Don’t Just "Sell the Problem", Quantify It

A recent blog post, Sell the Problem, by renowned Marketing Guru and Author Seth Godin explains how "No

business buys a solution for a problem they don't have." And yet, so many B2B marketers launch into

presenting the cool features and functions of their product, without taking the time to understand if the

person on the other end of the conversation/call/letter believes they even have a problem that the product

hopes to solve.

According to Mr. Godin, when a prospect comes to the table and says, "we have a problem," then you're both

on the same side of the table when it comes time to solve it. On the other hand, if they're at the table because

you're persistent or charming, the only problem they have is, "how do I get out of here."

Product Selling No Longer Works The Product Selling approach, pitching prospects on the features, functions and price of the solution, relies on

the buyer first understanding their problem, that the problem is a priority, and then relies on the buyer

making the connection of how your solution can solve the issues they have. This is a big leap to expect any

buyer to take, and few make it, leading to stalled sales processes, and elongated sales cycles.

Solution Selling is Better, but Not Adequate Today The good news is that many B2B marketers have recognized the issues with the Product Selling approach and

have advanced to a Solution Selling approach. Solution Selling involves understanding buyer pain points, an

inquiry of "what keeps the buyer up at night", and mapping solutions to the pain points. The issue with this

approach is that it relies on the buyer to accurately know and communicate their issues. Too often however,

we find that buyers are struggling with too few resources and information overload, and as a result, these

decision makers are often unaware of serious issues they have, or the prioritization of these issues.

Value Selling is a Requirement Today's buyer is in need of a more proactive engagement, one that provides consultative diagnostic

assistance. This approach is called Value Selling, where the dialogue seeks to illuminate issues the prospect

didn't even know they had, much as a doctor diagnosis a patient based on indicative symptoms.

So what does this approach look like in practice? Seth explained a great example, of how an architectural firm

was struggling to sell space utilization optimization services. The challenge to the architectural firms was that

more often than not, the prospects didn't think they had space allocation problem, and as a result, weren't

looking for a solution, and weren't receptive to meetings / proposals.

Pitching the services fell on buyers who didn’t think solving space utilization issues was a priority, so what

could the architectural firm do to "sell the problem"? "As Mr. Godin indicates, the solution resided in the

paradox, "a lot of people aren't willing to embrace that they have a problem unless they also believe that

there's a solution... so part of selling a problem is hinting that there's a solution that others are using, or is

right around the corner.".

"Imagine, for example, getting the data and publishing a list of the top 50 firms, ranked by efficiency of space

use. All of a sudden, the bottom half of the list realizes that yes, in fact, they have something that they need to

work on. If you knew that your firm was paying twice as much per associate as the competition, you'd realize

that there's a problem." according to Mr. Godin.

The Bottom-Line The solution Mr. Godin proposed was to not just to highlight the problem, but to QUANTIFY the problem to

the prospect. By using a Value Selling approach and benchmarking the prospect against competitors , not

only could the salesperson highlight the problem, that the prospect was not utilizing space as well as others

were, but the sales person quantified how bad the problem was on a per capita usage basis; A baseline for

which the prospect could readily compare and relate.

And in today's "age of austerity", where all prospects care about the bottom-line, overspending compared to

the competition needs to be addressed. With quantified benchmarks not only could the prospect clearly

understand the problem, but the benchmarks illuminated the severity of the issue and that others have solved

the problem better than they have.

For more information on Value Selling solutions for B2B marketers visit: Alinean Demand Generation

Solutions.

For information on using diagnostic benchmarking to connect and engage buyers with value early in the sales

cycle, visit Alinean Executive Assessment Tools .

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