sales trap 3:

Its Best to Offer Solutions to Problems You See

As a general rule, its good to offer solutions to customer problems. True or false?

If you say true, youre like a lot of salespeople I know. But youre wrong.

Its a mistake to assume that you should offer solutions to customer problems that you see. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, its generally not a good idea to offer your solutions to customer problems unless the customer recognizes these problems.11 The fallacy is that if we can help customers understand their problems clearly enough-if were persuasive enough as salespeople-then theyll buy what were selling. But this doesnt always work. Moreover, like Sales Traps 1 and 2, this trap causes the salesperson to focus on himself or herself and not on the customer, which results in fewer successful sales.

TRYING TO GET THE BUYER TO SEE A PROBLEM

Consider the following example in which the buyer doesnt see a problem as being big enough to solve. How does the consultant react? In this dialogue, Joe is a consultant selling advertising services. Bev, the customer, is the vice president (VP) of marketing at a major corporation:

Joe (consultant): What ad agency do you presently use?

Bev (VP of marketing): Gloom, Gloomier, & Gloomiest in New York.

Joe: Are you happy with their ad campaigns?

Bev: Not necessarily. They dont seem to generate as much business as we would like.

Joe: That is too bad. But we will be able to help you there. Our ad campaigns are likely to increase your sales here at Optimism, Ltd.

Bev: Well, they might do that. But were not ready to change ad agencies just yet. Our problem with Gloom is not serious enough for us to change agencies at this point. Its true that one ad campaign that we selected from Gloom didnt perform as well as we had hoped. But, hey, Joe, those things happen. We have been with Gloom for thirteen years now. Besides, we may have an image problem-at least according to one of our clients.

Joe: I understand, Bev. We could really help you there. One of our core competencies is conducting ad and PR campaigns to improve a companys image.

Bev: Hold on, Joe. I know you could probably solve that problem. But its really not big enough for us to sweat that either, and we arent willing to go through the hassle of changing agencies. Remember, only one of our clients seems concerned about our image. The rest of them, about 99 percent, think our image is great. Why dont I call you when we are ready to change agencies? Thanks for stopping by, though, Joe. We may be in touch.

Joe kept trying to sell his solution to what he perceived was the customers problem without listening to the customer. He didnt want to hear that Bev didnt think the problem was big enough to solve, and he lost the sale. By probing more effectively, Joe might have saved the sale. He could have explored the consequences of the problem (and perhaps led Bev to see it as more serious) or explored other problems that might be a reason for a change of agencies.

BUYER RESISTANCE

Research shows that people buy when the pain of making a change is less than the pain of staying the same.12 In other words, buyers need to see the problem as being big enough to justify their going through the hassle of solving it.

A buyer may not be ready to acknowledge a problem. What seems to you to be a serious problem may not be perceived as serious by the buyer. A good example from outside the sales arena is the married couple whose marital problems appear to the outside world to be serious enough to make the couple a likely candidate for divorce. Yet they do not get divorced because the hassle, risk, and financial cost of divorce as they perceive them are not offset by the size of the problems in their marriage. In other words, people differ in how they will adjust to, adapt to, and live with their problems.

It is helpful for salespeople to separate customer problems into two categories: problems that the customer is willing to live with and problems that the customer wants to solve. Customers are more receptive to the solutions you offer when they perceive their problems as serious enough to solve.

Returning to the initial scenario with Bev and Joe, a buyer may agree that a problem exists, but not think its serious enough to solve, especially if there is a substantial risk associated with the solution. A buyer also may not see that a problem exists, even though one does. The solution here is to either probe the buyer for problems or conduct your due diligence efforts with other people who may be more familiar with the problems than the buyer. A buyer may also see that a problem exists, want to solve it, and already be looking around for potential solutions. Lets revisit the scenario with Bev and Joe and consider two of these situations.

EXAMPLE 1. THE CUSTOMER DOESNT PERCEIVE A PROBLEM,

BUT ONE EXISTS

Joe: Are you confident that you are projecting the right image?