When you’re looking to sell anything you first need to find out where that prospect is within the pain zones. Do they need a solution straight away? Are they just browsing for new approaches? What makes up their pain that will lead them to close a sale. Here are the four zones of pain you will encounter that will help guide you through closing a sale.
Zone 1 – Trivial Pain
The first zone is a minor inconvenience that can easily become a nuisance given enough time. The little pains that amalgamate into something more. This could be anything from poor customer service to slow deliveries. Not so much a pain that requires immediate action, but a pain nonetheless. The trivial pain can be overlooked, but it can also be an avenue of discussion which leads to greater troubles down the road. The trivial pains will make themselves apparent in the form of offhand comments about an aspect of the business. Such as “I wish the production was a little bit faster, but what can you do?”.
Zone 2 – Company Pain
Company Pains affect the entire team and can lead to a stressed environment. A poor working environment can lead to tough conversations, job anxiety and even full operations being drawn to a standstill. This pain isn’t a minor nuisance but an annoyance leading to conflict on the horizon. With the pain creating finger-pointing, anger towards management and job browsing. You’ll be able to spot this when teams aren’t working well together, with constant miscommunication, grievances and high employee turnover.
Zone 3 – Personal Pain
With a poor working environment, the pain becomes a lot more personal. Bringing the negative headspace into home life. This may be down to working more hours and working harder than ever before to make up for a team that isn’t working well together. Causing stress on the individual leading to numerous health, social and mental problems. This pain is something that the person will look towards removing altogether. No longer is it a trivial pursuit or the role of the company to fix, but a personal issue that is causing more damage by the moment. Leading to the individual in dire need to seek a solution to the pain.
Zone 4 – Emotional Pain
The last zone is the most important. The emotional attachment to the problem and finding the solution. The problem has transcended the business and the personal needs into something greater. Causing financial problems and stunted career growth. If your prospects are within the 4th pain zone they will be desperate for a solution. A solution you can offer via your services or product. You don’t need to have all the answers straight away, but the beginnings to end their problem will lead to a more in-depth and personal conversation. Leading to closing the sale and furthering your relationship with that person.
Understanding pain is an important part of social selling online as you need to glean as much information as possible. The best way to do this is to understand the pains of your leads. You need to be able to lead them down the journey of trivial into emotional. Every problem has the potential to become a personal and emotional issue given enough time. Through uncovering this potential a prospect is more likely to listen and converse with you. You can’t force people to open up to you, so you need to be able to listen. Let them tell you their story and use your judgement to dig deeper, without overstepping your boundaries.
