When a prospect or client tells you about a particular problem, our job as salespeople is to really understand the full implications of what that problem really means to the customer’s profitability.

The client may have a surface level of understanding of the problem, so our job is to take the problem and explore all aspects of how that problem is impacting the client’s bottom line.

Case Study

Let’s say you sell expensive toner cartridges and the client tells you that their printing machines need to be taken offline every 3 hours to replace their low-grade toner cartridge. 

Now, the client is only thinking about productivity loss, but are there other implications to stopping the production line?

Let’s dig further.

Problem: Stopping the machines to replace a cartridge can have other implications:

1. Employee Overtime is required for your employees to finish specific jobs.
2. Delay in shipping product out on time
3. Delays in shipping will tarnish the company’s reputation in the market and may cost them business, etc.

The job of the salesperson is to dig for further pain by making the client aware of other cost implications associated with using, in this case, an inferior toner cartridge. 

My point is that with each additional problem you uncover, you have more opportunities to build value toward your solutions.

Don’t be so quick to solve the immediate problem.

Ask yourself, “What are the tangential issues or indirect problems that my solution solves?” Then, build your presentation/demo around that complete arc of a story!

The end result is a reframing of your solution as a multiple-problem solver. This will allow you to sell at a higher price with fewer discount requests (i.e., a higher average selling price).

If you dig for value, you can price for more!