One of the most important aspects of The Sandler Selling System is that you shouldn't sell based on features and benefits but sell based on addressing the pains your prospect is experiencing.
Sandler Rule #34: No pain, no sale
Unfortunately, prospects usually only share surface-level pains. There are actually three levels of pain your prospect experiences, whether they're aware of it or not. Let's take a look at all three levels of pain and the role of good questions in guiding the sales conversation.
1. Surface Pain
Surface pain is the first level of pain a prospect typically mentions when you begin a sales conversation. These are the obvious issues, the symptoms on the surface that are easy to identify. For example, a prospect might mention that their software is outdated and causing inefficiencies or that their team is struggling with communication. While these concerns are genuine, they only scratch the surface of the real problems.
Examples of surface pain indicators include:
- Frequent technical glitches or system downtimes
- Low employee morale or engagement
- Inefficient workflows or processes
- High levels of workplace stress
- Poor interdepartmental communication
Surface pain is important because it gets the conversation started, but it's crucial to recognize that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Prospects often won't volunteer deeper concerns unless prompted, so your job as a salesperson is to dig deeper to understand the broader implications.
2. Business Impact
Once you've identified the surface pain, the next step is to explore the business impact. This is where you begin to uncover how the surface pain is affecting the prospect's organization. The business impact delves into questions like:
- "How is this challenge affecting your team's productivity?"
- "What is the financial impact of these inefficiencies?"
- "What impact is this having on your team's overall efficiency or output?"
- "How is this problem influencing your company's long-term goals or strategic plans?"
- "What effect is this issue having on your resource allocation or budget planning?"
- "How has this challenge affected your company's reputation in the market?"
Understanding the business impact is crucial because it quantifies the cost or consequence of the problem. For example, if a sales team isn't hitting targets, the business impact might be lost revenue, lower market share, or missed growth opportunities. By identifying the business impact, you help the prospect see the broader ramifications of the surface pain, which can make them more motivated to find a solution.
3. Personal Impact
The deepest level of pain is the personal impact. This level addresses how the business pain affects the individual personally. Personal impact might involve stress, job security concerns, or the prospect's own professional goals. For instance, if a sales manager's team isn't performing, they might be worried about how this reflects on their leadership or if their job might be at risk.
Examples of potential personal impacts include:
- Strain on personal relationships: A spouse or partner may be frustrated with the long hours at work, leading to tension at home or even threats of leaving if work-life balance doesn't improve.
- Fear of losing their job: The prospect may worry that continued business issues could lead to their termination or demotion.
- Health issues: The stress from unresolved business problems might be causing health problems, such as insomnia, high blood pressure, or chronic fatigue.
- Missed family events: The individual might be missing important family milestones or events, leading to feelings of guilt or regret.
- Loss of self-esteem: Ongoing challenges at work could be diminishing the prospect's confidence in their abilities or sense of professional worth.
Personal impact is where decisions are often made. While business impact can highlight the need for change, it's the personal impact that drives urgency. When a prospect feels that their own well-being or success is at stake, they're more likely to act. This is why uncovering personal impact is a critical part of the sales process.
Asking the right questions
To move through these levels of pain, you need to ask the right questions.
- Surface Pain Questions: Start with broad, open-ended questions that allow the prospect to express their initial concerns. For example, "What challenges are you currently facing with your sales team?" or "What issues are you experiencing with your current software?"
- Business Impact Questions: Once the surface pain is identified, dig deeper by asking about the business consequences. Questions like, "How has this issue affected your company's growth?" or "What are the financial implications of this problem?" help to quantify the impact and make the pain more tangible.
- Personal Impact Questions: To reach the personal impact level, you need to ask more sensitive questions that touch on the individual's personal concerns. Examples include, "How is this situation affecting you personally?" or "What impact does this issue have on your role or career goals?" These questions encourage the prospect to reveal how the problem is affecting them on a personal level, which is often the key to driving a decision.
Active listening
Asking good questions is only half the battle—you also need to listen actively. Active listening means fully engaging with what the prospect is saying, picking up on cues that can guide your next question. For instance, if a prospect mentions that they're "frustrated" with a situation, that's a signal to explore that emotion further. You might ask, "What specifically about this situation is causing frustration?" or "How has this frustration impacted your workday?"
Active listening not only helps you uncover deeper levels of pain but also builds rapport with the prospect. It shows that you're genuinely interested in their problems and committed to finding a solution that addresses their needs.
Connecting pain to your solution
Once you've identified the surface pain, business impact, and personal impact, you can start guiding the prospect through the next steps of the sales process. As you move forward, your goal is to eventually connect your insights to the solution you're offering, positioning your product or service as the comprehensive answer to the prospect's pain points at all three levels.
For instance, if you're offering a new manufacturing process improvement solution, you might start by addressing the surface pain (e.g., frequent production delays), then demonstrate how your solution can improve business outcomes (e.g., increased production efficiency and reduced downtime), and finally, highlight how it will alleviate the personal stress the prospect is experiencing due to the pressure of meeting production targets and managing operational inefficiencies.
By linking your solution to the specific pains you've uncovered, you create a compelling case for why the prospect should choose your product or service. This approach makes it clear that you understand their unique challenges and are offering a targeted solution that addresses their deepest concerns.
Driving the sale
Understanding and addressing personal impact is crucial in guiding the prospect through the decision-making process. By this point in the conversation, your role is to help the prospect see how their pain affects them personally and how your solution aligns with their specific needs.
When a prospect fully realizes that your solution not only resolves their business challenges but also alleviates personal stress, enhances job security, or supports their personal goals, they often reach the conclusion on their own that your solution is the best fit. The aim is not to "close the deal" in the traditional sense but to facilitate the prospect's self-discovery of the value your solution offers.
As the conversation progresses, reinforce the personal benefits by reflecting on what the prospect has shared. Highlight how your solution will solve the specific pains they've shared with you. By focusing on the personal impact, you empower the prospect to see the value in taking action, tapping into their emotional drivers, which often outweigh purely logical considerations.
Connecting the dots
While the concept of moving from surface pain to personal impact is relatively easy to understand, mastering it in practice takes time and persistence. At first, it may feel awkward to ask deeper questions or to push beyond the initial pain points, and you won’t always get it right. But like any skill, it requires practice. The more you stick with it, the more natural it will become, and the better you’ll get at uncovering the real drivers behind your prospect’s decisions.
By consistently applying these techniques—asking the right questions, actively listening, and connecting the insights to your solution—you’ll not only make your offering more compelling but also position yourself as a trusted advisor who genuinely understands and cares about the prospect's success. Over time, this approach will lead to more meaningful connections and, ultimately, more successful sales outcomes.