Sales Pain Questions: How to Create (For an Emerging Market)

Sales Pain Questions The Slow Pitch Sales podcast ep 21
Sales Pain Questions The Slow Pitch Sales podcast ep 21
The Slow Pitch Sales Podcast
Sales Pain Questions: How to Create (For an Emerging Market)
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Notes

How To Create Sales Pain Questions

We recently had a listener email us a question about crafting the right sales pain funnel questions and how to create them. In this episode, we walk through what steps you should take if you’re not sure what questions you should be asking during a sales pain interview. We back up further than you think by taking two steps back to create the right questions.

Here’s the email from Chris:
Our company is helping to take to market a line of Electric Vehicle Charging stations. We are not the manufacturer; we are a licensed reseller of the product. The product comes in several sizes from residential units (small garage units) to medium size units, to large commercial fast charge units.

With the aggressive adoption from the Big 3 automakers, as well as automakers across the globe, my target market appears to be early adopters. Early adopters are mavens and will purchase based on emotions. With this in mind, I believe that over the next couple of years, early adopters (consumers) will likely be my target market. I feel like I should ignore B2B for now and focus on B2C during this early adopter stage. By the time the early majority comes around, I’ll be much better positioned for B2B.

My question is: what are some pain funnel questions that would likely result in these people buying from me. Who are these early adopters? What are their pains?

Early adopters are different than people who will be buying later when the market is more establish and accepted. I’d be interested in knowing which social media you think I will find my target audience on based on early adopter mentality.

Thanks
Chris
Central Colorado

What are Pain Questions and How to Create Them

There are several layers to this question: Who is actually interested in the product? Who are you able to sell to? Where do they shop? Where do they do their research? How will you identify them and how will they identify with you when they need your product?

You might be tempted to spend a lot on Google Keywords, but we have another thought: Optimize your website now for your future customers in 2 years.

We talk through the questions you might ask, how to identify what questions to ask by asking those who are interacting with your potential buyer before they’re ready to talk to you, and we talk about the things you can do everyday to better position your company as the leader in the field.

 

Related Content:

Sales Tips to Improve Closing Rate

How To Find Pain in Sales

Pain Questions

Company Pain Points

 

NOTE: Some links may be affiliate links, which means we get paid a commission when you purchase, but it the cost remains the same for you. 

Music: "Clydesdale Funk" by Cast of Characters, written by: Dustin Ransom.

The Episode

Lane  00:09

Welcome to The Slow Pitch Podcast. For those of you who don’t know, I’m Lane.

Rob  00:13

Hey, I’m Rob.

Lane  00:14

Today we have a question from someone in Colorado. He’s asking us about emerging technology. But what he really wants to know is what are some of the pain funnel questions he should ask to get early adopters to buy?

Rob  00:25

Yeah, that sounds interesting. And the best part is, is it doesn’t matter if it’s an emerging technology, an old technology, or just shoes, if you’re selling shoes, it doesn’t really matter. We’re going to talk about the pain funnel questions that you should be asking whether it’s an emerging technology or not. Let’s get started.

V/O  00:42

You’re listening to The Slow Pitch Podcast, a podcast about selling less and closing more.

Rob  00:49

Alright, so let’s get into what the question is… that this person that wrote us is, it’s a very interesting question. And there’s a lot of detail in here, which is kind of cool. So, Lane, you want to read the question for us because I know you’re really good at that.

Lane  01:04

Sure. Rob. Chris in central Colorado wrote us, he says are companies helping to take to market a line of electric vehicle charging stations. They’re not the manufacturer but they’re licensed reseller of the product. The product comes in several sizes from residential units to medium size and large commercial fast charging units. He says with the aggressive adoption from the Big Three automakers as well as automakers across the globe, my target market appears to be early adopters, early adopters are mavens and will purchase based on emotions. With this in mind, I believe that over the next couple of years, early adopters will likely be my target market. I feel like I should ignore b2b for now and focus on b2c during the early adopter stage. By the time the early majority comes around, I’ll be much better positioned for b2b. My question is, what are some pain funnel questions that would likely result in these people buying from me? Who are these early adopters? What are their pains? He goes on says early adopters are different than people who will be buying later, when the market is more established and accepted. I’d be interested in knowing which social media you think I will find my target audience based on early adopter mentality.

Rob  02:16

All right, I there’s a lot of questions that come up. And it’s not so much that he wasn’t clear, because I think there’s a lot of good information in here. But there’s several questions that I start to think about. So Lane when when you think about the electric vehicle charging station, that implies several things, one of which is Hey, you have an electric car in order to have a vehicle charging station, you probably need the car. Right? So my first question,

Lane  02:43

I think one comes with the other Yeah,

Rob  02:44

yeah. would you would you probably need let’s put this way, if you have an electric vehicle charging station, you don’t have to have the car. But if you have the car, you probably need the charging station. Right? So yeah, one is dependent on the other, let’s say so based on that, I think I would start my questioning with for, let’s say for you, Lane. If you if I was to sell you an electric car, this is Chris’s target audience who those folks who have an electric vehicle, and those are those who want one. So Lane let’s let’s roleplay this out here that and say, if you were to buy an electric car, if I was trying to sell you an electric car, what would be a reason that you would tell me I don’t feel comfortable buying an electric car yet? You know,

Lane  03:29

I don’t know a whole lot about electric cars, Rob. But you know, the questions that would come to my mind immediately, a lot of them revolve around battery life and some value. But battery life, you know, how many times can the battery in the car be recharged? How far can I drive on a charge? How does it take to recharge? Where can I find charging stations, I take for granted that I get in my car, I could just drive where I want to go if whether it be across the street or across the state. My concern with an electric car is I don’t know that I can do that.

Rob  04:00

Yeah, I think that’s a common question. I, you know, after getting this question, I started to look online to say, Okay, let me just some of the questions. I had to like, how far can I go? So there’s cars that can go a good 300 miles easy on a charge, not a problem. And some vehicles that can do you know, a couple 100 miles and then flip over ta regular gasoline. So there’s, you know, there’s levels and variations. But I think one of the Chris’s points along the way here was is that this is coming, whether whether you realize it or not. The electric vehicle is on its way it’s going to be a reality. And the more that I started to do a little digging, I found that there were some interesting stats in terms of just to put it in perspective, that article that I found from the BBC, it said that Jaguar plans to sell only electric cars starting in 2025

Lane  04:52

What 2025?? Wow!

Rob  04:53

That’s four years from now. That’s crazy. And I didn’t know that Volvo from 2030 is when they want to start selling 100% electric cars. And Lotus said they will do it by 2028. Lotus. Yeah, Lotus and which is kind of crazy think, well, boy, you can run through a battery really fast with that, right? But you know, that’s kind of these are premium cars. So most of the people listening probably would say, I’ll never buy a Lotus anyway, so who cares? Here’s the next thing. General Motors says it will make only electric vehicles by 2035. And Ford is saying that by 2030, all their vehicles that are sold in Europe are going to be electric. And even Volkswagen said 70% of their sales will be electric vehicles by 2030. So to me, it we’re on the precipice of this brand new thing that’s coming. And whether you like it or not, this is happening. Now. I’ve always been excited about I always want to get a hybrid, because it’s there. It’s efficient, and yet it’s quiet. It’s this, it’s that all these different things, I think is pretty cool. But then all these questions came up, especially in the early part of when Toyota came out with a Prius, and Chevy comes out with a Volt. What happens if I battery dies while I’m driving? across the state? Or can I even get up the mountain? If I’m driving in Colorado? like Chris, I’d be concerned if I was driving a Chevy Volt up a mountain? What am I gonna turn around and like coast down? That’s what it feels like? Like, I’m afraid of that. Right? So and where am I gonna be able to find a charging station in the middle of nowhere? And that’s the concern that I think a lot of people have. I know, that’s a question that I have. And I think I would start my whole conversation with you, Chris would be you say that early adopters. In your email, you said early adopters are mavens and will purchase based on emotions. And I say that is incorrect thinking. I only say it’s incorrect, because I think early adopters are not the only ones that buy that way. I think everybody buys that way. And let me explain. If you want something, that means you have an emotional attachment towards that purchase, you don’t buy things because you have to, with the exception of gasoline and different things like that, that are very inelastic, right? So you have to buy certain things, and you have no choice in the matter. But when you think of regular purchases that you’re going to buy outside of groceries and those, you’re gonna buy a car, you might even when you buy a refrigerator, what’s the most important features and benefits things that you’re looking for in a refrigerator? It’s nice to have this and he said, energy rating storage? How this how the shelves fit in? Can I put Where do I put my milk? Where do I put all these questions that you start? Well, this has got to be ease of use, right? Those are emotional things for you. So I don’t, I don’t really buy the fact that early adopters are buying on emotions anymore than any other group. I think the emotional connection that they have is, they kind of want to be like the apple people, which is, Hey, this is the newest and greatest thing where they’re attaching their identity to that that I agree with. But it’s it’s not any different than anybody else buying because it’s still an emotional thing. So if you’re going to know that early adopters are going to be purchasing, or early or emerging market style things or products, because they’re attaching their identity to it. That is a pain question in and of itself. Like, my question to Lane would be alright, you’re looking at an electric vehicle. Why do you want electric vehicle? And you you’d have to answer that question. So let’s roleplay through this Lane, you’re going to buy it You say you want to buy an electric vehicle? What would be one of the reasons you want that? It helped me understand that.

Lane  08:32

For me, I’m interested in an electric vehicle for its green, not polluting. I’m hoping. And I don’t know the facts, because I haven’t really looked into it. My hope would be charging it an electric vehicle is less expensive than buying gas. Yeah, the maintenance? I don’t know, do I? Do I not need to change the oil anymore? Yeah, I have a lot of questions that just because I don’t know anything about the electric vehicle, but likely maintenance as well, though, I don’t do I have to maintain the battery? Is there something I have to do?

Rob  09:04

Yeah, and I bet these are all questions that people that are just starting out would ask the same question like, when do how often does the oil is there? Is there oil? I don’t mean, I don’t know, there probably is right. There’s some engine component that needs to get turned on. So all those things are there. But the questions that start to you start to ask back when you start when I asked that question. Those are questions that you Chris need to start to think about how do you address those as you go through this? So I think early in my thinking in this letter or email that you sent us, one of my questions back to you is have you spent time at car dealerships? Anybody that sells an electric vehicle, I would go in, and I would go talk to some of the salespeople and I would pretend to be buying an electric vehicle. And I would at some point in their questioning when they’re asking you, you would say what are some of the other questions that people ask you about this vehicle or about electric vehicles that I’m not asking. They’ll tell you, they’ll tell you all the features, benefits, all the things Is that a really important to them? as a salesperson? Okay, that’s helpful. Now you can follow that up with how many people ask that you that question how many people ask you about? X question? Y question whatever it is. So if they’re telling you about the the ease of charging and overnight, and it’s ready for a full day of travel the next day? How many people are asking you that question? Or because it has a computer onboard? And I can do this, this and this, or I can drive by itself? Or all the what are the questions that they’re asking you salesperson that you can now take input in your arsenal for your charging station sales process. So you’re going to need to understand what those early adopters are asking. So if I was going new into the sales process, and learning how to sell these, these products, your vehicle charging stations, I would literally go out on sales calls. And I would just start asking people questions, and ask them to ask me questions I might ask. So if I’m going to your house Lane, and I’m saying all right, I think you have a electric vehicle, hey, listen, we’re we’re putting in electric vehicle stations into homes, particularly those that may end up buying an electric vehicle or who have an electric vehicle and haven’t bought the station yet for home? Are you interested in answering some questions that that I have for you? And then you might ask some questions back? Would you be comfortable with that?

Lane  09:04

Absolutely.

Rob  09:04

Yeah. And most people would, and then in that conversation, you’re going to make them ask you questions back so that their confusion, their questions that they have, you’re going to get a better idea of what their concerns are. Take that data and information and start to boil down…what are the questions you should be asking to help them fight that problem? So one of the questions that Lane even mentioned earlier was the battery life and and when when Lane says I’m concerned about the battery life, I don’t know how many recharge cycles it’s going to have? How far is it going to drive those types of things? When he starts asking those questions. What what I might say to Lane is, is like, well, you said you’re you’re concerned about the number of recharge cycles, tell tell me, why are you asking about that? I just I’m just curious, what does that mean to you? What, what’s the concern?

Lane  12:03

For me? It’s, you know, how, when am I going to have to replace the battery in this car? You know, yeah, it’s just like my phone. You know, if I if I, you know, I’ve had to learn to, to not let my my battery get down below 20%. And what I have to maintain the battery health of my phone to maximize its life? You know, I understand I’m going after the same for the for a car. So I want to understand what that means.

Rob  12:27

Yeah, and I think that’s a really good question. What do you think the answer would be to the question of how many recharge cycles there are?

Lane  12:35

It’s probably 1000s

Rob  12:36

1000s. How many years would it take? or months? or days? How many? What what what do you think it’s going to take to get to 1000s of recharge cycles?

Lane  12:45

Oh, gosh, and pandemic days? Yeah, decades, maybe?

Rob  12:50

Maybe?

Lane  12:51

Yeah. In reality, when we’re when everything’s back to normal, if you’re commuting to and from work every day, there’s a good possibility that you’re maybe talking about five years,

Rob  13:02

Just five years, you think it would be any longer or shorter?

Lane  13:05

I think that depends on the person. But I, to me, I think five years is probably a pretty average in my mind of if you get 2000, short, you know, full recharge cycles off your off your vehicle. Best case, I would I would look at five years. And you know, what’s that going to cost me to replace that battery in that car?

Rob  13:23

Yeah, I asked that question back, because I want to see how important that is to you. Right? And so when I start to listen to you talk in five years seems to be about what you think it’s gonna take to run that battery out and need to get a new one. In asking that question, and then doing a quick Google search. I’m finding that online, the answer, according to truecar.com. And again, I don’t know the value of that website, necessarily, but they’re talking about a normal electric car battery lasts about 10 years. It can last so is that really what it is? I don’t know. Let’s say it’s eight. So let’s say if I know this information already, and I’m Chris, and I know it’s gonna, let’s say it’s gonna be eight years minimum, you’re not gonna you’re not gonna run that thing out before eight years, unless you’re driving that thing every day. Up and down, up and down, up and down, like charge to dead charge the dead every day, constantly. Let’s say you’re not most people don’t do that. So if I knew that, I’m not going to tell Lane. Yeah, Lane. It’s actually eight years. No, I’m not. When I’m going to answer back when he says five, I would say Where did you get five? Blah, blah, blah. Have you ever done any research on that? No, I haven’t. Okay. What would you think? If I said to you that the studies that have been done so far suggest that batteries can last for an electric vehicle proximately 10 years. And so let’s say for safety sake, it’s actually eight just just because I don’t want to assume that it’s actually Like 10, let’s say the resource was off a little bit and it’s perfect conditions, blah, blah, blah. If it’s eight years, well, how long do you usually? How long do you usually Own your car?

Lane  15:09

I drive my cars till till they’re till they’re dead. But you know, I would think eight to 10 years is probably about the, as long as I would probably have a have a car. So in a lot of people are going to change every five, five or six or seven. So,

Rob  15:25

yeah, there’s a lot of people that that do leases, right? So if you think about if they lease, or if they buy five to eight years, I don’t think I’ve never owned a car. Eight years in total. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a car that alone. I’ve had one close, but I’ve never had it for quite that long. Because it starts to get to mileage, it starts to get this, it starts to get that. And usually the battery is not the issue. And obviously this wasn’t the issue before. Yeah, but even the car battery that you know, restarts and everything else. That has never really been the issue every once in a while it does. But But, but the parts that are wear and tear, those are the pieces that really get bogged down the tires, all those other things. So when I think about a car battery, and if it’s gonna last eight, let’s say or 10 years, that’s a question that I would ask back is, what if it lasted? How long? Do you usually have a car now? Or in some of those people that lease? If I knew that they’re leasing kind of a person? And I knew they said the answer was five. And I would ask, Well, how many years do you usually lease your vehicle? And they go? Well, usually it’s a three year lease, or usually it’s a five year whatever that is, it’s usually less than five, right? I mean, there’s usually about a 10 year lease, they don’t want to do that a car dealership doesn’t want to do so. So it’s usually a short term thing anyway, so so the next question would be with one, it doesn’t matter if it’s only five years, and you’re giving it back in five, it’s still running. What’s the difference? Right. So like, that’s the question that you start to do. So you start to think about what are the questions that they have? How can you how far can you drive on a charge? So Lane? How far do you think you can drive on a charge?

Lane  17:01

I’m gonna guess probably somewhere. Average, probably two to 300 miles. What does Google tell you?

Rob  17:07

It’s all over the board.

Lane  17:08

It depends on the car. There’s a lot of there’s a lot of factors. Yeah.

Rob  17:12

So when you look at how far does a car drive, and the distance can be shorter or longer, depending on the type of vehicle and so forth? But then my question at some point, if I’ve learned that, you know, I think that the car is going to make me go 300 miles, and that’s off, because it’s only 200? Or if they tell me 200, and then it’s actually 400. There’s ways to ask those questions a little bit differently. But the more that you learn what their concern and what their question is, as a buyer, the more that you need to position that question a little differently, so that you understand and they get to know what the real answer is, without you telling them because nobody wants to be told that what they think is somebody telling them what they want to want to hear. So imagine if you’re in sales, and you’re telling somebody No, no, listen, the car, it’ll drive you 300 miles, are you going to believe them?

Lane  17:56

Probably not. Yeah.

Rob  17:57

Because it’s your it’s like, you’re just trying to sell me the car. Come on. I know better than that. But when you go look at it, you find out it’s, you know, 289 miles, and they say, Well, I can get you almost 300 miles if you use it, right? That’s pretty accurate. But But you did your research already, as a buyer, you know what the real numbers are. So as a salesperson, your questions need to generate their answers, so you know what they already know. They’re going to tell you 289 miles when I found out by this particular car, okay, turn at a moment, how long? How far do you think you’re going to drive this car because most people that buy electric cars stay in the city that they’re in, they don’t usually drive them long distances. That’s not what they’re for, therefore, driving short distances, because when they go long distances, they’re either renting a car that’s needed for whatever reason, like a moving van, that kind of thing, or they’re flying, that’s usually what happens, or they’re taking a train, right. But whatever that reason is, those cars, those electric cars are used locally, and not much more than that. So if I understand what they’re doing and how they’re using it, I can get to know that better. So the more that I know that the more likely I am to be able to sell this charging station so that I have a better positioning. All that aside. I go on to the next point, which is you talk about b2b versus b2c. And when I say you, I mean you Chris b2b, or b2c b2b is I’m assuming b2b would be what

Lane  19:13

Yeah, for charginge stations… store owners malls, office building owners, things like that?

Rob  19:21

Yeah, property owners and landlords, condo buildings, right? That’s what I think of too. You know, even more big, big malls, strip malls, whatever. And B to C, I think of just being homeowners. That’s how I see it.

Lane  19:34

I agree.

Rob  19:35

Okay, I may not be correct on what he’s saying. But that’s what my feeling is. So he says, I think we should be focused on the b2c so that better position for b2b my my gut tells me that B to C is a difficult sale to make. And I don’t mean difficult in terms of like, it’s a big dollar. It’s not there’s too much money, blah, blah, blah, because if you have an electric car and you need one, and you know this is an image, this is a whole thing. All that stuff that you’re going through, those are the things you’re going to need to buy anyway. So you’re going to be able to position it that way. But if you’re looking at it from a, how am I going to grow my business? Or how am I going to grow my sales business kind of thing? I’m looking at it thinking I would go to B to B. And here’s why b2b buyers tend to be more analytical, they tend to be a little bit more of how do I what was the value in the benefit for me to buy this for my, my customers, my clients? Now, let’s think about that. If you’re an apartment complex, or your condo building, and you have the ability to get into that conversation with them. So what are some of the questions that you might ask a condo building? Whether or not they’d be interested in talking to you for electric charging stations?

Lane  20:45

Do they know how many of their their current tenants have electric vehicles? Yep. Have they had anyone come in? That’s expressed interest in the charging station? Yeah, I would imagine if I have an electric vehicle and if I’m trying to rent and rent or lease or buy a new place to live, you know, with a condo or something like that, that’s going to be a big thing for me is, I need to find somewhere, the where I can charge my vehicle.

Rob  21:11

Yeah, because a homeowner can go by their own. But when I have a condo, what am I supposed to do with this. And sometimes you have no choice if you wanted to go to a condo, because this is the type of place you want to live. And there’s no charging stations. That’s one thing. So there’s, there’s things to think about too, if you’re an apartment complex. There’s two types of apartment complex, in my opinion, there’s lower and average average person out there that can afford it, that’s fine. But then there’s the premium ones. And the premium ones probably are going to be the people that now at this point in the game, the early adopters, they’re going to be finding apartments that are premiums, because they have the cash to be able to buy that. And they’re gonna look for a place that has it. So how much does it cost to put one of these things in versus spreading that across? How many apartments you have? Is there 100 apartments? Is there 1000 apartments? or five apartments? How many apartments you have? Is that a value? Or is that a benefit? Right? So asking the question of the apartment complex owner or the condo building owner is kind of going to be the same. Which kind of complex Are you guys trying to be? Are you trying to attract the higher end? Are you trying to attract the lower end, and either one is fine. But I just know, based on the demographics of the higher end, they’re more likely to buy an electric vehicle. It’s just sheer numbers, right? It’s it’s costly to buy one right now. But based on the stuff that’s coming up, you can see that in the next 10 years, it’s going to be a little more widespread because you have a lot of these other companies that are manufacturing these things. So you want to start with those higher end apartments. But you’re going to definitely want to come back to those lower ones because at some point, the big barrier for electric vehicles is what is the price? Yep, like it is soon. I feel like as soon as the price of electric vehicle drops, enough below a gas powered vehicle, things will start to shift very quickly, and there’ll be a demand that will start to happen. That’s how I feel. So if you’re going to position yourself as a b2c, you’re now working yourself to death because you’re going after the individuals one at a time. And that’s really difficult. And so in sales, I always look at things in three quick three categories, I look at anything that I sell anything anybody sells is, what’s your bread and butter, what are the things that bring you the business that will pay your expenses every month, and you don’t have to work really hard, because once you become known as that people start to come to you, because it’s an easy thing for them to understand you do and you just do it, and it comes in and it goes out and comes in it goes out whatever that is, right. That’s your bread and butter. The second layer is the cows I call it we you know, there’s different books out there, there’s one of these different causes the cows, they’re like bigger than the bread and butter. But they’re not huge clients. They’re not huge customers, they’re bigger purchases, you want more of those, but they don’t come around all the time. So you might get a call once a month, or you might get a call once a quarter, depending on your sales, and however they works, you might get a good sized sale. And that’s a good deal because it’s a it’s like a bonus. That’s it right. And then the next layer, which is the final layer, the elephant, you know, there’s different ways to think about it. But the elephant is a huge sale, elephants take a long time to get them to buy because it’s a it’s a big decision. Lots of people usually involved larger dollar amounts, all that stuff, and it just doesn’t come around all the time. So usually I find that an elephant will come around once a year, give or take might be a year and a half might be two years. But if you do put yourself in a position and you position yourself right over time, you’ll get an elephant about once a year, give or take. So I then would say Chris, what is your elephant? So I would start there. I would start Who is your elephant? What would be an elephant you like laughter maybe it’s every Walmart in the United States. Maybe it’s every high end retail store in the United States. So some places Isn’t the country have a place called Wegmans? someplace have a country but around the country have a place called htb. Someplace have Publix someplace, there’s nice high end.

Lane  25:08

Oh, and there’s there’s King Supers in Colorado.

Rob  25:10

Yeah, and those are the types of companies that you could say, their regional players, you can get in there, but they’re elephants, they’re gonna be hard to get in, it’s gonna take you some time, put them on your list, start to go after him, it takes time, you have to nurture it, you have to get there, you have to do a lot of different things to get in front of the right people. But eventually, you’ll get one. And maybe the next year you get the next and the next year you get the next, that’s fine. Put that on your list. The second thing is, is I would go and say what’s the bread and butter of this. So any strip mall, any mall, any any like even movie theaters, you can go some of those little shopping plazas that you have around the town. You know, those types of places, apartment complexes, they can be your cows, right? Those are the types of things that you could say, I want the cow, which is your apartment complex. So start to list those out figure out what those are. And then you start to position yourself as this is what we’re good at. This is what we’re known for, and really focus on that b2b area. Does that make sense?

Lane  26:12

Yeah, it makes total sense.

V/O  26:15

Do you have a question about sales call or text your question at (608) 708-SLOW, that’s (608) 708-7569. Or you can email them to Questions@TheSlowPitch.com. Now, back to the show.

Lane  26:34

I wonder if we should go back and talk a little bit about the b2c is why we kind of feel it may not be the best Avenue I kind of feel that if when you go to buy an electric car, I think the the manufacturers and the dealerships might already have something in place to to get you to buy something along with their car, you know, I think you’d you would really have to be ahead of the game ahead of someone’s thought process, that they’re going to go buy an electric car and try to get in front of them before they actually go make that purchase. And buy a bundle from the from the dealership.

Rob  27:09

Yeah, that’s a good point. And if the dealerships not already, they will be right. I mean, that’s the obvious thing for them. And I think that leads to the one of the questions that Chris asked, which is, I’d be interested in knowing which social media thing I should target my audience with? Because that kind of gets you into that positioning in front of them in terms of Yeah, if you’re starting to Google, now you can retarget you can get in front of those. Yes, you can do that. My question becomes what’s the budget? Where are you going to do it? How are you going to do it? Like, there’s a lot of questions that come up, because if your budgets huge, then fine, no problem, you can do whatever you want. Yeah, if I were, if I were in Chris’s shoes, or in that company’s shoes, I would do this, I would start to optimize my website so heavily meaning content, I don’t mean like, just start putting keywords everywhere. I mean, content, blog posts, answering questions, constantly answering questions, they’re obviously being searched. Because in three, four or five, six years from now, you will be the authority in electric vehicles, because of all the questions you’ve answered. And if you position yourself now, you’ll get those people searching when they’re out there searching, because they’ll find you first. That’s the key to find them on social media today, for the ones that are looking today, you’re gonna spend a lot of money doing that, and it’s not a bad thing, you can do it, if you have the cash, and you want to do that and spend the time doing it. You can do it. And if I you know, you’re saying what social media, it really goes back to, again, what’s the demographic? Is Facebook, the right area? Is LinkedIn, the right area, like my initial gut feeling is I would target on LinkedIn. And I would find specific positions, CEO, CFO, the C categories, right, the C suites, those are the people I would be targeting first, because they’re the ones buying it right now. That’s you’re not you’re not findings, you know, somebody that’s has their own small business, who’s just started out, you’re just not finding those people. They’re not the ones that are probably going to be buying a new Tesla or a new other electric vehicle, whatever that is. Yeah. There’s no question there’s plenty of them out there. There’s tons of good, great people that have started a second business and blah, blah, blah. But in the end, that you know that that they’re a C suite position in a decent sized company, and you have to narrow that all down. You can spend the money and find those people. I don’t know that it would go on Next Door. I don’t know whether I would go on Twitter, I don’t think I’d go on any of those other ones. I would really, I would focus my efforts on SEO-ing my website so that you’re positioned for the long term. That’s how I would look at it.

Rob  29:48

I’m going to stop this conversation right now. If you’re finding value in any one of our episodes, we want you to share it with somebody else. Just tell somebody Hey, go listen to these cases. It’s been good. Second, give us a review. Tell us what you think. And the third thing Hit that subscribe button so that you always get updated. Every time we release an episode,

Lane  30:04

We’d really appreciate it. Now back to the show.

Rob  30:09

You know, one other thought that comes to mind is, especially when you’re talking about the b2c or the final end user, or the end consumer, if you will, I almost look at this is a the automakers This is their issue really trying to convince people to buy that’s gonna, they’re gonna spend all the money to convince people to buy the electric vehicle, the fact that they buy the electric vehicle is more than likely going to dictate that they need a charging station at some point. It’s a matter of convenience at this point, right. So in the beginning, when they first buy it, then go tool around town and find a station around them somewhere and charge it up. But they’re going to want one at home pretty quickly thereafter, if they don’t plan ahead and do it beforehand. So I would think that you’re going to need that. I think the reason why I would say the B to C group is not who you’re going to go after is because the automakers are going to start to try to solve that problem. At some point, I think I think it’s the automakers who are going to start to add this on to their packages to say, you also probably need an electric vehicle charging station. And I think that’s where you could come in, you can start making these deals with these automakers as well. If it’s not already there. That’s where the Lane you mentioned it earlier that that’s where you could start to really focus on from the b2b standpoint, to get that kind of a sale, I just don’t feel like the b2c is the place to go unless there’s a big market for I’ve already bought my car, I don’t know what to do with it, I don’t see a lot of people doing that I don’t think I would buy that way, I wouldn’t buy a car without knowing what I’m gonna do to charge it. Unless it’s a gas powered as well, then I might go Alright, I’ll figure it out. But it’s unlikely for me to do that. And I don’t think of many others would do the same. So I hope that helps. In terms of separating out who is your target audience by the bread and butter type, the cows and the elephants, I think that’s one area you need to focus on, really figuring out and identifying what the problems are that each of those types of businesses that are in the b2b category, what are their problems? What are the pains you’re trying to solve? And then crafting those questions in reverse. If they’re saying that their issue with not buying these charging stations is because the dollar for the investment is way too high. There’s another issue going on, there’s not enough pain there. And so the question that you might need to ask to address that might be, at what point will you have enough demand, do you think, to warrant at least one charging station? Do you think next year, three years, five years or 10 years? And it’ll be interesting to see what kind of answers you get. Because when you start to do that, you start to learn how everybody thinks things are gonna happen. And there’s nothing wrong with sharing articles with people once you’ve talked to them. So if you talk to them, you say, let me show you this article that’s saying, in 2025, these vehicles are going to be these companies are going to be 100% electric. That’s significant. And I don’t think I realized that until I read the article. I don’t think a lot of other people realize that either as if you’re an apartment complex, or any other b2b kind of situation. So start to think about how you would craft those questions that address the issues that is stopping them from buying, and then position questions so that they then understand how important this is coming up. And it’s coming. I mean, if you haven’t seen enough electric vehicles around you, just just wait, it’s coming. I guarantee you, it will be here soon.

Lane  33:34

Yeah, I completely agree. Rob. Well, Chris, thank you very much for your question. We really, really do appreciate it. Rob and I have learned a little bit about electric cars with us and, and that’s always nice. we’d really love to hear from any of our other listeners as well. If you have a question, please, by all means, reach out to us at questions at the slow pitch.com You can also call or text us at (608) 708-SLOW, that’s (608) 708-7569.

V/O  34:03

Thank you for listening to The Slow Pitch. Slow down and close more.

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