Finding pain within a prospect is crucial to effective selling. With this being said it is important to find opportunity in pain. When asking good questions and going down the pain funnel it is important to capitalize on any opportunities in pain. If a prospect shares about some difficulty they have had in their workplace, it is important to keep digging and find the source of the pain. Once this is found you understand the client better and are able to help their problems more effectively. This is the opportunity in pain.
It is key to capitalize on this opportunity and use the pain they shared to truly help them. Not only do you serve them, it opens opportunities for more sales. Finding opportunity in pain is what sets apart a great salesperson. They are reactive to how the prospect answers and are able to dig for the real source of the pain. Next time you are in a sales conversation make sure to find opportunity in pain to serve the client and make another sale. Pain is needed in effective selling but what is ultimately more important is finding that pain and capitalizing on that opportunity to make the sale.
I like your analogy of finding pain to finding buried treasure. It really captures the reality of how important it is to find the pain and how much reward one can reap by finding it. A resolved pain point is a sale.
Great insight on Active listening, as you pointed out, by resisting the urge to jump into a sales pitch and instead asking open-ended questions, sales professionals can gain valuable insights into the challenges and frustrations faced by their prospects.