If you typically sell around pain points, try looking at it from a new perspective. Selling to priorities instead of pain points can help you grab attention and rise above the noise. Your prospects have problems to address and challenges to overcome. But instead of coming at them with all the ways you can solve those issues, paint a picture of priorities.

Nate Nasralla, the founder of Fluint, says even if you’ve built a solid champion, you must enable them with a strong message to cut through cluttered inboxes and packed meeting agendas. In this issue of PromoPro Daily, we share his tips on how you can sell to priorities instead of pain points.

Find out priority levels in meetings. If you’re in a meeting with a potential buyer and your offering is the topic of the entire agenda, that’s a great thing. But maybe you’re one item on the meeting agenda or you hear “Oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t get a chance to discuss at our last meeting.” If the latter is the case, Nasralla says your deal is a thought raised in passing.  

Elevate the focus of your discovery questions. The goal is to separate issues from true problems. Problems are often the first focus in discovery, and for good reason, Nasralla says. He recommends saying things like:

  1. “Which issues do you think your team would put before this one on your next meeting agenda?”
  2. “I’m guessing (issue) isn’t taking up all your attention. Are there are topics you find you and the team spending more time on?”
  3. “This sounds frustrating, for sure. But I’m curious why this hasn’t already been addressed? Is there another project that’s been more the focus lately?”

He says when you phrase your questions here, you’ll want to assume there are higher priorities. Let your prospect correct you if that’s not the case.

Craft your message around internal trigger phrases. These will be different for every prospect. Listen for terminology the prospect uses and then figure out a way to creatively work it into your messaging. When you use the prospect’s internal language, Nasralla says you signal you’re already aligned with their priorities. This shifts you from selling products to enabling projects they’re already sold on.

Write a compelling problem statement (and frame it correctly). Nasralla likes to use a simple formula that spells out the costs and the consequences:

  • “Every (frequency), at least (reach) are (pain), costing us (loss).”
  • Then, explain the consequences. “That means (impact 1). If it’s not addressed by (time), then (impact 2).”

Sell the approach before selling a product. An approach is the path you’ll take to reach a certain priority, Nasralla says. It’s how you’ll reach your goal. It’s the route highlighted on your map – not who you’ll travel with or what kind of transportation you’ll take. It’s more neutral, Nasralla says, and it confirms everyone is aligned on what you need to do to reach the goal.

What gets your prospects’ attention is what gets their budget. When you pitch around pain points, your message is much likelier to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, try selling around their priorities.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source: Nate Nasralla is the founder of Fluint, a buyer enablement platform.