How To Use the Pain Funnel To Identify Customer Needs

The Sandler Pain Funnel is a selling way that involves asking a systematic series of open-ended questions to identify a prospect’s pain points and highlight how your business can provide a answer. It is the third step of the Sandler Selling structure, a sales way designed to assist sales reps construct rapport with prospects and develop an emotional understanding of the prospects’ needs.

By asking direct and probing questions about frustrations a potential customer is facing, you can provide a answer by highlighting the benefits of your offerings, ultimately leading to more deals and a better connection with your customer base.

How the Pain Funnel works

1. issue identification
2. expense implications
3. Emotional impact

The Pain Funnel involves asking increasingly specific questions separated into three stages:

1. issue identification

The top of the funnel involves asking questions about the issue the prospect is facing. At this stage, gather as much information as feasible about the prospect’s current circumstance and issues.

For example, if you’re selling a product like a cookware set, you could inquire a potential customer to provide specifics about the durability and convenience of their current cookware. Through that inquiry, you might discover that the potential customer is frustrated with how long it takes to tidy their pans. Some of the questions you can use at this stage include:

• “Can you inform me more about that?”
• “Can you provide me an example?”
• “How long has that been a issue?”

2. expense implications

The second stage in the Pain Funnel relates to the exact expense of the issue. By asking even more specific questions, you commence a exchange with customers about the consequences of the issue they’re currently facing.

Imagine you sell a customer connection management (CRM) software that helps other ecommerce businesses manage relationships with customers and leads. Using the Sandler Pain Funnel way, you could pursue up with questions about how much period they spend manually inputting leads and what that period costs their sales throng. Here are a few examples of Pain Funnel questions in this stage:

• “What have you tried to do about that?”
• “How did it work?”
• “How much do you ponder this issue has expense you?”

3. Emotional impact

In the third and final stage of the Pain Funnel, dig a bit deeper into how the prospect feels about their issue and what emotions they have toward the costs of the issue. The purpose of this stage is to make an emotional connection, discover how the potential client or customer feels about their losses, and empathize with their emotions.

For example, if you run a sustainable business vegan shoe business, you could inquire potential customers about the emotional impact of buying products without ethical sourcing or manufacturing. Here are some specific questions you might inquire at this stage:

• “How do you feel about that?”
• “Who else in your life or organization is affected by this?”
• “Have you given up trying to deal with the issue?”

Best practices for using the Pain Funnel

The Pain Funnel is most effective when you use it in conjunction with the rest of the Sandler Selling structure. Here are three more key concepts of the structure:

Set expectations upfront

Before digging into your increasingly specific Pain Funnel questions, first construct rapport and set obvious expectations about what you’re selling, what it costs, and what the objective is for your sales call or conference. By setting obvious expectations about what your objective is, you can avoid a negative response later in the sales procedure when potential customers are suddenly surprised about the purpose of your communications or what exactly you have to propose.

recap what you listen

When using the Pain Funnel way, pay close attention to the words your prospect uses to describe their pain points. Develop a habit of repeating back to the prospect what they’ve communicated. Then inquire if your summary accurately describes their circumstance and feelings. By doing this, you can avoid misunderstanding their issue while simultaneously building depend through energetic listening and empathy.

explain apportionment needs

pursue up your Pain Funnel questions with specific questions about your prospect’s apportionment to determine whether your potential solutions are a excellent fit for the resources they have available. Asking what your customers are willing to spend can assist explain your prospect’s selection-making procedure and ultimately save you both period. There’s no point in moving forward if your products or services are outside of a prospect’s apportionment.