PAIN OR PLEASURE
Monday Oct. 22, 2018
Pain AND pleasure.
Nothing kinky, just thinking about how we best serve the world, serve ourselves (our enterprises) best when we solve someone’s pain or deliver their need for pleasure.
So often when we coach people the nuances of great sales performance and customer service it boils down to these two things that happy customers readily pay for, appreciate and find compelling: things that fix their pain, or which give them pleasure. Otherwise it is hard to any customer’s attention if you are trying to sell to them.
Solve my problem. Fix my broken thing. That’s what I need/want. But call me up to sell me something I don’t feel any need for, or reason to change suppliers, then I likely don’t have time or patience to listen to your pitch.
If I’m shopping for something special – clothes for occasion, great restaurant reservation, new vehicle or a tricked-out computer – you are tapping into my ‘pleasure world’ if you can help me, then I’m joy-i-fied and an easier sale.
So often I find people/companies ~ about to win or lose my business ~ don’t appreciate that selling to my pain or pleasure is so easy and appealing to me. They are likely to fail every time.
So, pain and pleasure. Where this counts even more than in sales, is in personal relationships. Think about that for a moment. If you are a child wanting something from a parent, isn’t easiest to make that sale when you can say, “mom, I cleaned my room” or “dad, I washed your car and mowed the lawn”.
At work, how do you get what you want from your boss? From your direct reports?
At home, how do you get what you want from your partner, from your parents, from your children – or from your neighbour?
Wherever we go in the world, it’s about pain or pleasure – solve for that, it’s way better than algebra and solving for X.
