5 Sales Tips For Salespeople (pt 1) That Will Improve Your Closing Rate: Pain
Notes
Pain: One of the Top 5 Tips For Salespeople
These 5 tips for salespeople will improve your odds to close a sale. This episode is the first in a five part series where we talk about the 5 tips for salespeople. The first tip is about pain.
Pain is one of the most overused yet least understood part of a salesperson’s job. Most salespeople think they understand what pain is while selling but many also do not actually get enough.
Think of it this way, if you had a cut on your neck, and it was just a nick, it would be annoying. If you have a cut on your neck and it’s more like a slice, it’s not only annoying, but you’d need to deal with it. If it’s a gash or worse, you’d need to get medical attention because you have a bleeding neck.
Pain in sales is like a bleeding neck. When someone says they have a little issue they’re trying to solve, they don’t really have enough and in this episode, we talk about the first of 5 tips for salespeople: how to really find it.
It is found by asking the right question and following up with even more questions. Each additional questions should get more and more personal, meaning, how does it affect them, their role, their position, etc.? If you don’t know this yet, you haven’t found enough.
Join us on this journey of finding the right amount of pain. If you find the right amount, you’ll close the sale. If you don’t have enough, there is no sale to be had. Enjoy part 1 of the first 5 tips for salespeople.
Podcast recorded on Squadcast.fm
Related Episodes or Pages:
How to Find Pain in Sales. What Is Pain in Sales?
When a Potential Client Says Your Price Is Too High – How To Respond Role Play
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Music: "Clydesdale Funk" by Cast of Characters, written by: Dustin Ransom.
The Episode
Rob 0:08
All right, welcome back everybody to The Slow Pitch. And today we’re going to begin a five part series, we’re gonna go through five different episodes, each one and we’re going to short each one, we’re gonna be to the point. And they’re going to be about the top five tips for salespeople, and some of these might be beginner, some of them might be more intermediate, but they’re really for anybody who is in sales. Let’s get started.
V/O 0:32
This is The Slow Pitch Podcast.
Rob 0:35
Part one is simple as this, your goal is to get pain. So let’s talk quickly about what pain is. Pain is simply what is their problem that you’re trying to solve. So let’s say you’re a plumber, if you’re a plumbing company, and you’re a salesperson for the plumbing company, you’re it’s a big company. And so you’re taking calls, hey, I’ve got somebody calls up and says, Hey, I have a running toilet that just keeps running, uh, won’t stop the water just keeps flowing as a plumber, you know, it’s as simple as changing out the flap, right?
But the question becomes, if you just gave them the answer is, hey, it sounds like your flap is broken I’m gonna do is change the flap or we could send somebody out real quick and change the flap for you. There might be a little bit of question in there out in their mind was like, am I gonna get scammed here? This doesn’t sound like it’s, this sounds a little too easy. You know, they, you know, I don’t know if that’s the real problem, right? But if you start asking questions, and you say something like, Well, when you say running, what do you mean?
Well, when they when you when you look at it, that the inside of the toilet, there’s water constantly flowing in it? Well, how much water? How long has this been going on? Is it a just art? Is it more than the more than a bowl can heal? Is it draining? Like at start asking those questions. And the next thing you know, you find out where the water is running.
But it’s kind of getting to this point where the boy this toilets about to overflow hear a little bit. Now it’s urgent. So there’s a while back, we had heard somebody use the reference in sales, when you have somebody who has a bleeding neck, that’s the time that they’re ready to buy, right. And if they don’t have a bleeding neck, then they’re not ready to buy bleeding.
Next, a little bit violent, bleeding legs a little bit more beyond probably what’s real, but it gives you a good visual and good reference point that says, Okay, I get it, that’s person that needs help. And they need me to help them with their problem. So a bleeding neck is something that says, this is a problem. If they don’t stop the bleeding, they don’t stop their problem, then they’re going to essentially bleed out, they’re gonna die, there’s something bad’s gonna happen, it’s going to cost them right. That’s what I want you to think about pain as do they have a bleeding neck?
And how do I find out whether or not there is a bleeding neck there, because sometimes it’s a slow bleed, and sometimes it’s a fast bleed. If it’s a slow bleed, then you have to start to fast forward for them in their mind and say, help them understand. How long has this been going on already? How much is this costing now? Every day, month? Week? Whatever it is? Is that a lot? Or is that just a little bit compared to what your own businesses like? And then the next thing you know, is like, Okay, well, let’s, let’s fast forward?
What happens if he just didn’t do anything? How much would that run the event? Well, if you’re a bleeding neck, and it’s a trickle of a little bit of blood, and yeah, they think they can stop it, but it’s not stopping it enough. That may cost them if they fast forward over the course of the year, it may cost them millions of dollars, make custom 1000s, whatever that is, but is that a lot or a little bit for them. And if it’s more than they care for, they’re ready to buy, they have a bleeding neck, right? That’s one component of pain is understanding what that is.
The second thing to understand or keep on keeping your head back your head is, the first thing that they give you as the problem is probably not their real pain, the thing that you have to keep in mind is they’re going to tell you what they think it is. That’s what they think it is. But if you’re the expert, you probably know what the underlying causes of their problem is, and are better suited to answer the call, if you will, or to fix their problem. If you’re not the expert, then why are you doing this work? Right? So they’ve called you for the problem for the problem that they’re having.
They think they know what the solution is. But the real solution might be part of that and part of three other things. Now we have to ask them questions. So once you know that what they say is their problem. Now let’s start digging in, what is it and then start figuring out by asking questions, if there are other issues that are happening, that they don’t realize are contributing to this. And once you start asking those questions, and you’ll know those for your particular industry, right? When you start asking those if you start finding out oh, there’s this, this, this, this also other happening?
Keep asking more questions. And then as you build on that, you want to start to learn how much that’s costing them and fast forward into their future. All right, so this is just part one of a five episode series where I try to have these come out a little more quickly so that they’re a little more close together. So you can actually listen to all these in succession a little bit more, but I want you to think about between now and the next episode that comes out.
How good are you at finding the real problem besides what they’re telling you on the phone or before you get started? If they tell you it’s x and you haven’t found out that it’s not just X but X, Y, and Z as problems, then start asking yourself the question, how do I ask the questions to help them understand there’s other stuff happening and let them explain to me what else is happening so that I can get into the real issue that’s happening that’s causing their issues.
Ask yourself the question, Am I digging far enough into their issues? By asking all the right questions? Am I doing that enough? And if you’re not, I want you to do before the next episode comes out, write a list of the top five questions you should be asking that you forget to ask when you think about the meetings that you’ve had, and they’ve started to tell you a pain but you haven’t digging enough into that issue, right?
So I want you to think about those five questions and write those down. Alright, until next time, don’t forget slow down and close more.
V/O 5:51
Thank you for listening to The Slow Pitch. Do you have a question about sales? Call or text your question at 608708 slow that 608-708-7569 Or you can email them to questions at the Slow pitch.com Slow down and close more?
Rob 6:41
Thanks as always, for listening today. If you’d like this podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. We really appreciate it. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at The Slow Pitch. We were mixed today as always by Johnny Polakis And we were produced by high gravity studios, music credits and other notes are in the show notes section on the slow pitch.com And we’ll be back with another episode soon.