Heal Your Sales Wounds
4-Week Teleseminar Deep Dive
Week Two Assignment – Your Customer’s 3 Problems
Your Customer Has Three Problems
You’ve probably heard it said that the secret to effective salesmanship is to “solve your
customer’s problem,” right?
Almost every salesperson and business owner I meet says they understand this; and
furthermore, they claim that they’re already doing it. “Yeah yeah, I know my customer’s
problem, and I explain to them how I solve it.”
But none of them ever do!!
The reason is that your customer actually has three problems.
Problem #1: The Problem They Know They Have
The first problem your customer has is the problem that he or she knows that they have. It’s
the problem she’s complaining about to her coworkers at lunch or her sister on the phone.
It’s also the one she’s typing into Google, in search of a solution.
Most business owners and sales people have a hard time describing this first problem
accurately because of one key misunderstanding: Your customer’s #1 problem is always
an emotion.
Salespeople tend to describe their solution in words that have nothing to do with what’s
really bothering their customer. Yet they think it’s a description of the customer’s problem.
Trust me, it’s not.
To get to the root of your customer’s real problem, you must be simple. Look for the raw
emotion. What’s got your customer worried, angry, overwhelmed, sad …?
Examples:
 “I can’t believe we hired this supposed IT team, but every time there’s a problem it
still lands on MY desk! How come the people we hired to do this for me can’t actually
do anything on their own?”
The customer in this case is a CFO; and the product you’re selling is IT management
services. His emotion (problem) is frustration, but also overwhelm and blame.
 “This stupid wrinkle cream was SO expensive, and I don’t even think it’s working.”
The customer’s emotion in this case is frustration; but also confusion and
uncertainty.
 “Where can I get an awesome trade show booth that’s really going to impress my
bosses, generate a bunch of leads for our sales team, AND not break the bank?”
On the surface, it seems like this customer’s problem is a simple practical matter:
they need a trade show booth. But what’s important in this customer’s decision
process is the emotion of fear (of making a mistake or screwing up or losing a bunch
of money) and pride or ego (wanting to impress the boss). These emotional
considerations will drive the customer’s decision when they’re scanning a huge pile
of companies who all provide trade show booths. If one company can speak to those
emotions, it will immediately rise to the top of the pile.
Your Turn
Think about your customer and his or her problem. What is the problem that this customer
is thinking about?
Tips:
 You must use your customer’s own words, not your words. To help with this, try
putting quotation marks around whatever you wrote on the lines above, as if you
were quoting your customer. Does it work? Or does it sound silly that way?
 Remember that your customer’s #1 problem is ALWAYS an emotion.
 Think about one specific person. It should be somebody who represents your ideal
customer.
 Remember that when you correctly articulate your customer’s #1 problem, you’ve
just done half the work of healing your own Anti-Selling Wound.
Problem #2: The Problem that You – the Expert – Know is the Real Problem
Every time you’ve ever sat down with a customer to discuss their problems, you’ve most
likely been addressing Problem #2. So take a breath – this one should feel easy and
familiar to you!
As you already know, your customer is typically only thinking about one small part of their
problem or situation. It’s the part that hurts the most in the moment.
But you can see the big picture, because you’re an expert. You’ve got training, experience
and perspective that gives you an understanding of what’s really going on, not just the
symptoms or the squeaky wheel that’s currently got all of your customer’s attention.
Of course you’re also well equipped to advise your customer on the most appropriate
course of action to solve the problem. Through education or consultation, you can explain
to your customer what’s really going on in a way they didn’t understand before.
This education process, done correctly, also sets you up for the sale.
Because assuming that you are, in fact, ideally well-suited to solve your customer’s problem
better than anyone else, you can explain this to your customer during the education
process.
But beware!
Your customer will only listen to what you have to say about Problem #2 AFTER
you’ve demonstrated that you have a true understanding of what’s really bothering
them in Problem #1.
So make sure you put some thought into understanding the emotional concerns that matter
most to your customer, above.
Your Turn
What is the deeper problem that you, the expert, need to explain to your customer? Or,
what do you need to educate your customer about when you sit down to talk to them?
Problem #3: The Emotional Problem. Or, the Problem of the Problem
The third problem is what some marketers call the problem with the problem; or, the
emotional impact; or the so what.
It’s the emotional punch. It’s the real motivation for them to make a change.
What’s the emotional reason they’re going to part with their time, part with their money, and
take a risk on you to help their life and their business? What’s going on for them in a deep,
emotional way that’s motivating them to make a change?
To help you identify this third problem, keep in mind that change is hard. Making a buying
decision – especially for a higher-ticket item – can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.
Customers tend to keep doing the same thing they’ve always done, unless there’s a really
big reason to change.
I told you that Problem #1 is an emotion; Problem #3 is several layers deeper than Problem
#1. This third problem often goes to a deep, dark place that your customer isn’t even aware
of – or wouldn’t be willing to admit.
 In our first example – the CFO – he might complain all the time about his existing IT
team’s incompetent bumbling; but if all you talk about is how you’re a better IT
solution, that won’t be powerful enough to get him to bite the bullet and make the
switch.
What if, for instance, this CFO actually likes having a semi-incompetent IT team
because it gives him someone to blame? Or to hide behind? And if you came along
and actually did a good job, he’d suddenly have to clean up his own act and he
doesn’t want to do that? That’s a guy that’s never gonna buy from you, right?
Wouldn’t you rather know that upfront, as opposed to spending months going back
and forth with a proposal that you hope you’ll win?
 In our second example – the woman who’s frustrated with her ineffective wrinkle
cream – the problem isn’t the wrinkle cream per se. The problem is her fading
beauty, or the lack of sizzle in her marital sex life, or the competition she feels at
work from younger colleagues.
When you understand, and can speak to, these deeper motivations you’ll win her
business every time.
 I already sort of delved into the Problem of the Problem for our third example, with
what I said in Part One. This person isn’t simply looking for a well-done and
reasonably-priced trade show booth. His real motivation is the emotions he feels vis
a vis his boss, his colleagues, etc.
Your Turn
Think about your customer‘s problem. What are the deep emotional considerations driving
their behavior or decision-making?
Put It All Together
Let’s imagine you sell skin care.
The surface-level problem for someone who’s going to buy an age-defying cream is “I need
a new wrinkle cream. My old one is goopy, it’s expensive and I’m not sure it’s actually
working.”
The second problem - what you need to educate her about - is the factual information about
various products and what the different ingredients do for her type of skin.
The problem of the problem is that she’s looking in the mirror and thinking, “Is this why he
doesn’t sleep with me anymore?” Or she’s looking in the mirror and thinking about her
reunion and thinking “I can’t go to my reunion looking like this.” Right? That’s WHY she’s
buying skin cream.
Use This Understanding To Overcome
The Anti-Selling Wound
So you now understand that your customer doesn’t just have one problem, they actually
have three problems. And you’ve done some work to figure out what those 3 problems are.
So what??
This information becomes important when we apply it to your sales process. And hopefully
you already feel much less resistance about selling, now that you have a deeper
understanding of your customer’s problems.
Putting Problem #1 to work: Lead Generation
Understanding your customer’s problem in their own words is crucial in the beginning of
your sales process - the lead generation phase.
Whatever you say when you’re first attracting your customer – whether it’s in an email, the
banner over your sales both, or your elevator pitch – must include a statement of their
problem in language that mirrors the language they use themselves.
In other words, you use the language you came up with in Problem #1 to write sales copy
for your lead generation that packs an emotional punch.
The rough formula for your lead generation is: “You ____(emotion) about ____ (the situation
or problem) and you want ____ (result) without ____ (pain point). Give us a try by ____ (call
to action)”
Examples:
 Are most of your company’s IT problems STILL landing on your desk, even after
having hired an outside IT firm? Our company is empowered, knowledgeable and
skillful enough to handle problems competently, without involving you in every little
decision. And we don’t charge an arm and a leg for the service. Give us 30 minutes
and you’ll know for sure if we’re the answer to your biggest headaches.
 Do fancy (expensive) wrinkle creams work any better than cheap ones? Here’s 3
ways to test your wrinkle cream, and see how it stacks up against less expensive
brands.
 You know you want a great-looking trade show booth, and it has to stay on budget.
But frankly, that’s the easy part. “7 Ways Your Trade Show Booth Can Become a
Fiasco” is a quick checklist of other factors you need to consider when deciding who
to entrust this important piece of your marketing to.
You’ll notice that these bits of copy don’t explicitly name the emotion the customer is
feeling. Rather, the copy alludes to the problem. It speaks explicitly to what the customer is
saying by using their own language; but it speaks subtly to their emotions by using
language that implies an understanding of what they’re going through.
Putting Problem #2 to work: Overcoming Objections
When your customer is deciding whether or not to buy from you, they’re going to come up
with all kinds of objections.
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We’ll have to collect other bids first.
I already hired someone like you and they didn’t work for us; so I don’t think you will
either.
I don’t think this will address all of our problems.
You seem to be more expensive than someone else we talked to.
We have a whole lot of groundwork to lay before we’ll be in a position to hire
someone like you.
These objections are usually caused by your customer having an inaccurate or incomplete
understanding of his or her own problem.
It’s your job, as part of your education or consultation process, to correct this faulty
information and help them to see the truth: You are the best solution to their problem,
and you can solve it fully and quickly, without any negative consequences or side
effects.
This is where you haul out all the big guns you described in Problem #2, above.
Putting Problem #3 to work: Closing the Sale
You’ve gotten the attention of the right client by speaking their language.
You’ve deepened their understanding of their own problem by explaining some of what you,
the expert, can see that they themselves are blind to.
But now how do you get them to say yes?
This is where it’s useful to have an understanding of their deep emotional motivations.
When you speak to what your customer REALLY wants, on a deep emotional level, that’s
when you become persuasive. That’s when your customer becomes willing to take you by
the hand and follow you down the scary road of saying yes to buying from you.
You may be noticing that this is also how the Bernie Madoff’s of the world commit their
treachery.
So what’s the difference between serving your client and manipulating them?
I say the difference is your intention. If you believe you’re serving your client and acting in
their best interests, then I say you’re in the clear.
If you know you’re ripping your client off, or getting them into a decision that’s going to
cause them problems later … well, you’ll just have to take that up with the face in the mirror.