Do your prospects need painkillers, vaccines, or vitamins?

You might hope that your prospects need to buy your so-called “solutions”. But what they really want to do is to fix an issue, avoid a risk, or achieve an objective. And if your so-called solution doesn’t help them to achieve at least one of these goals, they will probably decide they can stick with the status quo and carry on as they are, thank you very much.

Another way of thinking of this is in terms of painkillers, vaccines or vitamins. But in every case our prospect (or patient) will expect us - as their doctor - to have diagnosed what the root cause underpinning their current problem is before prescribing the most appropriate solution. And they will make a judgement about just how painful their current situation is before deciding if they accept our prescription...

What are they trying to fix, avoid or achieve?

How they perceive the problem - whether they seem it as something they need to fix, avoid or achieve - has a significant impact on if, how and when they will decide to take action. Are they trying to deal with current pain, anticipated risk or future gain? Behavioural economists tell us that buyers are much more likely to take decisive urgent action in response to a significant current pain.

And therein lies the challenge: far too many vendor value propositions still focus on the potential future upside of change rather than the current downside of sticking with the status quo. As a result, change gets relegated to a nice-to-achieve aspiration rather than a must-deal-with-it-now urgent necessity.

And - if what we have to sell addresses an aspiration rather than a necessity - we should not be surprised if our project ends up stuck in the middle of a long queue of competing priorities. This is why so many apparently promising opportunities end up fading away, despite our prospect’s apparent initial interest.

Our customers will only be prepared to make a significant investment if they have positive answers to these four critical questions:

• Why do they need to change (rather than staying on their current path)?
• Why do they need to act now (rather than later)?
• Why should they choose us (rather than any other option)?
• Why should they trust us (to ensure they achieve their desired objectives)?

All four questions are important. But unless our prospect sees a clear need for urgent change, the quality of our “solution” and our organisation’s reputation and trustworthiness will count for very little.

Painkillers

If our prospect feels no pain, they will see no need for a painkiller - and unless the pain is clearly significant and growing, they will feel no sense of urgency. Preferably, our prospect will already be aware of the issue and be feeling the consequent pain. Sometimes we can help our prospect to recognise a latent pain that once acknowledged will cause them to take action.

In either case, it is critically important that we resist the itch to pitch our proposed solution prematurely. Once we have helped our prospect to recognise an issue that we are really good at addressing, we need to stick with the problem and help our customer to fully recognise the implications and consequences.

Failing to do this, combined with an inability to resist this “itch to pitch” (memorably labelled “premature elaboration” by Mike Bosworth) results in - at best - a “nice to have” value proposition. And with the scrutiny being applied to even quite modest financial investments by CFOs, nice-to-haves will inevitably struggle to get approved.

These prospects need painkillers - before we can credibly prescribe the right treatment, we need to work with them to fully diagnose the degree and extent of their pain - and the consequences of failing to treat it.

Vaccines

Uncovering and addressing current and significant pain is probably the most reliable strategy for finding and winning new opportunities. But sometimes our prospects fear a current or anticipated threat and wish to take preventative steps to avoid - or at the very least mitigate - that risk.

These risks are often catalysed by significant changes in their business environment, such as the need to demonstrate compliance with upcoming legislation or regulation, or the threat of disruption to their competitive landscape from emerging vendors or radical new solutions.

Whilst the pain may not be current, the threat of pain seems very real, and forward-thinking risk-averse organisations will wish to vaccinate themselves against it.

These prospects need credible vaccines (unless they have been unduly influenced by a Robert Kennedy Jr type character into believing in unproven alternative remedies) and we need to prove to them that our evidence-based approach offers the best chance of avoiding the risk.

Vitamins

Both painkillers and vaccines are designed to address current or future pain. But the third potential treatment is one that focuses on future gain. This is like a generally healthy person taking  a course of vitamins in the hope that this will enable them to achieve even in the future.

The objective here is future gain. Whilst the prospect is neither in pain or at risk, they wish to see an improvement in their future state and appear to be prepared to invest now in order to achieve it.

Unfortunately, the behavioural economists tell us that the hope of future gain is far less likely to drive action that the urgent need to deal with a current or anticipated pain or risk. And equally unfortunately, far too many sales proposals still focus far too much on the potential for future gain rather than on addressing acknowledged risk or pain.

Are your proposals promoting painkillers, vaccines or vitamins?

I’d encourage you to take a look at your current sales proposals. Are they more focused on the future benefits of your so-called “solution” or on the urgent need to address current risk or pain? Do they reflect your prospect’s perspectives on the costs and consequences of inaction, and the danger of simply sticking with the status quo and continuing on their current path?

If your proposals are not strongly addressing the agreed costs and consequences of inaction, and if the pain and risk of sticking with the status quo is either ignored or underplayed, you are dramatically reducing your chances of winning your prospect’s business.

This is particularly important in today’s business climate. Every prospective customer will have many more potential projects than they can afford to approve. CFOs are scrutinising every proposed new investment in order to determine whether urgent action is really necessary. Of course, they expect to be presented with a strong business case, but they also need to be persuaded that the organisation cannot afford to sustain the current levels of pain and risk.

Are you doing all that you can to convince them? Are you offering a powerful and proven painkiller or vaccine? Or are you promoting a course of vitamins that may possibly pay off in the future?

And - perhaps most important of all - can your prospect trust you, as they would hope to trust their own personal physician, that you have fully diagnosed their condition down to the root cause before prescribing the most appropriate treatment?

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.