What Problems Does Your Product or Service Solve?

I love technology. That doesn’t mean I always understand it. In fact, a more accurate statement would be that I love the efficiencies that technology can bring to my life. I really don’t need to know all the nuts and bolts that drive a device, app, or software, to appreciate the benefits it offers me.

The fact is that I’m in the majority. Most people that use technology can’t accurately deconstruct it or comprehend all the intricacies that make it work. And technology is not unique in this dynamic. No matter what you are selling, most prospects will not be experts enough on the product or service to comprehend the finer details.

If I needed any proof that sophisticated technical descriptions can be lost on me, much of the article about Fidelis Cybersecurity’s latest release of the Fidelis Elevate platform was over my head. That’s why the quote from Nick Lantuh, President of Fidelis Cybersecurity, was so helpful. “. . . improving visibility of what’s really going on in their hybrid environments, getting a handle on the never-ending flood of false positives, and reducing the number of security tools in their stack that still leave blind spots for their teams to deal with.”

He really cuts to the problems that he helps clients with rather than the technical details of how they get there. Even for a novice like me, I could boil the statement down to: accurately see what’s happening, determine which of those issues are true risks, simplify tools to improve efficiency and deal with those risks.

Boiling down features and benefits into problems you solve is a useful rule when meeting with potential customers. The essence of selling is not telling; it is asking questions and sharing third party stories that will help your prospect self-discover his own need for your product or service. People do not buy features and benefits; they buy solutions to problems. If you want to stand out from your competition, stop overloading prospects with information and brochures. Start asking thought and emotion provoking questions.

Helping your prospect to describe his current situation and to paint the picture of the solution is much more effective than a long list of features and benefits you offer. If you want to win over prospects, describe the problems you solve and then ask questions to see if those problems are an issue for this particular prospect. Let them talk about their own situation. That’s much more interesting to them than listening to you talk about yours. It also sets up a sales call where a prospect is selling himself on why he should buy rather than the salesperson divulging a lot of information to try and convince them to buy.