So many business owners just don't get marketing. They waste time and dollars on adverts that just aren't going to engage their target audience. If you want to catch their attention, and grow your database of leads then you need to hone in on their problems.

You want to target their pain. To do that, you need a plan. Let me break it down for you.

Become Your Prospects Pain Relief

You’ve got a splitting headache. You open your medicine cabinet and start rifling through your museum of half-used tablets, creams and vitamins only to realize you’re totally out of pain relief medication.

So you rush down to your local pharmacy in the hope of getting the tablet that’s going to give you the relief you so desperately need.

Do you worry about the price? Does it even enter your mind to shop around and see if you can buy the same product cheaper at another pharmacy? Unlikely.

You’re in pain and you need immediate relief. In fact, even if the tablets were priced at double or triple the normal price, you’d probably still buy.

The usual ways of shopping get thrown out the window when we’re in pain. The exact same is true for your customers and prospects.

The problem with Selling features & Benefits?

So many times businesses talk about “features and benefits” rather than speaking to the pain that the customer already has.

How much selling does a pharmacist need to do to sell pain relief medication to someone with a splitting headache? Very little I suspect.

The same is true whether you sell TV’s, cars or consulting. You have prospects and customers who are in pain. They want pain relief, not features and benefits.

If you’re selling me a TV, you could sell me features and benefits by telling me it’s got four HDMI ports and 1080p resolution. This will mean very little to most people.

However imagine instead you target my pain point which is bringing it back home, unpacking it and spending an infuriating number of hours trying to get it working properly with all my other devices.

Instead of price discounting and positioning yourself as a commodity, why not offer to deliver it to my house, mount it on the wall, ensure the picture quality is spectacular and make sure that it works perfectly with all my other peripherals.

Now you’re giving me pain relief and price becomes less important than if you’re selling me a commodity with a list of features and benefits.

Comparing Apples with Oranges

In the above example, even though you might be selling the exact same TV as your competitor, if you package it up in a way that takes away my pain – then you’ve won my business.

It’s also much more likely I’ll become a raving fan and refer others to you because you weren’t just the vendor of a commodity. You were a problem solver.

Now it’s an apples to oranges comparison. How do you compare this to “it’s got four HDMI ports and 1080p resolution”.

Selling features and benefits is the best way to turn your prospects into price shoppers who view your product as a commodity bought solely on price.

Your goal is to be a problem solver, pain reliever and turn any comparison with your competition into an apples-to-oranges comparison.

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What's Your Cure?

Remember people are much more willing to pay for a cure than for prevention. Targeting existing pain rather than promising future pleasure will result in much higher conversion, much higher customer satisfaction and lower price resistance.

Look for pain points in your industry and become your target audience's source of relief If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on  As a small business owner, it’s the smarter way to market your business.

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