Finding the root pain

In sales you have to understand why your customer is interested in even talking to you in the first place. In order to do this you need to find the true problem or pain that is under the surface that is making the customer look for a solution in the first place. In order to do this you need to utilize three tools: Questions, Follow up questions, and leading words. The use of these tools will allow you to get a better understanding of the customer and why it is they have come to you with their pain. To start out this process there is a top to bottom funnel that salespersons should follow. Firstly, ask a few questions, get a better understanding of your customer and let them lead the discussion. Secondly, when they are answering these questions, just listen through active listening you will be able to get a better understanding of the customer and what their pain is.

Thirdly, after listening you can start to explore just the surface of the pain often times just looking for the “tip of the iceberg”. Through exploring this you will be able to really understand the reason why they are there. Fourthly, dig deeper, continue to probe and figure out what the customer is going through, what the extent of their pain is, and maybe just maybe you’ll start to hear what they want. Fifthly, you will want to know if there are any implications that could affect the process or integrity of the sale. Finally, get to the REAL why of why the customer is there. After you have completed this you will be able to have a full or mostly full understanding of your customer, their pain, and the best solution to their problem. The most important part of this process is to continuing asking questions, you never know enough about your customer and you don’t want to jump the gun resulting in losing the sale.