curiousseller

Head of Sales

What types of companies/sales motions sell mostly on pain (vs. solution-based/pitch/etc)?

I know many teams claim to do that but in practice most of their reps are just pitching their solution.

I'm curious to understand if there are any patterns in the types of companies that are more prone to sell on pain. Verticals? Type of products? Size? Etc.

👑 Sales Strategy

24 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Hospitals.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Winner.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Just noticed that your GIFs are increasing too btw😉🙃

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

I’ve had gif game for years, homie.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Yeah, I can see em improving, keep it up 😎.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Don't think so:)No offense, but just have way more other stuff to do than tracking some down, lol

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

😂😂

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

How bou dat one?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Why pitch a solution to a client that doesn't have that problem 🤔

curiousseller

Valued Contributor

Head of Sales

Curious buddy! Most say that but then spend their calls pitching instead of digging

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'm assuming it will be because the pitch is comfortable, and asking questions when you don't know what's coming is not. It takes practice to not talk and to listen.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Are the reps pitching their solution getting heard?
Atleast in my company, we discover the pain points because unless we don't know why we are selling what we're are selling, there's no guaranteed success.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Not sure I have every won a deal if there was not a pain, didnt matter how much I discounted

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

The only reason to ever pitch a solution is in the rare case you have a customer who is in the extremely early stage of learning about the vendors in the space and they are asking to learn about your company and what you do. It's a chance to introduce your company, your vision, etc., and go through the overall value of your solution and what you do. This, however, is not for actual sales motions in my experience; this is often to get in front of executives and get yourself on their roadmap, which might be years out in strategic or enterprise. Put your best foot forward in these cases, build relationships, start getting their execs in front of yours for strategic meetings. How you know this is happening? From my own experience, we started doing discovery with a strategic company, and were told, politely but firmly, that they didn't want to discuss any pain points or current situation. That this was an early-stage conversation, and they specifically wanted to learn about us. Period. We adjusted the pitch and I adjusted expectations within my company with regard to this specific engagement - not tied to a project, timeline, pain point, etc. Early early stage, awareness campaign.

Most of the time, however, companies have something going on that is causing them to want to learn about you. Definitely hone in on why they are talking to you. Tailor your discussions to the manner in which you can solve their problem or problems (the more, the better).

It's two different motions, and as a rep, you have to be very much aware of what is going on. I'd never give just a standard pitch to a company that has a project and specific requirements, problems, pain points, to be solved. Ask questions as you go to make sure you're aligned with expectations, both external and internal, and you'll have a better time of it.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Such a quality over quantity answer.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Thank you.

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

Account Executive

Agreed, SunBunny is coming for that gift card this week! Great answer

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Let the chips fall where they may. I'm in it so we all win.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Companies who sell nice-to-have or early-stage categories need to sell through pain out of necessity. If there is no bleeding then it doesn’t matter how good your bandaid is.

curiousseller

Valued Contributor

Head of Sales

if it's a nice to have it's also hard to find pain imo

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

It’s the only way to get past the early stages, so either find existing pain or manufacture some by introducing FUD.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Pharmaceuticals

Account Executive

IMHO you should always sell on pain. Look at the Sandler Methodoloy and others that follow this method. Jim Camp (Start with No), Chris Voss (Never Split the Difference)-He worked with Jim, Kent Summers (Startup Sales Field Notes)- He speaks words like Jim. Full disclosure, I was trained by Jim Camp so he is the Method that I follow.

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curiousseller

What types of companies/sales motions sell mostly on pain (vs. solution-based/pitch/etc)?

24 comments

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