Symptoms Sell
© 2007 2009 Kendall SummerHawk
If you are a solution type of person like me, then the concept that symptoms sell may not be intuitive at first. 'What do you mean, symptoms sell? I'm hired to offer a solution!' Yes, that's true. But selling symptoms and offering a solution are not mutually exclusive. The trick is in your timing. You see, until your almost-client feels you understand their problem, they are not going to listen to a solution you offer.
The funny thing is, when you spend time asking questions to uncover their problem, and dig deeply to find out what they've already tried to solve it, it naturally prevents you from jumping in too soon with a solution. Which means you are following my golden rule 'It's not about you, It's about them.'
Asking about symptoms takes the pressure off of you to sell. You are just engaging your almost-client in an in-depth conversation with one purpose in mind - to find out how bad the problem is, and what happens if they don't fix it.
You don't have to spend hours engaged in this type of a conversation, even as few as 5 minutes can reap huge rewards. Precision questions make this easy. Now I realize that if you are a dyed-in-the-wool solution person this take a bit of awareness and practice.
Here are 2 reasons
why adopting this practice is worth it:
#1 You can help more people if they feel you understand their situation.
And helping people is probably why you do what you do, isn't it?
#2 The greater the problem is, the less important money will be to your almost-client. Think about this for a moment - the more important the problem is, the easier it is for an almost-client to find the money to hire you. Which means you have little-to-no-quibbling about your fee.
So why not prepare 2-3 precision language questions this week that will help you unearth the symptoms your almost-client may be experiencing? Get comfortable hearing about their problems and don't be satisfied until you've discovered what the consequences are in not resolving them. Dig deeply and you will find incredible treasures in your conversations!
Once you've dug deeply to uncover the symptoms, and what happens if they don't fix them, it's finally time to transition your conversation to the solution you have to offer. With this caveat - do NOT, under any circumstances, spend more than 1 minute going into detail about how to work with you.
The temptation
to go into more detail will be strong. Resist.
Here's a rule of thumb to keep in mind. Follow it and you will be
following my golden rule: 'It's Not about You, It's About Them.' The
rule of thumb is: You are either asking a question, or summarizing
what they've said.
So to transition your conversation to a solution,
you can say something like this
(I've used my own business as an example, but this will work equally
well for yours):
'So you're looking for a way to stop spending so much time on your marketing and instead get better results with the time you do have to spend, is that right?' |
Now comes the transition...
'If I could show you a way to accomplish that, would you be interested in hearing about it?' |
Simple, elegant, and completely permission based. How often do you think you will hear 'Yes!'? Probably 99.9% of the time!
So what comes next? Your 30-45 second description of how you can help them, carefully crafted to amplify the results they get and minimize the mechanics of how you work.
If you say these examples out loud, you'll hear how easy this template is to follow. It's a simple structure for focusing on symptoms, that keeps the conversation all about them, and makes it easy for you to understand your almost-client's situation in greater depth than you ever have before.
About the author:
Kendall SummerHawk, Million Dollar Marketing Coach, delivers smart, savvy ways 6-figure entrepreneurs can earn a wealth of money, time, and freedom. To learn more about her book, Brilliance Unbridled, and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit her site at http://www.kendallsummerhawk.com
NOTE: You are welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end). I would also appreciate a copy of your reprint sent to kendall@kendallsummerhawk.com