Or did you buy the service because you wanted to be sure your car didn't break down? Did you get it because you wanted a safe and hassle free journey, every time?

I'm sure it's the worry of what might happen that made you get your car serviced. In sales terms, that worry is called pain.

You bought your car service on pain, not features

But many print sales people prefer to sell on features. They make their sales pitch all about them and their company. But if they want to really engage with their customers and their prospects they should be thinking about pain.

Print sales people who sell on pain create more powerful partnerships with their clients. This is because they focus on the clients and their issues. As a result they have more influence over the decisions that their clients make. So they end up achieving their sales targets.

Print sales people who sell on features fail to create the same powerful partnerships with their clients. This is because they talk about themselves and their companies. So they cannot engage with clients at the same level. And the clients make decisions based on factors other than what the salesperson is talking about. So the salesperson struggles to make their sales targets.

You need pain to achieve your print sales targets

Here's three reasons why pain can be really powerful:

1) Pain grabs attention

Pain is a powerful call to peoples' attention. Would you have been so keen to read this article if the headline wasn't based on pain? I am writing about why a print sales message may not work. I am focussing on a problem that someone may realise they need to fix.

But what if the headline focussed on how to make a sales message better? That would be less compelling. This is because it doesn't focus on a problem: it focuses on a benefit.

Let's look at this principle in real life. Most people would worry if they lost a 50 dollar note. But they don't spend much time worrying about how they will find a 50 dollar note that they didn't have. The exception to this is if they have a real reason (or a pain) as to why they need 50 dollars. So they would worry about finding 50 dollars if the rent was due and they didn't have enough money.

Now let's apply the same principle to a print sales message. Which is more powerful? This benefits driven statement:

"We offer an exceptional delivery service."

or this problem based message:

"We specialise in assisting companies whose sales will drop if their marketing is not delivered to schedule."

The second message is more powerful because it immediately focuses the customer on their own issues. And that's for an important reason:

2) Pain is about the customer

I make no apology for continuing to emphasise that print sales has to be about the customer. And you can't talk about pain unless you are talking about the customer.

Do you remember that in my last article (see here) we talked about the target audience? Having a target audience means the customer receives a much more focussed sales message. The customer thinks that the printer is taking specifically to them.

Pain is a great way of making the customer think that the printer is taking specifically to them. This is because pain has to be relevant to the customer to work. So the delivery message example won't work for a client that doesn't produce marketing material. And it won't work if the customer has easy schedules.

But the delivery message example will be very powerful for deadline driven marketing companies. This is because the message focuses on the actual pains that such a company could suffer.

So you need to create pain that works with a customer. And to do this you need to understand their market and their issues. But what type o issues work best with pain?

3) Pain focuses on the customer's problems & costs

Customers need to solve problems more than they need to move on to new things. Have a look at your own situation.

Which is more important to you?

- Solving turnover and profit margin challenges or
- Creating a new sales offering

The two issues may appear to be closely linked. But you wouldn't be looking at the second issue if you didn't suffer from the first. You wouldn't need the new sales offering unless you were suffering from turnover and profit margin challenges. It's the same with the first example: you wouldn't need a reliable delivery service unless poor delivery caused you problems.

And remember that this example pains are only the start of much bigger problems.

It's important to think about the wider effects of pain

Pain can be made more powerful by looking at how one small pain can cause much wider issues. With the pain in this article headline we focussed on how features and benefits may not create a powerful sales message.

But it would be easy to remind someone of the wider issues:
• a lack of powerful sales messages leads to reduced revenue
• a lack of revenue means your presses will be standing still
• if your presses stand still your profit margins will fall or disappear
• and if your profit margins don't exist, ultimately your company is jeopardy

That becomes a pretty powerful motivator to read an article about sales messaging!

Let's look at how these wider effects might work with a print customer

Do you remember the print customer we used in last month's article. This was a shipping company that needed signs for their ships. They needed someone who could have signage that was ready to apply to ships at very short notice.

Their pain was the fact that a ship could be delayed in port waiting for a sign. And that would cost the company tens of thousands of dollars a day. So it was essential that they had a supplier that understood these problems. They needed a printer that wouldn't risk a delay to a sign. They needed a printer that understood the costs this could cause their client.

It was focussing on this pain point that won the printer the work. It wasn't any of the features and benefits that they could trot out about their company.

But surely features are important in the sales process

Yes, features are important. But only really become important later in the decision making process. First you need to convince your client of the need for your services. Print buyers don't want print. They want a solution to their problems.

If you understand their problems you immediately create an understanding with them. And you will be making a sales pitch that stands out and makes the customer listen to you.

So how do you start putting pain into your sales message?

Here are three action points that you can get going with straight away:

1) If you haven't already, make a profile of your target customers

2) Talk to these customers and understand their challenges. And remember, your customers' challenges will be different for each sector

3) Think what you can bring to your customers to solve this pain

In my next article I'll be exploring why a customer should use your print company to solve their pain.

Pain is important

Remember you wouldn't be buying a car service if you weren't worried about your car breaking down...

================================================
P.S. Would you like an audiocast of an expanded version of this article? Print & Procurement will soon be offering an online course on sales messaging. If you sign up to make sure that you are kept up to date with launch details you will be sent a series of four MP3s around this subject. Click here to find out more.

Matthew will be holding a Print Sales Workshop at the forthcoming Global Summit: http://www.fespa.com/globalsummit/