslie. Remember, she's got medical tenants and you, you know, that medical practitioners like to have that calm, serene, professional, clean environment. So they, Leslie doesn't want her tenants to be disturbed by noise or dust. So you would emphasize in your bid there that you've got, you know, Um, uh, your ability to minimize dust and noise when you do the [00:07:00] installation.

And in fact, some of the materials that you are going to use will have an acoustic absorbing quality, so it will create that very serene and environment that they're looking for. So their needs are all the same. They all wanted a flaw, but their specific problems will dictate what they're attracted to.

So when you are talking to your prospects, think about and, uh, you know what they're specific problems. Probe. Ask them what they're really, really concerned about. And another way to enhance credibility. They want to know that you, that you have solved, uh, the, the, the problem before and you want to be able to give them some, some.

Indication that you understand their problem intimately, not just that surface layer, but you go a little bit deeper. So, for example, you might be selling, um, h HVAC system. So you are doing all of the ventilation for, [00:08:00] uh, you know, uh, a large building. And you're up for a, up for a bid. And you might want to educate your buyer into the nature of the problem because they, what do they want?

They want, they want a good ventilation system that's reliable. Well, you and many of your competitors can do that. But what if you said and started to educate them a little bit about the problem to indicate that you knew. More about that problem. You've seen it before. You could, you could bring some studies in.

And here's, um, some, some information. I think it's from the, uh, uh, Lawrence Livermore, uh, labs did a study on air quality and they found that when workers, when indoor pollutants were removed, um, Workers saw a four to 16% increase in the speed and accuracy of selected office work tasks. [00:09:00] Um, they also found that buildings, office buildings with above average ventilation rates have a 10, have 10 to 80% fewer sick building syndromes at work.

So those two. Factors, you could put that in it's industry data. It shows that you have some expert knowledge, industry knowledge. You understand the problem, the implications of that problem. So now you've seeded them with the, with with, with being able to articulate the problem, peel it back, understand some of the.

Dimensions of it. When you go on then to talk about your ventilation system, you are gonna emphasize how effective your hepa, uh, system is at Remu, removing those nasty particles and the fact that the ventilation and the flow from your system is very lamina and very, um, uh, uh, high speed, but very [00:10:00] low. Um, noise so that when people walk into your building, it will feel as though they're, you know, that beautiful smell when you walk into a, a forest first thing in the morning with all that beautiful, um, you know, uh, negative irons that give you energy.

Now they're gonna be drawn. To your solution much more than if you just spelled out, here are the technical specifications of my filter. You know, the ventilation speed, uh, you know how quickly we can do that installation, right? Everybody's talking about that. But because you've enriched their problem and got them to think about, Well, what would sick building syndrome mean?

Uh, what would it be if I could actually get more productivity in my, I want your solution. I want your solution, cuz it speaks to my problem much more intimately. So, in summary, think about. The client's problem. Don't [00:11:00] overemphasize your product, your service, your solution. Talk about the problem, expand the problem.

Give them some dimensions, make them understand how, um, Significant that problem is, and the implications of that problem. And when you've seeded that, wrap your packaging around your ability to dress those problem elements and you will win more deals and you'll be able to com. Um, you'll be able to command a price premium.

So there we go. That's it for this week.

And sadly, we've come to the end of another great episode. If you enjoyed it, please leave as a review. Go to Apple Podcasts and leave as a review. If you are looking for a little bit more detail, a little bit more background, and some of the show notes you can go to. Pod [00:12:00] page.com/sell the sizzle. That's pod page.com/sell the sizzle.

See you next week.