Surprisingly, most salespeople can’t answer this one simple question: What problem does your offering solve? I believe not knowing the answer is why most people get average results with their sales techniques.
Many salespeople master the ability to describe their products’ features and benefits, but when asked the question “what does that mean to your prospect?,” they become like a deer in the headlights. Sales techniques and sales prospecting lessons can’t help you if you don’t know what problem you’re solving. This is a key aspect of any customer value proposition.
So, let’s say that a feature of your offer is online videos that the prospect has access to 24/7. The benefit is that they can watch them on demand.
What does that mean for the client?
What problem does that solve for them?
If you can’t answer these questions, you can’t help your prospect see the real value of your offer. In the absence of value, all that matters is price. I think this is why salespeople get caught up in their head thinking that all the client cares about is the price. Of course that’s all they care about if that’s all you are offering.
What’s the value of what you offer?
The answer to that is found in the answers to “what problem do you solve?” and “what does that mean to your prospect?”
The real answers are usually four or five levels deeper than the surface answer of the feature or benefit.
The quickest way to discover the problem you solve and the value it brings to your prospect is by playing a game I call Q.B.Q: the Question Beyond the Question.
At first all you can think of is the features and benefits of your offer: on-demand access to the portal.
How is that of value to your prospect? How does it solve a problem?
Well, they’ll have the freedom to access resources whenever they want, giving them control of their schedule and when and what they learn.
How is that of value to your prospect? How does it solve a problem?
Well, it lets them target their learning to their specific challenges or circumstances. It saves them from hunting around for the answers.
How is that of value to your prospect? How does it solve a problem?
Well, it helps them be more prepared and confident when they are in a situation. It allows them to focus more on the other things of value that they can bring to the table
How is that of value to your prospect? How does it solve a problem?
As you can see, playing the QBQ game with yourself forces you to go deeper into the value you bring and the problems you solve. It moves you beyond the features and benefits and helps you get to the heart of what this means to your prospect.
What your prospect cares about most is themselves and their agenda.
Just listing features and benefits either misses the mark or forces the client to connect the dots themselves, which they rarely do. Instead, they’ll often default to price being the main thing that matters.
Remember, experience is your best teacher. So, take some time to play the QBQ game with yourself and see what you discover just below the surface of your conscious awareness.
I bet you’ll find a gold mine.