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Casual Articles - The Keys to the Kingdom: Finding PAIN
While it is not reasonable to say that the Internet has caused your everyday storefront to become redundant, there is definitely a trend towards browsing for services online. Consider this – if you need to find the location of a good or service, how often do you turn to sites like White and Yellow Pages? What was that you said; you’re using your paper copies as book ends? Me too. Tapping into the vast population of Internet users is vital to providing a well-rounded service. When surveyed, the majority of women said that they would be more inclined to use a store that had an online presence, regardless of whether they were planning to shop online or offline. What does this tell you? People invest a lot of their perception in technological advancement! According to Stanford University research, in the past ten years Internet usage has soared from essentially 0 per cent to almost 60 per cent in the United States. These 90 million or so people spend an average of 3 hours per day browsing the web and using email. There is incredible scope to have this time used
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was
Together with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, everyone is talking about the huge opportunities opening up in China. As the Chinese government is liberalizing the economy, industries such as tourism, manufacturing and service are investing their revenue especially for the upcoming Olympic Games.China expects a huge pre-Olympic investment boom and feels very optimistic towards the Beijing's Olympic economy. MNCs in the market sectors such as telecommunications, banking and real estate are planning to hop onto the bandwagon and take the chance to market their brand globally as the driving forces of the China market are prevailing. Ambitious companies from all over the world want a piece of the growing market benefits.Both domestic and foreign brands are trying to get hold of the chance to showcase their brand value. For local brands, the Olympics would help them to expose the brand internationally as foreigners would be entering China for the Olympics in 2008. Foreign investors are also trying to enter into the China market as the Chinese government is liberalizing the
One day I was talking with one of the technicians at Lanier named Bill Wilbur. We were talking about why people paid more for some things than others did. Bill said something that I never will forget; “You can’t pay too much for something you really want!” Over the years I have found this statement to be right on the money. If this is the case then how do you get your prospect to really want your product? The answer is simple. Get them to see your product solving a major problem for them. How do you do this? The key is asking the right PAIN questions.
When you go to the doctor they don’t immediately start trying to sell you on the benefits of what they are going to prescribe. Before a doctor can help you with your PAIN he has to ask you diagnostic questions. A great salesperson is like a great doctor. They know how to ask great diagnostic questions. One of things I have done to help myself with formulating diagnostic questions is to use the acronym PAIN. PAIN stands for problem, anxiety, interests, and needs.
PROBLEMS
Every business in America has problems. For some businesses, cash flow is a major problem. For other businesses, declining revenues can be the challenge they are trying to deal with. If you walk into an appointment with a list of PAIN questions you significantly increase your odds of success. Ask yourself before you walk into an appointment, “If I were the CEO of XYZ Company, what problems would I most likely be faced with?” If possible talk to vendors you know who call on the account, to see if they can give you any insight into what problems that company might be facing.
ANXIETY
A great way to set up PAIN questions is to say to the prospect, “Because I want to truly become your partner, one of the things I want to discover is what keeps you up at night?” What keeps people up at night is what they are anxious about. It may be meeting the next payroll or paying for a product that has already been sold. The more anxious your prospect becomes the greater your chances of an immediate sale.
INTERESTS
Just as you can fairly accurately predict what problems a business may face, you can also predict what interest they may have. If you are calling on an automobile dealership chances are fairly high that they will be interested in trends in the oil industry. Prices of oil and gas can have a direct impact on car sales. If you are calling on a shipping company, governmental regulations can impact their bottom line and profitability. Being able to discuss outside influences on a particular industry will separate you from your competition that is selling only the features of their product.
NEEDS
What is the difference between a want and a need? A want is something you would like to have whereas a need is something you have to have. A Company may want a new phone system but be unable to justify the expense. If you can show a company how they are losing customers and therefore revenue, then that same phone system can become a need. Look for ways in which your product can directly impact revenue or expenses and then you can show how your product is needed.
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was
As like any other person who works in a customer service job, I surely get to see my fair share of customer complaints. Just about on a daily basis, some one or the other comes in to our store to complain about the product or the service or perhaps even both. Although it would not be right to say that all customers are annoying, there are those customers, who especially aggravate me with their right to customer complaints. Please allow me to explain.Few weeks back, there was this guy who ‘mistakenly’ bought a pair of shoes with two left feet. Well, that is the truth. As a matter of fact the shoes department is the one with a fairly high number of customer complaints. This gentleman bought the shoes alright, but if he were like you or me, he would have realized that there was something wrong the first time he tried them on. To top it off, he managed to wear these shoes for an almost continuous period of three months before a colleague pointed out that there was something wrong. That is when he came back to the store to lodge a customer complaints a
PROBLEMS
Every business in America has problems. For some businesses, cash flow is a major problem. For other businesses, declining revenues can be the challenge they are trying to deal with. If you walk into an appointment with a list of PAIN questions you significantly increase your odds of success. Ask yourself before you walk into an appointment, “If I were the CEO of XYZ Company, what problems would I most likely be faced with?” If possible talk to vendors you know who call on the account, to see if they can give you any insight into what problems that company might be facing.
ANXIETY
A great way to set up PAIN questions is to say to the prospect, “Because I want to truly become your partner, one of the things I want to discover is what keeps you up at night?” What keeps people up at night is what they are anxious about. It may be meeting the next payroll or paying for a product that has already been sold. The more anxious your prospect becomes the greater your chances of an immediate sale.
INTERESTS
Just as you can fairly accurately predict what problems a business may face, you can also predict what interest they may have. If you are calling on an automobile dealership chances are fairly high that they will be interested in trends in the oil industry. Prices of oil and gas can have a direct impact on car sales. If you are calling on a shipping company, governmental regulations can impact their bottom line and profitability. Being able to discuss outside influences on a particular industry will separate you from your competition that is selling only the features of their product.
NEEDS
What is the difference between a want and a need? A want is something you would like to have whereas a need is something you have to have. A Company may want a new phone system but be unable to justify the expense. If you can show a company how they are losing customers and therefore revenue, then that same phone system can become a need. Look for ways in which your product can directly impact revenue or expenses and then you can show how your product is needed.
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was
There are so many ways of making money from a home based business. There are a lot of products than can be made at home to sell and there are a many that can be sourced from various suppliers as well. It is not necessary to make everything your self that you want to sell. You might want to render some sort of service that can be done from your home.Think about how many things can be done from your home based business. If you have floristry qualifications or can make curtains and cushions or do upholstery and furniture repairing, this can all be done from your home. Anyone who is a dress maker or tailor, are always welcome in any community as their services are always required. All these things can be done from home and bring in a lucrative income.Before you decide to resign your job first draw up a step by step plan of what you are going to do to achieve your dream of owning your own business. It is very important to do market research and make sure that whatever it is you want to do will have a place in the local market. If you have a product to sell try an
ANXIETY
A great way to set up PAIN questions is to say to the prospect, “Because I want to truly become your partner, one of the things I want to discover is what keeps you up at night?” What keeps people up at night is what they are anxious about. It may be meeting the next payroll or paying for a product that has already been sold. The more anxious your prospect becomes the greater your chances of an immediate sale.
INTERESTS
Just as you can fairly accurately predict what problems a business may face, you can also predict what interest they may have. If you are calling on an automobile dealership chances are fairly high that they will be interested in trends in the oil industry. Prices of oil and gas can have a direct impact on car sales. If you are calling on a shipping company, governmental regulations can impact their bottom line and profitability. Being able to discuss outside influences on a particular industry will separate you from your competition that is selling only the features of their product.
NEEDS
What is the difference between a want and a need? A want is something you would like to have whereas a need is something you have to have. A Company may want a new phone system but be unable to justify the expense. If you can show a company how they are losing customers and therefore revenue, then that same phone system can become a need. Look for ways in which your product can directly impact revenue or expenses and then you can show how your product is needed.
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was
In today's global economy, it is not only trade that is international. It’s the companies and their employees too. Therefore it’s increasingly common to have companies with a variety of languages spoken in the divisions. So perhaps we should expect that translation of internal reports and communications is a regular occurrence?I have worked at some pretty large international companies and from my own experience most businesses have not adapted to the language needs of the company. In fact most have not localized and translated their mission statement.What seems to happen is either: 1) the company informally states that there is a single core language of the company and therefore the translation of internal reports and communications is not required. 2) An internal effort is made to ‘translate’ information on an as requested basis.Let us consider these in turn: Single Language Company – Trying to pretend that you have a single language company when you don’t, is a ‘head in the sand’ approach. This can lead to some of the following issues: 1) Alienati
NEEDS
What is the difference between a want and a need? A want is something you would like to have whereas a need is something you have to have. A Company may want a new phone system but be unable to justify the expense. If you can show a company how they are losing customers and therefore revenue, then that same phone system can become a need. Look for ways in which your product can directly impact revenue or expenses and then you can show how your product is needed.
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was
Without clients we have no business. In too many companies however, the goal is grow the client base as fast as possible. Unfortunately, that may not be the smartest or most effective way of increasing the bottom line. A better goal than simply attracting new clients is to attract and then continually deepen client relationships.The more closely we get to know our clients, the better we can serve them. The better we serve them, the more likely they will spend more with us and the more probable it is that they will refer others.It is common knowledge that it is less expensive to sell additional products and services to current clients than to attract and sell to new clients. But how do you do that? The trick is getting to know your clients so well that they begin to share their challenges and long-term goals. When you begin to understand what your clients are trying to accomplish, you can begin to help them come up with solutions. Working jointly with your clients to help them create the future puts you in a different light. As partners it becomes easier to grow toge
I’M NOT FEELING VERY SICK!
A great exercise for a salesperson is to role-play asking PAIN questions. Have a third person announce after every question how sick they perceive the prospect is. I might ask a question such as “How is your business going right now?” To this question the prospect responds “Pretty well.” At this point I haven’t uncovered any PAIN and the third person might respond, “Looks like they are feeling fine to me.” Keep trying until you start to get comments like, ”Uh oh, they’re looking pretty sick.”
TWO REASONS YOU MAKE EVERY DECISION IN YOUR LIFE
Many years ago I attended a training session in Atlanta, Georgia for IBM. The focus of the training was “Why people buy?” What we learned is that people make decisions for one of two reasons. The first reason people make a decision is to avoid PAIN or because they are afraid they will lose something if they don’t make the decision. If I am afraid my car is going to keep breaking down and I may lose my job I may look at buying a new car. The second reason people make a decision is because they feel they may gain from the decision. If I am twenty-two years old and want to look good to the opposite sex, I may also look at buying a car.
A helpful exercise for a salesperson is to list some of the negative consequences a prospect may face if they don’t buy your product. Converse to that, it may be helpful to list some of the things a prospect may gain if they do buy from you.
WHO IS IN CONTROL?
Most salespeople feel like it is important to control sales calls. Many times I have asked a salesperson after a call “How do you think that went?” To this they reply, “I though it went great.” Then I will ask, “Why do you think so?” Full of excitement they will say, “Well, it seemed like they really liked the frame relay we discussed, and the Internet, and the long distance, and local services, etc.” Then I’ll ask, “Who do you think was in control of this appointment?” Once again, with excitement, they will say “Oh I was.” “Who did most of the talking?” The salesperson replies, “I guess I did.” Finally it begins to sink in. THE PERSON WHO ASKS THE QUESTIONS IS IN CONTROL OF THE APPOINTMENT!
GOAL OF A SALES CALL
Your goal as a salesperson should be to find out as much about the prospect as you possibly can while talking as little as you can. When I was in high school a very successful local business man in Panama City, Florida, Tommy Thomas, would give every graduating senior a copy of the book How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. He said that the number one reason he did this was because the book clearly communicated the message, “The person who asks the questions is in control.” Most salespeople suffer from the old school mentality that sales is “show up and throw up.” Provide people with so much information they will have to buy. Invest time getting to know your client.
One of the most exciting things about being in the profession of sales is the opportunity to learn about so many different types of businesses. Learn as much as you possibly can about the clients you are working with. People can sense when you are genuinely interested in them and their business. Whether you are in a one call close business or a one-year close business treat each appointment as a chance to learn something about your client’s business.
MAKE THEM SICK AND THEN MAKE THEM WELL
The better a salesperson becomes at finding PAIN, the more sales they will make. Given a choice between a salesperson that can ask great questions and a salesperson that has great closing skills, I will take the salesperson with great questions any day.
EXAMPLES OF GREAT PAIN QUESTIONS
* What are the greatest challenges you are currently faced with?
* If you could recreate your company, how would it look?
* What’s the most import
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