Identified pain is about customer outcomes

Each time a potential customer heads online, they are being sold to. Big brands (increasingly B2B) sponsor teams across F1, NHL, and the Premier League. Take a trip on the Underground, and you’ll see ad campaigns. Listen to your favourite podcast, and you’ll hear an advert. From Instagram to LinkedIn, race-track banners to tube carriage ad panels, your potential customers are constantly targeted, and cutting through the noise to reach them is challenging.

To sell your product or service, someone must need it.

Identifying why they need something gets you through the door and lets you start the sales process. 

This need can be reclassified as a pain that your potential customer is experiencing. One of your first jobs is to identify the pain and offer a solution, your solution, to remedy that pain. If you can demonstrate that you hold the antidote to their problem, customers will spend time with you, allowing you to build the trust needed to create a case for change.

Customer pain can take different forms; it might be an issue directly impacting the business or an obstacle to achieving a goal. 

Where does Identifying pain start?

Identifying pain will always start at the corporate level:

• Revenue—is there a pain impacting their booking revenue? Does your solution solve this pain?
• Cost—is there a pain driving up the cost of doing business? Can your solution solve this pain?
• Risk—is there a new regulation they are in danger of breaching? Does your solution mitigate the pain?
• Shareholder commitments—have they committed to something to their shareholders that they will fail to deliver without your solution?

Whether they identify with one or more of the above, solving their pain holds the key. A key where implementing your solution unlocks a successful outcome for you and your customer.

Paper cut or amputation?

Well, how bad is this pain? 

Is the pain you have identified severe enough to warrant them allocating the budget to fixing it? Or is it more of an annoying paper cut? If it is the latter, you won’t get far; however, if their pain is more akin to an amputated limb, you can be sure that they will be seeking a solution.

Paper cuts are often kicked into the long grass, with the usual customer response: “We will budget for this next year.”

Our job is to relate the pain to our customer’s corporate objectives. We can only ensure our solution will be prioritised by understanding how we relate to a company’s macro-level goals.

Who owns the cost of doing nothing?

Even though Identifying pain starts at a corporate level, you will deal with many individuals within that organisation. These individuals will be focused on delivering corporate initiatives. You must link your solution to the pain to a corporate initiative and successful outcome for the individual or individuals within the company. To do this, you must find the owner of the pain that you have identified. Perhaps consider: 

• Personal objectives 

• Who is accountable for solving the issue?
• How is their success measured?
• Is their bonus tied to revenue or cost reduction?  

• Legal compliance  

• Who is the company officer legally responsible for a risk or issue that your solution solves?
• Could they face criminal charges if these issues are not addressed?  

• GDPR compliance

• If the company fails to comply with GDPR, would they be the top executive receiving a damaging blow to their reputation in the news?

Another way to tackle this is to show the owner of the pain the cost of doing nothing. By highlighting the ongoing negative implications of the Identified pain versus the positive effects of implementing your solution, you are more likely to jump the queue regarding budget allocation. 

• If they don’t implement your solution, show the impact on their objectives.
• If they don’t implement your solution, show the impact of a legal breach.
• If they don’t implement your solution, their name may end up in the press for the wrong reasons.

Customer success is your success

So, you have identified the pain and found the owner who is sufficiently invested in solving it and wants to buy your solution. Is this a done deal? Far from it. 

Every company spending money on external products and solutions must see a business case to justify the spending. 

This is where you can really align your success with your customer’s success; showing them how much they can benefit from buying and implementing your solution. 

As you put forward your business case, you clearly show your customer how your solution will benefit them. 

Yes, you will be talking about the pain, but your focus will have changed, and you will be talking about it in terms of successful outcomes. The positive outcomes which we have identified are: 

• Positive revenues.
• Reduced costs.
• Mitigated risks.
• Happy shareholders.

Where previous graphs would have trended down, with your help, they will now trend up. 

How you present your business case will depend on your market segment and the solution you are selling, but whatever it is, customer success should be front and centre. 

You may hold the key to solving the pain, but customer success is the key to closing the deal. 

You are much more likely to close a deal if you can link an individual’s success within the company to the successful implementation of your solution. 

Customer success is dependent on delivering outcomes. Focusing on their outcomes will increase your chances of personal success.  

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