Sales is an art form – a challenging role, and one that most people struggle with. Here’s how to overcome your own struggle by embracing the “Struggling Moment” your customers are in when they try to buy your products:
The Four Forces - and Struggling Moment
The “Struggling Moment” relates to the challenge a customer finds themselves in before they decide to buy a product. No struggle – no sale.
In the deck above I give the example of “Harry” – his button pops off his favourite jeans, because he’s put on a few too many pounds (I have lived Harry’s struggle, too)
Before the button pops off, Harry is living in blissful ignorance. He’s happy with life. Things are going fine.
Once the button pops, this bubble is burst – and now Harry feels compelled to look for solutions to his problem.
Marketing enters the mix - with a Push
Before Harry’s button pops off his trousers, it’s unlikely he would pay a lot of attention to marketing. Marketing is background noise for most of us – we are exposed to thousands of brand images and ads a day (probably more if you’re on your computer a lot).
Your brain has an amazing ability to filter out irrelevant noise from important signals. This probably evolved to save us from being eaten by Lions – without living in a constant state of high-alert and fear.
- 95% of the time we are able to ignore the visual stimulus coming through our eyeballs (trees, leaves etc)
- 5% of the time – when we’re struggling (leaves rustle, Lion shape appears) – we are laser focused on specific sights that our brain believes we should pay attention to
The same process works with marketing.
- 95% of the time I can ignore ads about weight loss products – I’m loosely aware these products exist, but I’m not shopping for them
- 5% of the time – when some trigger event reminds me I’m overweight – I see EVERY ad related to weight loss products
The struggle kick-starts the need for change. The first force that is applied to us is a PUSH – we are shoved out of our comfort zone by (in this case, a button popping off) which causes us to realise we need to change.
Product features start pulling you in
Now we can see the marketing material in front of us, your brain can begin the job of evaluating whether these offers are going to help you overcome the struggle.
Dopamine kicks into high-gear in the brain, as we evaluate options that will help us reach our goal (fitting back in our jeans).
In the deck above, we focus on weight-loss pills. The huge rise in sales for products like Wegovy and Mounjaro are evidence of “Pull” forces in action:
- I jab myself with a drug that makes me WANT to eat less
- Medical studies show people are losing ~20% of their bodyweight without trying
- I know people that have used these and lost weight, and I want to achieve the same results
When we see something we want, we feel “Pulled” towards it. The results and outcome are magnetic – we feel drawn to act.
Anxiety rears its ugly head
If this story were only about the Push and Pull forces, most people would be bankrupt. We’d be buying anything and everything that crossed our paths, whipped into a feverish buying frenzy by every problem and possible solution.
The reason this doesn’t happen is because we have a cool, rational head (and we have been lied to by salespeople many times before). Your brain has control circuits that catch you in your impulsive moments and hold you back.
I’m sure you’ve experienced the “nagging doubt” – a voice in your head that asks “Should we really be doing this?”. This is Anxiety in action.
In our customer interviews, this always comes across as a question:
- Can I afford it?
- Will it work for me?
- Are there any unwanted side effects?
- What if it doesn’t work and I look stupid in front of others?
- Will my wife nag me for wasting money on this?
Any of these questions can stop a sale in its tracks.
Most salespeople see this as “objection handling” – but it’s deeper than this. These aren’t “objections” to “handle”, they are valid concerns that we ought to design out of our product, pricing and positioning before ever asking a customer to spend their money.
Overcoming bad habits
The final hurdle preventing us from purchasing is Habit. We all have them – good and bad. The status quo is a powerful force to battle against, because it’s free and familiar.
In our slide example, Harry could just go back to wearing his stretchy sweatpants. He doesn’t need to wear uncomfortable jeans and go through all the hassle of trying some new weight-loss pill. He can just put on the sweatpants and forget that buttons even exist.
In B2B sales, habits and status quo are usually your biggest enemy. Not doing anything carries zero risk. Not spending money is seen as positive. Unlike B2C, where you only have to change one person’s habits, B2B requires an organisation to change – so this is often the biggest force you are battling against (and why 40-60% of sales end in “no deal).
Where traditional sales goes wrong
All the sales training I have had focused on the pursuit of a Prospective Customer as though they were prey. Just look at the language we use:
- Sales “targets”
- Hunting – “Go out and hunt for new leads.”
- Capturing Market Share: “Our goal is to capture a larger share of the market.”
The idea is that we create a long list of people that could buy from us, then we go out and club them around the head until they give us their money.
This is an out-dated view of how a salesperson can win more business. Rather than entering some adversarial combat with customers, why not learn what they are struggling with, and then make it simple and easy to buy from you?
An example from our prior work
When we first ran research for the Cognopia Academy, we discovered the struggle of people that wanted Data Management training – and we focused on one group:
- They were mid-senior career professionals who were between jobs
- Most knew a lot of the content for the exam already from their career experience – and felt they didn’t want to “go back to school” to learn things they already knew
- They were in a hurry to pass the exam, especially if they’d lost out on a job to someone they felt was “less experienced” who already had the qualification
- There was anxiety around the courses on offer
- Did they have to sit through 5 days of classroom training?
- What if they did all the training and failed the exam?
- Was the training available in their time zone?
- How quickly could they get through the material and get qualified?
- Lastly, the habits were all around applying for jobs and going for interviews – they didn’t need to get trained, they needed a new job
How the Struggling Moment changes sales
Rather than “selling” people on why our course was a better option, we redesigned the product to be a better match, and we understood the context a customer must be in before making a sale. This led to us increasing the prices and never offering a discount:
- With 2 questions I can discover:
- Whether the person is struggling with the problem we solve, and
- How long they have been struggling and how close they are to paying for a solution
- With these answers, I can send people to the appropriate stage of our sales process to match the stage they are in of their buying process e.g.
- If someone has limited knowledge about the exam itself, I send them to content so they can learn about the exam [early stage, not ready to buy]
- If someone is keen to get the qualification, but has doubts over whether they can pass, I send them to a free practice exam, so they can make the decision to proceed based on a real score (and can see how much training they might need)
- When someone is close to buying the course, I can send them to a pricing page with 3 different price points – so they can pick the package that best meets their needs and budget
I can also teach potential customers what to look out for that will make them want my product more – e.g.
- “You won’t value this course today, but if you lose out on a job to someone with this qualification then you’ll come back and pay full price”
- Note:: I have said this more than once, and each time the person comes back three months later, pays full price and asks “How did you know?”
Putting this to use to increase sales
By understanding and empathising with the struggle your customer goes through, you can align your sales process to match their energy and make more sales. Customers will feel like you’re “inside their head” because you deeply understand what they’re dealing with, and you have come up with a solution before they need it.
Your role changes – you’re not trying to persuade anyone and everyone that your product has value, you’re hunting for the people who would be crazy NOT to buy your product, and helping them make progress they’re already trying to make.
As someone that has spent a lifetime selling “the wrong way”, this is a breath of fresh air. The ability to sell by helping, and have customers that are really grateful to have been helped, makes everyone’s life easier (and it makes you more money).
If you need a hand putting these ideas into practice, please get in touch. Your sales team and CFO will thank you for it.