Professor Sweet has been preaching about the pain a customer experiences since the start of the semester. Discovering where a customer experiences pain and how this pain can be minimized is crucial in creating a successful selling environment. A customer can experience pain in a number of different ways, but it is on the salesman to pinpoint exactly what each customer is dealing with and catering their efforts towards solving those specific customer needs. The pain funnel we learned in class is a technique that salespeople can use to attempt to dig deeper into a customer’s journey and mind.
The pain funnel goes as so: Ask a few key questions- > Just listen-> Explore surface pain -> Dig Deeper -> Implications? -> Get to the REAL why
The first two steps in the pain funnel is asking a few questions and just listening. The crucial part in these steps is just listening. DO NOT try to talk too much and voice over the customer while they are communicating their surface pain to you. Let the customer do the talking and ask probing questions to facilitate an easy-going conversation that you can learn from. Too often salespeople try to jump to conclusions about a customer’s problem without truly sitting back and listening to their actual needs.
After exploring the customer’s surface pain it is time to dig deeper and focus around the real implications of the pain. Why is the customer feeling this way? What is causing them to feel this way? How can I help solve the customer’s problem? These are questions that you must ask yourself when dig deeper and finding the implications of a customer’s pain. A well-guided conversation and a good ear should allow you to get the customer to open right up about the REAL why they are experiencing these pain points. After understanding the real why, you should have a solid understanding of what your customer is experiencing and steps that you can take to solve their needs.
BoweryJE22
Minimizing the pain the customer goes through is key to selling wherever you are. You need to be able to keep them comfortable and not overload them with information or stuff that they do not care about. Talking too much is the perfect way to cause them pain, so letting them take control and asking questions and telling about themselves is something that will make them feel more comfortable and minimize the pain.
I like that you highlighted the part about making assumptions about the prospects pain and reiterating that we need to be letting them tell us what their pain is and digs continually for that rather than asking like one question nd instantly thinking we are an expert on their pain.
Good work! Have a great night!
-Collier