Every salesperson knows that you have a much better chance of closing the deal if you can present a client with a solution to their pain points. Solving problems and answering needs is how every sales pitch needs to be framed. After all, business pain points by definition impact on a company’s bottom dollar. Your prospect will be seeking solutions so their business can grow and develop. But how do you identify your clients’ business pain points? The following three questions will help you uncover what they are so you have the opportunity to present a solution.
1. What’s the biggest inhibitor to growth for your company?
This cuts to the heart of the matter for your client: what is it that’s getting in the way of growth? Usually it’s to do with revenue, customers, employees, having the right product or a lack of investment. Once you’ve identified the main issue use supplementary questions to dig down even further. Try asking:
- What’s your plan for dealing with problem A?
- What’s your deadline for getting it sorted?
- Do you think it will be a hard or easy problem to tackle?
- Who in the company is leading on finding a solution?
As well as uncovering what the pain point is, you will also gain valuable insights into how they are approaching that pain point.
2. What takes up the most time in your day?
This is another angle to take. Appealing to them on a personal level gives you a chance to focus on the concrete value your product could have. Get your prospect to think about how solving a business pain point could impact their team. Would it mean that time spent in meetings is cut in half? Or perhaps it would save the team two hours in productivity a day which could then be spent on other business-critical tasks? So rather than focusing on the features your product or service offers, this approach instead highlights the value of your product.
3. What are your gripes?
This may seem like a petty question to ask but allowing clients to vent their frustrations can reveal a lot about underlying issues or problems. A discussion on gripes really cuts to the chase so you get a clear sense of their core needs.
What’s more, getting the prospect to talk about what’s really annoying them – whether it’s employee retention, internal communications or a lack of leads – is a great way to get them excited about finding a solution.
The bottom line is that asking effective sales questions will help you to uncover your prospects’ pain points as quickly as possible. Be sure to use the prospect’s language when talking to them as it’s a good technique for building trust in a relationship. And also make an effort to find out who in the company has the authority and the money to make the decision to buy. After all, there’s no point spending hours talking to a person if they are not empowered to close the deal.