No Pain, No Gain

Understanding what motivates prospects to change is the most important step in the sales process. Prospects always change for one of two reasons. The first reason is the justification for gain, benefit, advantage and opportunity. The second reason is to avoid pain, fear, doubt, insecurity and dissatisfaction. Can you guess which one is a greater motivator? If you guessed pain and fear, you were right. It is estimated that 90% of all decisions to change are driven by pain and only 10% by gain and opportunity. Psychological studies back this tenet up. It is basic human nature, whether making a personal commitment or a professional commitment to change, that we are more concerned and driven to first deal with loss versus gain. Only true visionaries and progressive entrepreneurs are driven by opportunity and gain. However, behind all goals of gain rests the potential pain of not getting there. Therefore, gain is a momentary lapse from pain. The pursuit of gain is an attempt to escape pain.

Behavioral scientist Abraham Maslow’s research proved that people move faster away from pain, fear, insecurity than they will toward growth, gain, opportunity and possibility. Prospects obviously are no different. They are far more likely to be emotionally attached to fear than opportunity. One sees this every day in the stock market. Investors are more emotionally involved in losing $10,000 than they are being overjoyed in gaining $10,000.

It is critical to be aware that prospects will always do what they have always done until the pain of change is lesser than the pain of the status quo. No pain, no change. As an example let's pretend that I am a heroin user. It is wreaking havoc on my health, career, marriage and family life. My family intervenes and agrees to pay for the finest care money can buy. Can you guess why I am not going to take them up on this once in a lifetime offer? Because the pain of change of going to rehab represents a greater pain than the pain of a deadly heroin addiction. There is always a payoff for not changing and staying with the status quo.

Generally speaking, if you are happy and content, you don’t strive to be happier. If you are full from a sumptuous four-course French meal, you don’t keep looking for food to eat and satisfy yourself. However, what you will find are prospects who strive to guard and protect their state of being content and satisfied. And that is just another form of pain. So within reason, some form of underlying pain, fear, and discontent drives all action. Find it, uncover it, explore it, examine it and understand the level of intolerance and you are on the way to an easier life in sales. Keep in mind for most prospects, the truth and their reality are found in the heartfelt, the emotional, not in cold facts, figures, logic, rational and intellectual reasoning.

Even though pain is the single strongest motivator for prospects to decide to change or buy, most sales organizations aggressively and stubbornly operate in the exact opposite mode. They cling to their features and benefits as if it were a Cardinal Sin to do otherwise. The problem with their strategy is two-fold. First, prospects buy because of fear and loss. Second, prospects buy emotionally and intuitively and justify their decisions logically and intellectually. When we look at the feature and benefit (value proposition) sales strategy we see the sales appeal is strictly logical and intellectual (quality, service, reliability, reputation and performance) with no emotional appeal. The feature and benefit sales strategy no longer works in today’s competitive information economy because it represents only the minimum standards prospects are willing to accept. It simply reduces your offering to the lowest common denominator.

Ninety percent of all sales are won and lost in the pain discovery step. The salesperson who has done the best job of finding pain or creating pain will consistently outsell the salesperson with the best solution. The pain discovery step is effective in not only gaining greater insight and understanding of your prospect’s problems, but also is a great tool to build trust, rapport and long-term relationships.

The challenge for most salespeople in making the transition from a product pusher to a change agent (strategic seller) is that it will require them to rely less on their personality and charm and more on their ability to ask thought-provoking questions and be patient listeners. For many salespeople this is a challenge because they love to talk and they tend to be very egocentric. The irony is, feature and benefit selling provides the exact opposite effect than is intended. Therefore salespeople must resist the temptation to sell at all costs.

Another problem for salespeople is they perceive this question strategy to have risks because questions by their nature can be seen as intrusive and questions that happen to uncover pain, fear and insecurity could make prospects uncomfortable. In order to execute this strategy effectively, they will really have to ramp up their skill sets in rapport building and questioning. The pain strategy can be intimidating to the uninitiated because once they realize a prospect has no pain and therefore will not change, this will free them up to do something they avoid like the plague... prospecting. So salespeople will unconsciously resist this sales strategy because they would rather chase low probability prospects than go through the pain of doing more prospecting. The truth is painful for salespeople and prospects in relationship to pain. However, the truth shall always set you free. You now know where you stand. That can be very liberating.

Some salespeople can find the process of finding pain nervewracking because they feel the prospect is going through pain by a thousand razor blades. Salespeople feel uncomfortable with the notion that the prospect will attribute their experience of pain negatively towards the salesperson. They feel the prospect will start to squirm under the pressure of voicing their pain and get irritable. This happens very rarely and the reason is because, when done properly, the prospect is very emotionally involved and does not see or experience any personal intrusion. In my training classes, it is not unusual for me to get some negative feedback from observers during role-plays when I demonstrate the pain questioning. Inevitably I ask the individual who was role-playing the prospect if they felt pressure or intrusion. They invariably say no because they were in the moment and were emotionally involved.

Salespeople are not accustomed to giving up so much control and predictability in the sales cycle. Since the process relies so heavily on questions they feel uncomfortable with the fact that they can’t control the answers and the different directions it may take them.

There is also basically nothing glamorous about the pain discovery process. Since salespeople and their offerings are secondary in the process they believe they will not shine and this can be troubling to their egos. This pain process does not credit the salesperson as much as the prospect. But as Ronald Reagan said, “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets credit.”

Be aware that the more pain they have, frequently the stronger the denial. So don’t be frustrated when you run into denial. Many prospects would rather experience frustration and be in control and at least have it be predictable and manageable than change and feel out of control. There is always a payoff when in denial. Done properly the examination of pain can be a very cathartic experience. By being attentive and inquisitive you give your prospect the greatest gift or compliment of being heard without you trying to fix or change anything. You allow them the respect and freedom to find their truth whether they buy or not. The beauty of the pain discovery process is that any problem fully defined and experienced contains within itself the answers, the truths and the solutions for your prospect.

Prospects maintain a strong identity with their viewpoints and problems. They frequently have a vested interest in the status quo. Things from the outside represent a threat. As a matter of fact salespeople represent pain in the eyes of prospects because no one savors change. Salespeople must find a way to include and acknowledge all the prospect’s views and opinions. To accept their ideas is to show respect and trust. By taking this position you have nothing to prove and you build ultimate confidence with your prospects. That way, when you experience your ideas it will be easier for others to acknowledge, respect and act upon them. Prospects more often than not don’t want to change because it is a known quantity. The devil you know is always better than the devil you don’t know. Given the choice, most prospects are committed to the status quo because it is predictable and manageable. If they are not willing to admit to pain or don’t have it, then you have to make an important business decision as to what, if any, is your exit plan. You may decide to exit and reprioritize your prospect from an (A) to a (B) account. Or you may hang in there, knowing your chances are slim to nothing.

The process of finding pain for your prospect is a self-initiation process for them. We create a safe space for them to make independent decisions to change and to move from pain to change. That is why selling is a mutual examination of someone’s ability to buy, change and act, rather than a process of persuasion. The salesperson becomes a conduit for the prospect to use for self-discovery. Since the prospect is the only one who knows their motivations, the pain process allows the prospect to better trust their intuition and what they already know at a subconscious level. Helping the prospect to the causes of their pain takes incredible trust, rapport and relationship building skills. By being an instrument of change, salespeople provide a sympathetic ear, emotional support, an understanding of frustrations, and represent an opportunity for the prospects to collect their thoughts by talking the prospects through their issues. Prospects must have their pain thoroughly heard and understood in all its emotional and political complexities and as a precondition to have their problems solved before they will listen to the salesperson’s advice. Jumping the gun and quickly going to a solution before the prospect has voiced all their issues is professional suicide for salespeople.

A lot of trust is also required for salespeople because they take on a non-selling posture of not having immediate answers for their prospects. This change agent mentality honors the prospect’s independence to come to their own conclusions. In the pain discovery process the salesperson and the prospect are equals. The salesperson helps the prospect stay focused and facilitates the prospect with the possible resistance or the coming to terms of the forthcoming change. This process requires a commitment to the truth and to being fully present. So salespeople have to put their own agenda to the side. The salesperson understands that both parties can decide not to participate if it is no longer useful or beneficial to either one of them. The prospect must be willing to take responsibility for the problem, and if there is too much resistance and push back, the salesperson can decide to opt out.

The pain process for prospects allows them to have their goals, issues and pains, when ready, self-reveal. The salesperson is willing to support the prospect where the prospect believes they need to go. Sometimes that is in the exact opposite direction of their agenda. For example: “No problem, I can help you. However, I don’t believe, in my humble opinion, that it is the most effective thing for you to do for now. But we can work on it as you’d like as a short-term goal and see where it goes from there.” Just because you can have a thorough understanding of their problem and you have the perfect solution to fix it, doesn’t mean they will change. This is a very common fallacy that follows many salespeople. Sharon Drew Morgan says, “Only the prospect who lives inside their own day-to-day problems and experiences its consequences, can chose to resolve it. Only experienced change agents have the confidence to take on the posture that they can’t change their prospect’s mind when it isn’t wanted.”

Most sellers fancy themselves as serving prospect’s needs and objectives. But there is a huge incongruence between the belief, the skills, the strategies and the execution. Salespeople often are trying to solve problems that are not the real problems. Usually the first problem is never the real problem. Just like a good psychologist, effective salespeople know that there are quite a few layers which need to be peeled off to discover the real pain. By asking universal questions one can skillfully lead the prospect away from facts, theories and intellectual motivation to emotions. The bottom line, is the more time you spend on the front end probing deeply and peeling away the surface levels of the alleged pain, the less time you must spend on the back end, chasing and resolving objections. The bonus is that there is nothing more interesting for prospects than learning about their own company from an independent outsider’s perspective.

One of the biggest frustrations in the pain discovery process is when you finally find a prospect who has legitimate actionable problems, only to learn after the fact that the deal fell through because of pre-existing political circumstances that the salesperson breezed over. As a change agent, your primary mandate is to determine if the conditions are ripe, favorable and conducive for your prospect to effectively and efficiently execute change.

As Sharon Drew Morgan states, “Buyers live in a system or enterprise, not a vacuum. Buyers can bring in something new to their system only if pre-existing conditions exist that are favorable to change. Generally if something new comes in, either something else goes out or it is placed on hold.” She goes on to say, “People only make change when they know they can manage the resulting chaos that will affect their turf.” Too often in the eyes of your prospect your solution represents too much disruptions of existing systems that are firmly in place.

It is critical to take your prospect through the pain discovery process and challenge them to see if the payoff is worth the effort of change. For example:

• “How long has it been a problem?”
• “How much is it costing you?”
• “What have you done to try to fix it?”
• “Why have you put up with this for so long?”
• “Who is responsible for this happening?”
• “What is it about your company that allowed this issue to persist for so long?”
• “Why do you think now is the time to consider changing?”
• “How committed are you to changing?”

If you adopted this non-selling posture you would never take your prospect’s optimism and enthusiasm at face value. Instead you would recognize that the thinking that led them to be where they are needs to change before they would be ready to adopt anything different. “Until then, all issues about your products and services will not get a fair hearing until the environment is favorable to change,” says Sharon Drew Morgan. To be an effective catalyst of change, it is important to understand all the variables around the environment that you will be selling into: Are they considering any other initiatives that will pre-empt your initiative? Or, maybe they are doing a manufacturing initiative and it is preoccupying all their time and focus. As you ask questions about the consequences of their problems and how it stacks up against other problems they are facing, you and your prospect can get your hands around the overall buying environment, the political nuances and the present conditions that may effect the implementation of your proposal. There is always a cost benefit analysis in relationship to change. Your job as a neutral change agent is to allow your prospects, in a safe environment, to self-discover, independent of your selling agenda, the cost of change and the cost of the status quo.