It is so intuitive to think that why would someone not state the true pain while seeking a solution. Most strategic initiatives do not capture the true pain points specific to the organisation. It may be because one wants to be seen articulating top trending technical trend say analytics, predictive outcomes etc while the pain may be in the core areas like “negotiations” to benefit from a competitive cost which either adds to the bottom line or creates competitiveness for higher market share.
Product or service providers with right fit solution end up either trying hard to develop solution for “nice to have functionality” with potentially less impact on the mission critical pain in the company. This also creates an issue in the solution providers company by overloading the resources, dilution of the strategic roadmap of the product/services and ends up either creating a suboptimal solution which the customer doesn’t buy since it is not the critical pain area and doesn’t get the approval at the leadership level or give up on the potential customer despite having the right fit product/services.
It is thus extremely important to identify the critical pain area and if required probing the customer deeper thro” leading questions on basis of the research on the company, If the homework is done properly and case is built out well on basis of real analysis from the data, it is possible to collaboratively define the “critical pain area”. Once done one can approach in providing the best fit solution using the existing and proven product/services with customisation, if necessary. POC or FOC trials helps in demonstrating the outcome and builds faith in the customer and over time true partnership evolves in solving the critical pain points with best use of the resources in a targeted manner.
Next time you make a pitch for your product/services, spend more time if required to identify the core pain point and it will ensure better conversion rate and satisfied customers whose word-of-mouth reference will add to the leads pipeline.