Forget about your product for a few minutes.

I know…I said it!

Believe it or not, I want you to put it aside for a while. And make it your mission to seek out pain. Focus on finding the issue your customer is having. What about their lives are they concerned about on a daily basis? What’s the thing they’d throw money at to make it go away already?

If you’re able to unearth their suffering, you are winning.

I want you to become a pain-seeking missile. Someone who rolls up their sleeves and wants to find concrete problems to solve. Wrongs to right. Issues to fix.

Without pain, it’s tough to close a lot of deals. Because humans generally don’t take action if there isn’t intense discomfort. You’re also going to come across as more empathetic to your prospect. Leading with your product generally makes the prospect feel like a piece of meat. Digging for pain – on the other hand – makes your prospects feel understood. And, in time, they start viewing you as a problem-solver and even an ally.

You’re coming from a place of service to your customers. Not trying to shove an irrelevant product down their throats. The prospect can feel this shift, and generally now wants to open up to you, and have you help them with their biggest preoccupations.

Closing then becomes about mapping that pain to your product as a solution. By then, your prospect is so aware of their suffering, that they’re willing to jump through hoops to get their hands on your offering.

This pain-first mindset bleeds into every aspect of your sales. In a beautiful way. Here are just a few instances.

Customer Development: even before your product is ready — I’d even say before you even start building – you should de-risk your startup by making sure your target market is suffering. And hurting a lot. You should talk to prospects, validate the pain exists, and even go as far as signing paid design partnerships. Getting folks to throw money at you to solve their intense pain – even when your product isn’t fully baked yet – is one of the strongest proof points pre-product companies can obtain. It proves you’re on the right track. Conversely, I can’t tell you how many startups don’t validate the pain, and build something for nine to twelve months, only to realize once they’ve launched that they won’t be able to sell it.

It’s one of the saddest things to witness. And I see it a lot in my work. But usually, it could have been prevented, if founders and startup operators zeroed in on pain over product. Instead of rushing to write code, or build something, had a proper investigation taken place to uncover pain, the startup’s chances of survival would have gone up by a ton.

Conducting Discovery: if you focus on pain, instead of product, you’ll stay honest with yourself and your prospect about the pain you unearth in your discovery. You’ll ensure your prospect is dealing with real problems. You want to make it your purpose to find out about their pain and in one fell swoop, allow them to become acutely aware of it. “What can you do to have them confess to their pain?”, I ask my clients when coaching them on their discovery. “Have them tell you. Out loud. And with strong emotion, if possible.” If you get your prospect to verbalize it in such a way, that’s more than half the battle. The only thing left to do post-discovery is map this pain to your product as the solution to this discomfort.

Outbound Copy: your outbound copy will be crisper and more empathetic. There’s an old (well, old in outbound standards) saying in outbound sales. ‘You get a lot more leading with pain than you do with gain.’ This goes right along with what we’ve been saying above. If you’re able to touch a nerve in your prospect with the pain you’re describing, you’re more than likely to get your prospect to lean in, as they start reading you. The prospect feels heard right from the get-go. You can see their wheels turning. ‘Hell yeah, that’s exactly how I feel…how can you help me solve this?’ they’re thinking as they read on. You’ve got them hooked.

Here’s outbound email copy to better illustrate my point. This one leads with gain:

Subject Line: Introducing Easy Accounting Software

Hey [FirstName],

Just trust us. [Company]’s accounting has only gotten easier with Acme Corp’s new SimpleAccounting product. Just plug us into your existing process, and it’ll start saving your account department dozens of hours per week. Companies like Uber, Google, and Netflix already use us.

Would love to show it to you…do you have a few minutes to jump on a quick call next week?

Let me know and we’ll get it scheduled.

Cheers,

[SalesRepFirstName]

Now, contrast the above with this pain-first approach:

Subject Line: accounting headaches, [FirstName]?

Hey [FirstName],

We’ve noticed companies like [Company] have been spending far too much time on accounting….particularly at year-end…is this something you’ve had to deal with? Do you feel like pulling your hair out?

If so, we should chat. At Acme Corp, we’ve built SimpleAccounting – which like its name suggests – easily plugs into your existing process, and saves your team dozens of hours per week. Companies like Uber, Google, and Netflix already use us.

Jump on a quick call to see if we might be able to help?

On that call, I’m happy to review your existing accounting workflows and provide some best practices based on what we’ve learned working with hundreds of companies. Folks who have taken us up on this short audit have gotten up to 10 weekly man-hours back for their team.

Let me know and we’ll get it scheduled.

Cheers,

[SalesRepFirstName]

Close your eyes for a second after reading both emails. Which one is more likely to get a response from you, if you’re the prospect?

One makes the product the star and leads with its value props. The other leads with the pain the prospect is feeling.

One feels a bit braggy and comes off as marketing copy. While another is interested in someone else’s (the prospect’s) experience.

One is eager to show off the product. While another wants to investigate how they might be able to help.

You tell me which one is more likely to generate an interested reply.

Close Rate: When startup operators come to me complaining about their close rates, I immediately ask about their qualification process. I’m looking for cracks in qualification that might be letting prospects through that had no chance of closing. Which inevitably dilutes a startup’s close rate. If you focus on pain, and making sure there’s a need for our product, you’ll qualify more strictly. Qualification becomes an honest exercise. It’s not about fitting a square peg in a round hole. It’s about genuinely being helpful. All of a sudden, your pipeline is full of deals that have a decent chance of closing in short order. And that leads to an increase in the close rate.

By coming from a place of solving for pain, you will also close more deals. You’ll have developed trust with your prospects because they will have felt like you’re putting yourself in their shoes. They feel understood. Seen. And above all, they believe that you have their back. And are not trying to force a transaction where it doesn’t belong. You’re more interested in solving their problems than selling a product. If you’re able to operate from that level of integrity, as a salesperson, you might just end up with customers for life. Because you’re more interested in serving others than making sealing one deal.

Sales Cycle: veteran salespeople will tell you, “One of the hardest things to do in sales is to manufacture urgency.” One of the easiest ways to do it, however, is to ensure your prospects fully understand the pain they’re under and its consequences. If a prospect tells you, “Yeah I wish our accounting department would deliver faster…they tend to be slower than I’d like.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing their suffering. If you get people to elaborate, they might tell you something more potent to hang your hat on. They might say, “When our accounting team doesn’t turn things around as fast as they should, we can’t get things to our CFO. And that creates stress for me and my team. Not to mention…it also delays our financial reporting..which is not good at all.” You’ve dug in and figured out what that pain looks like. And what it entails. When humans are deeply aware of their intense pain, they act quickly. They want to rid themselves of their suffering yesterday. Not later. Meaning they’ll buy fast from you. Your sales cycles magically shrink.

I know your product is near and dear to your heart. And there’s reason for that. You’ve done everything in your power to build something that changes lives. But, as we’ve seen, making your product the focus of the sales conversation will not serve you or your customers. Instead, try shifting your attention to your prospect’s pain. If you lead with that, you won’t be viewed as yet another salesperson trying to push a product way too hard. You’ll be viewed as a problem solver looking to help. Someone interested in serving their customers. In my experience, coming from that place generally leads to more business in the long run. Because you operate from abundance. A higher frequency. And people can just feel it. They end up wanting to buy from you. Not just once. But time and time again.