Are your reps just chasing buyer symptoms…or are they getting to the real problems?

Years ago I noticed my backyard was filled with moles. They were digging tunnels all over my yard making it look terrible.

I spent a month working with my local hardware store trying to fix my mole problem. I put poisons down the holes and set traps but still didn’t get rid of the moles. 

My uncle stopped by and asked what was wrong with my yard. I shared I had a mole problem. He replied “You don't have a mole problem; you have a grub problem.”

He said the reason I have moles is because my backyard was infested with grubs… and moles eat grubs. He told me if I get rid of the grubs, I’ll get rid of the moles. After two weeks of treating for grubs the moles were gone.

My situation reminded me of what I’ve seen in so many salespeople. They work hard to solve their customer’s symptoms, but miss the core problem(s) causing the symptoms.

What can you do, as the leader of your sales team, to discuss with your reps the difference between solving symptoms and solving actual problems?

Today’s video talks about this challenge of only solving symptoms and missing the real customer problems. When you can sell to your buyer’s problems, and not just their symptoms, you’ll sell even more!

Transcript

Are your sales reps bringing true solutions to your customers or are they just fighting symptoms? Hi, I'm Jim Pancero helping you and your team be more effective in selling today. I had this problem years ago and the first house I owned. That is all of a sudden my backyard was filled with moles. They were making these trenches, this humped up levels all over. Looked terrible in the yard and they were big holes and they were just being destructive. I worked for months talking with my local office supply store to find out how to fix this. I put poisons down the holes. That didn't do anything. I put traps, set them out. Nothing happened. And finally, my uncle stopped by and he says, "What's wrong with your backyard?" And we talked about it for I said, "I got a mole problem." He said, "You don't have a mole problem. You got a grub problem." He said, "The only reason you have moles in your backyards is because they're there to eat all the grubs. If you get rid of the grubs, you'll get rid of the moles." It was interesting. Within two weeks, the moles were gone. This is the situation I've seen so many times in selling where the sales reps are coming in and they're solving customer symptoms, but they don't get to the core problem that's causing the symptoms. So, the customer is not happy and there's not a lot of good solutions moving forward. What can you do as the leader of your sales team to discuss with your sales reps what are the key problems that your products and your services solve for a customer and how do we identify those so we just don't go around fighting symptoms. I bet if we did that this could actually help your team sell even more.