Selling pain works better than pleasure
Most of their stories were variants on at least one of three themes. We have heard about:
Commodity price pressure: With many more responders to every request for proposal, the bidding war is intense. Winners are often bidding so low that others wonder how the work can get done.
Even your great clients are asking for price concessions, not only because they are cutting costs but because your competitors are promising lower prices than yours.
Prospects are eyeing every dollar decision and making sure they shop around. It is much harder to make new sales.
Stagnant growth: Flat is the new up. Firms that formerly grew upwards of 10 percent per year are scratching to grow 2 percent. Firms that had more modest growth during the boom are losing market share.
Firms that put in aggressive sales systems, have strong niche marketing and know their competitive differentiation are holding their own. Those that depended on referrals and word-of-mouth are finding it really tough out there as the low-hanging fruit dries up.
Competitors are calling your best clients and offering some very aggressive pricing, especially on specific services like audits.
We may die here: With growth so hard to achieve, senior partners and owners are wondering how their buy-outs will be funded.
Companies that depend on a few senior rainmakers to bring in new work are taking a serious look at the younger generation and wondering where the rainmakers are.
Mergers are happening within middle-size firms as small groups of professionals split off to form boutique firms, after the original succession plan has been scrapped.
What sells now
What worked well in 2005 does not cut it anymore. There has been a clear shift from selling prospects on the pleasures of your business to selling the pain that a prospect will experience if he or she doesn’t choose you. It’s less about convincing prospects to choose you and more about exploring the nightmares they will continue to experience without your support. Here’s what I mean:
Selling pleasure means outstanding service, consistent teams, beautiful offices and a pretty website, a fun team with office parties featured on Facebook, giving back to the community, etc.
Selling pleasure takes the form of lunches, small gifts and information about your company with gentle persistence. You can talk no more than 50 percent of the time during this sales conversation. It is about rapport-building with the client, but also about you and the absolute happiness that the client will experience with you. It is a conversation that requires a medium level of skill.
In marketing, pleasure looks like “happy client” testimonials, an upscale-looking brand and key messages focusing on the talents and service ethic of your people. You can use a lot of advertising because the message is more you-focused. You need lots of sales support materials to hand out at trade shows. You respond to most requests for proposal that look good because competition is low and you land a fair number of them.
What works better in a recessionary climate is to sell pain. You have to dig deeply into your clients’ or prospects’ psyches and help them identify what really keeps them up at night, their background fears and challenges in this economy. You have to make it safe for them to tell you everything, including how much it might be costing them to keep their current provider. You have to help them feel unsafe with keeping their pain, but safe in handing it over to you. It is a conversation that requires a high level of skill.
In sales, getting at pain takes the form of questions – a business therapy session. You have to create intelligent questions that will allow your prospects to think through their issues and fears and then share them with you.
Pain selling means that you talk for about 10 percent of the conversation, much less than you could when selling pleasure. It is a complete overhaul of most sales systems. The questions have to be non-threatening, but help people open up. If you give them pain statements, such as, “You must have low sales due to the recession,” you can easily make people feel defensive, which means you do not get the sale.
Be the ‘best place’
Marketing also takes a shift in a pain economy. Instead of focusing on how nice your people are or their outside interests, it is time to prove that your company is the “best place to turn to” for specific needs.
Virtually all prospects now spend some time looking up their next vendors on Google. You cannot afford a dusty website! Write articles of industry thought leadership on your site as well as strong expert-based bios and excellent product or service descriptions. This is the time to shine on all fronts – your reputation, your personal appearance, your website, your social media, your Google search results.
When people are afraid to spend money, you have to prove you’re worth it. Casual day is over for now.
The economy is definitely taking an uptick and companies are busy at something besides sales again. It might look like the worst is over, but don’t forget the lessons from 2008 through 2010: When the economy is tough or booming, focus on your sales and marketing. Spend money on it; get new training, fresh ideas and more systems. Hone in on the customer base that needs you the most.
Understand how to sell pain and when to sell them pleasure again.
