What if we don’t solve problems, but extend capabilities? We need to look at the business we’ve helped our existing customers to become.
Yesterday we looked at the best way to pitch ‘solutions’ to prospect ‘problems’. But what if we’re offering something completely new? What if our products or services don’t solve problems, but change or extend capabilities? What if our prospects’ only ‘problem’ is that they could do better with our help?
Suppliers who get this wrong tend to talk about themselves too much, invent new terminology and alienate prospects. It’s a mistake to spend time painting ourselves as being the hero of a story that the prospect doesn’t see themselves as being part of.
Instead, we should take a look at successful sales and try to articulate what sort of business we helped our existing customers to become. The key isn’t to focus on the benefits our products or services gave these customers, but how it changed their own offerings, and their own story.