Qualification is about using your time most effectively. We all have only a limited amount of time available each day. One of my core values is making an impact in everything I do. Knowing where I can be most relevant and focusing on those areas gives me a lot of joy. In sales, this often comes with the added benefit that larger pains are typically associated with larger deals and, therefore, higher income potential—though this is just a side note.

Understanding pain is critical, as there is almost never a deal without it. I say “almost never” because there are exceptions. However, if you want to improve your odds, it’s better to solve customer problems. Even if you identify a pain, it’s crucial to understand the implications and whether these consequences matter enough. As Gustavo Loeve, my AVP at MongoDB who has been instrumental in my professional development, would say: “The world is full of pain, but it is not full of order forms.”

Types of Company Challenges and Pains

“Pain” is a very generic term and is often used vaguely. To provide a more precise view on pain and what it means for your opportunities, I’ll differentiate between challenges and pain.

Types of Organizational Challenges:

Operational Efficiency and Scalability

• Time-consuming manual processes
• Lack of automation leading to human errors
• Inefficiencies in supply chain management

Financial and Resource Management

• High operational costs
• Inefficient use of resources
• Budget overruns due to outdated systems

Customer and Employee Satisfaction

• Poor customer service and support
• Inadequate response times
• Negative feedback and reviews

Competitive Advantage and Innovation

• Falling behind competitors technologically
• Losing market share
• Inability to innovate quickly

Compliance, Security, and Risk Management

• Difficulty meeting industry standards
• Risk of non-compliance fines
• Complex regulatory environments

Data Management and Technological Modernization

• Poor data quality and accuracy
• Inaccessible or siloed data
• Inability to derive actionable insights from data

These challenges can be grouped further into three categories:

• Financial
• Efficiency
• People

All of them can ultimately be broken down to time or money if you drill down far enough and ask for the implications. As my friend Andreas Sailer would put it, the “so what.” When it comes to time, this can usually also be expressed in monetary terms. Ultimately, it’s all about money and opportunity cost.

How to Get to Meaningful Pain

To identify meaningful pain, conduct thorough discovery with a clear plan. Take your time—don’t rush. Know what you’re looking for but stay flexible to allow unexpected topics to emerge. Be open to surprising insights, but always have a clear goal of where your questions are heading and where you can offer solutions.

For example, suppose you’re selling software that optimizes the estimated time of arrival for parcels, considering weather forecasts, real-time traffic, and connected traffic lights. Even if your software provides highly accurate forecasts, it’s not enough to tell your customer this is what they need. You must understand their current systems, their limitations, the impact of these limitations on their business, and how your solution can make a significant difference—justifying your costs and showing genuine care for their success.

Let’s break this down:

Identify the pain

Identifying pain involves describing the customer’s problematic current situation. It aligns with the “Situation” in SPIN Selling or the “Current State” in Command of the Message. An identified pain simply acknowledges that something is broken or not meeting the customer’s expectations.

Example from Logistics:

Shipments are often not accepted because we cannot provide a precise expected time of arrival. People are not at home when the courier arrives and are unwilling to plan around a four-hour time window.

Indicate the pain

Indicating pain links the identified pain to a specific monetary impact, quantifying the effect of the current situation. This is comparable to the “Problem” in SPIN Selling or the negative consequences in Command of the Message.

Example from Logistics:

As a result, employees need multiple attempts to deliver goods, increasing the cost per delivery. This either reduces the shipping company’s margin or raises prices, making the offering less competitive.

Implicate the pain

Implicating pain extends beyond current costs to explore the broader implications of not changing. Consider what other projects are hindered, what it means for the people involved, and what the future could look like if the pain is resolved. This perspective relates to the “Future State” or positive “Business Outcomes” in Command of the Message or “Need Payoff” in SPIN Selling.

When you fully implicate pain, you have a comprehensive view of the adverse effects, what the customer misses out on, and the future benefits of overcoming these challenges.

Example from Logistics:

If shipments could be handled more effectively, costs per delivery could be reduced, storage space minimized, and more units delivered by a single employee due to higher reliability on ETA. This would increase shipment capacity with fewer staff, enhancing both employee and customer satisfaction.

How to Most Effectively Present the Pain

Having a strong comprehension of an organization’s challenges and their implications forms a solid foundation for building a mutually beneficial deal. To drive an agreement, it’s crucial to understand who truly cares about the pain and resolving it. Identify and build a relationship with this person as your champion.

To do this:

• Speak the Customer’s Language: Forget about your internal company terminology and marketing jargon. Communicate in terms your customer understands.
• Use Customer-Relevant KPIs: Focus on the key performance indicators that matter to the customer. Understand how they measure impact and implications internally.
• Validate Understanding: Qualify your understanding with your potential champion. Confirm that you have accurately grasped their pain points.
• Avoid Assumptions: Never rely on assumptions. Always seek validation and ask for confirmation. Aim to be a seeker of the most objective truth possible.

By following these steps, you can effectively present the pain and build a compelling case for your solution.

Understand Related Timelines to Drive Urgency

Once you have a confirmed point of view that aligns with your customer, you are ready to close. To do this effectively, qualify if there are any internal timelines by which the challenges need to be resolved or if there are external events that require a solution. Think of yourself as a project manager and build a comprehensive plan from the defined target date backward, including every step required to implement the solution and the necessary actions to achieve the planned goal state.

Map this out as a Gantt chart to discuss the timeline visually with your potential champion and have a dated list of actions and responsibilities installed. This helps align on the actions and ownership needed to resolve the issues. For more details on building such a plan, refer to my section on go-to-market strategies.