Would you stay on an elevator that was only kind of working?
On a recent work trip, I noticed the hotel elevator was temperamental. I stepped in, pushed the button, and watched the doors slowly close. Halfway through, they began opening again. I wondered whether someone had hit the call button as the doors were closing, but no one entered. The doors closed halfway, then opened again. Against my better judgment, I stayed on. Thankfully, I made it to my floor.
I was at the hotel for several days, which meant I rode that elevator another dozen times. The strangest thing happened after a few more trips: I stopped worrying about it. The doors would hesitate. The elevator would act a little strange. But eventually, I stopped asking, “Am I going to get stuck in here?” Instead, I thought, “That’s just how it works.” The minor inconvenience wasn’t as painful as walking up the stairs, so I didn’t change.
Your prospects may be doing the same thing with your competition.
Customers accept late deliveries as normal. Slow response times become the standard. They justify quality issues as the cost of doing business. Poor communication becomes routine. Like the elevator, they grow accustomed to the problem. Eventually, they stop questioning what’s broken and start working around it. The workaround is less painful than changing suppliers.
Dislodging the competition is challenging. The incumbent doesn’t have to be great; it just has to be tolerable. Prospects know that change can be painful, and the pain of tolerance is easier to bear than the pain of switching. To dislodge the competitor, we must create a gap between the prospect’s painful present and a pain-free future. Use these techniques to guide your effort.
Make the Invisible Pain Visible
Customers frequently become numb to recurring problems. Don’t pitch a solution. Instead, help prospects examine their current situation. A thorough needs analysis reveals the buyer’s underlying dissatisfaction with the status quo. The right questions can help customers recognize frustrations they’ve stopped noticing:
- “Where do you experience the most frustration with your current process?”
- “In day-to-day operations, what problems have you simply learned to work around?”
Notice that neither question mentions the competitor by name. Both focus on the process. There’s no need to bad-mouth the incumbent; you’re simply helping the buyer rediscover pain they’ve stopped registering.
Ask Why
One of the most dangerous phrases in business is, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” Value-added salespeople are comfortable challenging the status quo. The key is to challenge through curiosity, not confrontation. Try asking these questions to guide the conversation:
- “I’m curious … Why does your company handle it that way?”
- “I’m curious … Why does your company continue partnering with that supplier?”
Thoughtful “why” questions challenge the status quo while letting customers arrive at their own conclusions.
Expand the Definition of the Problem
Consider how many touchpoints exist between the incumbent supplier and the prospect you’re pursuing. Your competitor likely interacts with operations, engineering, purchasing, inventory and accounts payable. What if that supplier supports operations well but neglects everyone else?
Broaden the conversation. In Value-Added Selling, 4th ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2018), we introduce the Critical Buying Path®. This process encourages buyers to examine the entire journey from the moment a need exists through acquisition, implementation, usage, service and support. The wider the lens, the more opportunities you create to expose unmet needs.
Quantify the Cost of Tolerance
Minor frustrations compound into major problems. One late delivery might seem insignificant; 50 late deliveries are a different story. Ten minutes spent resolving an order problem sounds small until it’s multiplied across hundreds of transactions.
Help prospects calculate the cumulative impact of what they’ve been tolerating: lost productivity, downtime, excess inventory, lost revenue or customer dissatisfaction. Dollarizing the pain also quantifies the value of solving it.
Help Prospects Envision a Problem-Free Future
Finally, move the customer from pain to possibility. As you focus the prospect’s attention on a better future, they catch a glimpse of what’s possible. The gap between that promising future and the problematic present creates tension. Your solution becomes the bridge. Try these future-oriented questions:
- “Ideally, where would you like to be 12 months from now? What needs to change now to get you there?”
- “Long-term, what would the ideal supplier relationship look like?”
These questions encourage buyers to think differently, imagine better outcomes, and help create
the solution themselves. When buyers envision the future, they focus on outcomes. Consequently, they’re no longer focused on the pain of changing in the present.
Your job isn’t to convince the customer their current supplier is inadequate. Your job is to help them discover there is a better way.
P.S. Your competition is reading this article too, hoping to target your best customers. Make sure you’re more than just the tolerable option.
Paul Reilly is a speaker, sales trainer, author of Selling Through Tough Times (McGraw-Hill, 2021), co-author of Value-Added Selling, fourth edition (McGraw-Hill, 2018). For additional information on Paul’s keynote presentations and seminars, call 636-778-0175 or email [email protected]. Visit www.TomReillyTraining.com and sign up for the free newsletter.
This column originally appeared in the September/October issue of Industrial Distribution magazine. Subscribe here and sign up for ID’s Today in Industrial Distribution daily newsletter here.
