Ok, part 3 in the BizFun series – where we’ll address a major reason for missing out on sales.
See, we have this solution we offer.
It’s great stuff, really does the job, and frankly: anyone who doesn’t buy it is either a fool or they like having their problem.
Not so fast.
When someone who really needs your work but doesn’t buy, you need to ask yourself some tough questions.
And the first one to address, is:
Are you ‘selling them a problem’?
See, your offer – be it a SaaS product or a coaching service or a done-for-you thing – addresses a specific, narrowly defined issue.
So far, so good.
The problem arises when we fail to take the bigger picture into account.
Meaning: what adoption-cost or usage-cost is included in buying your work?
Put differently: what expense or effort or friction does your buyer have to deal with?
Imagine you’re pitching stellar web design to someone who’s understaffed and overworked.
They really need your help.
But, for you to do your job, they need to deliver all kinds of materials to you.
That’s a high cost for someone in that situation, and so they won’t buy.
No matter how wonderful your work is, for that person, buying from you means buying a problem along with the solution.
No sale.
Or consider Hypefury, the app I used for scheduling twitter threads:
It’s well-built, posts to LinkedIn as well, and generally it’s a great thing.
But editing the individual tweets in a thread is a super clumsy experience and frankly it’s annoying.
The cost of usage is high, and so I switched over to @Chirrapp, because they have a far superior editor.
Another example: I will always try and get people to buy into the idea of email marketing, because it’s such a powerful strategy.
But for many people, that means buying a problem (or several):
“Have to do it consistently and without fail”.
“I’m afraid I’ll burn my list”.
“I don’t know I’ll have enough ideas to keep going”.
So no matter how well email marketing works, or how cleverly I pitch someone on doing it:
For some people, the cost of adoption simply is too high and they won’t buy in.
That’s why the bigger picture is so important, once you ask:
Am I selling them a problem?
Because you’ll find that very often, you are.
When you realise that, you have two choices:
Either change your messaging, or talk to different people – those who are ok with paying the cost.
Either way, ‘selling a problem’ is an absolutely terrific touchstone – remember it, and ask it of yourself.
So in your experience, when people ought to buy but don’t…
In what way are you selling them a problem?
Cheers,
Martin
