Read this content here ↗

Have you seen this Progressive Insurance commercial?

 

Mara would make an amazing Solutions Consultant.

 

How you frame the problem and the solution should be tailored to every prospect and customer. Each customer has unique motives, concerns, and things they place the most value on. It's up to you to figure these out as quickly as you can.

 

Put the customer IN your solution: What's it like to use it? How does it feel? What positive emotions can you tie the experience to?

 

Enter, tacos. Alan isn't feeling up for tacos at the beginning of the commercial, but Mara is an expert taco seller.

 

"Yeah, you're right. So messy, all the napkins, those different toppings —"

 

Are you hungry? Can you taste the guacamole? (Or in my case, the amazing carne asada tacos a half-a-mile from my house.)

 

"Actually, I'm in."

 

Are you getting this response from prospects when you are walking with them through an evaluation of your solution?

 

If not, it might be time to think about what will pique their appetite and transport them into a vision of eating their favorite tacos (er, using your product) across from you.

 

Here are three strategies Mara employed (that you can, too) to help her audience build a connection to her offering:

1. Create a desire for problem-free* paradise

Within the first 15 seconds of the commercial, the prospect voices her doubts about whether she really needs to bundle her insurance. Mara takes a unique approach to shift her mindset from doubt…to missing out. 

(Note: While I personally wouldn’t likely execute this tactic with the same level of sass that Mara does, it might be effective in the right time and with the right audience!)

Mara presents the opportunity cost of not investing in bundled insurance. “Renters and homeowners can bundle and save. For what? A trip to Bora Bora? Bora-boring!”

See the positioning? 

“Our customers can [your key value proposition] which gives them the ability to [do something they couldn’t do before, that not many others can do].” 

This rings a bit like a common saying these days called FOMO, or fear of missing out. FOMO is really just a new name for opportunity cost. 

If you don’t purchase/invest in this solution, what are you leaving on the table? What opportunities are you missing? 

In this case, the prospect realizes that by bundling, she could have extra savings to put towards a well-deserved vacation in paradise. In that split-second of positioning, the prospect has moved from worrying about the investment to clearly envisioning herself on a beach in Bora Bora, saving money while taking in the sea air and sun! There’s an emotional tug to walking away from the decision that is stronger than her original thoughts of reservation. 

*A quick (and hopefully obvious) caveat: When positioning your product, be honest. Create a very impactful but realistic picture of “paradise” with your product. If you’re promising Bora Bora, make sure that the experience from start to finish in your sales cycle and product implementation does not turn out more like a sandbox next to a kiddie pool. 

2. Don’t neglect the five senses, and make it personal

Having deftly secured the prospect’s confidence to bundle her insurance, Mara moves to her next challenge – convincing her colleague, Alan, to go get tacos with her. As we have already outlined, Mara brings the experience to life – not by explaining the transaction of tacos, but the tantalizing enjoyment of tacos. With product demonstrations, it’s easy to focus solely on the “sight” and “sound” senses – and for most products, those may be the most obvious components of your solution. But don’t forget to include stories, context, and experiences in your presentation that teleport the prospect to the taco stand with you. 

Did you notice that Mara didn’t specify exactly which kind of taco? Instead, she described the key components of any taco experience – messy, crumbly toppings falling out of warm tortillas…a stack of napkins to help you clean up your hands or wipe sea salt flakes from the corner of your mouth. Alan could taste and feel the experience.

Let the customer fill in the personal minutiae of the story. Instead, focus on what their life feels like using your product. If it’s more free time, describe working outside in the afternoon because refreshing the data source now takes just one click and two minutes rather than three hours and two extra-large monitor screens at the office. Can you hear the tranquil sound of birds chirping? 

The goal here is to find the most impactful methods to transport the prospect to a future where they see a better version of their own reality because of your product. This should bring feelings of hope, excitement, or even relief to the forefront, rather than doubt, suspicion, or fear of uncertainty or investment. 

When a customer buys your product, they are ultimately buying the vision of themselves using and benefitting from the product. This is sometimes called psychological ownership, where the customer so clearly sees themself in the product that there is an emotional attachment or extension to it. Make sure you are crafting that vision with care. 

To do this, you’ll need to become an expert in discovery and learning what is most important to each person and prospect. For helpful tips on upskilling your discovery methods, check out this PSC webinar on how to do REAL discovery

3. Exercise authentic empathy

To accomplish points 1 and 2, you’ll need to have this ability. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 State of Sales Report, 63% of buyers voiced distrust in salespeople. 

For you to transport your prospect to paradise, you must accompany them. Simply tossing them a map or feature-focused demo won’t get them there – they need a personal guide; one they know and can trust.

As PreSales professionals, it is our greatest mission to be that trusted guide. If we were trekking up a large mountain, we would want an expert climber who knew the terrain, the altitude, and the best paths up. We would want them to know if we had a weak ankle or a fear of heights. And, when we’re two-thirds of the way up the peak and navigating extremely precarious cliffs, we would want them to describe the immense beauty awaiting us at the top of the peak – not the inches of clearance we have on this particular patch of icy precipice or the lack of oxygen! 

Make it your mission to be your prospect’s trusted guide. Learn and understand your prospect’s fears, but also their strongest motivations. Keep asking and digging until you find the emotion behind the business case (sometimes called the “need behind the need”). This is where trust is built. This is the set of coordinates leading your prospect to paradise with your product. 

Notice that Mara didn’t say to Alan, “Hey, you should go get tacos.” 

She said, “Hey, want some tacos?” 

It implied togetherness and companionship. Be sure that your prospect sees you are a trusted guide and committed navigator, not just a technical expert at arms’ length. 

What are some approaches you have taken to find out your prospects' most important considerations and transport them to a future image of themselves delighting in using your product?

About Lyndsey Weber

Lyndsey Weber is an experienced solutions consultant in the SaaS finance space, with a background in engineering and former experience leading global projects at a Fortune 10 company. She currently works as a Senior Solutions Consultant at Quantrix, and in her free time, she enjoys eating, painting, writing, boxing, and playing tennis.

Unlock this content by joining the PreSales Collective with global community with 20,000+ professionals
Read this content here ↗

Have you seen this Progressive Insurance commercial?

 

Mara would make an amazing Solutions Consultant.

 

How you frame the problem and the solution should be tailored to every prospect and customer. Each customer has unique motives, concerns, and things they place the most value on. It's up to you to figure these out as quickly as you can.

 

Put the customer IN your solution: What's it like to use it? How does it feel? What positive emotions can you tie the experience to?

 

Enter, tacos. Alan isn't feeling up for tacos at the beginning of the commercial, but Mara is an expert taco seller.

 

"Yeah, you're right. So messy, all the napkins, those different toppings —"

 

Are you hungry? Can you taste the guacamole? (Or in my case, the amazing carne asada tacos a half-a-mile from my house.)

 

"Actually, I'm in."

 

Are you getting this response from prospects when you are walking with them through an evaluation of your solution?

 

If not, it might be time to think about what will pique their appetite and transport them into a vision of eating their favorite tacos (er, using your product) across from you.

 

Here are three strategies Mara employed (that you can, too) to help her audience build a connection to her offering:

1. Create a desire for problem-free* paradise

Within the first 15 seconds of the commercial, the prospect voices her doubts about whether she really needs to bundle her insurance. Mara takes a unique approach to shift her mindset from doubt…to missing out. 

(Note: While I personally wouldn’t likely execute this tactic with the same level of sass that Mara does, it might be effective in the right time and with the right audience!)

Mara presents the opportunity cost of not investing in bundled insurance. “Renters and homeowners can bundle and save. For what? A trip to Bora Bora? Bora-boring!”

See the positioning? 

“Our customers can [your key value proposition] which gives them the ability to [do something they couldn’t do before, that not many others can do].” 

This rings a bit like a common saying these days called FOMO, or fear of missing out. FOMO is really just a new name for opportunity cost. 

If you don’t purchase/invest in this solution, what are you leaving on the table? What opportunities are you missing? 

In this case, the prospect realizes that by bundling, she could have extra savings to put towards a well-deserved vacation in paradise. In that split-second of positioning, the prospect has moved from worrying about the investment to clearly envisioning herself on a beach in Bora Bora, saving money while taking in the sea air and sun! There’s an emotional tug to walking away from the decision that is stronger than her original thoughts of reservation. 

*A quick (and hopefully obvious) caveat: When positioning your product, be honest. Create a very impactful but realistic picture of “paradise” with your product. If you’re promising Bora Bora, make sure that the experience from start to finish in your sales cycle and product implementation does not turn out more like a sandbox next to a kiddie pool. 

2. Don’t neglect the five senses, and make it personal

Having deftly secured the prospect’s confidence to bundle her insurance, Mara moves to her next challenge – convincing her colleague, Alan, to go get tacos with her. As we have already outlined, Mara brings the experience to life – not by explaining the transaction of tacos, but the tantalizing enjoyment of tacos. With product demonstrations, it’s easy to focus solely on the “sight” and “sound” senses – and for most products, those may be the most obvious components of your solution. But don’t forget to include stories, context, and experiences in your presentation that teleport the prospect to the taco stand with you. 

Did you notice that Mara didn’t specify exactly which kind of taco? Instead, she described the key components of any taco experience – messy, crumbly toppings falling out of warm tortillas…a stack of napkins to help you clean up your hands or wipe sea salt flakes from the corner of your mouth. Alan could taste and feel the experience.

Let the customer fill in the personal minutiae of the story. Instead, focus on what their life feels like using your product. If it’s more free time, describe working outside in the afternoon because refreshing the data source now takes just one click and two minutes rather than three hours and two extra-large monitor screens at the office. Can you hear the tranquil sound of birds chirping? 

The goal here is to find the most impactful methods to transport the prospect to a future where they see a better version of their own reality because of your product. This should bring feelings of hope, excitement, or even relief to the forefront, rather than doubt, suspicion, or fear of uncertainty or investment. 

When a customer buys your product, they are ultimately buying the vision of themselves using and benefitting from the product. This is sometimes called psychological ownership, where the customer so clearly sees themself in the product that there is an emotional attachment or extension to it. Make sure you are crafting that vision with care. 

To do this, you’ll need to become an expert in discovery and learning what is most important to each person and prospect. For helpful tips on upskilling your discovery methods, check out this PSC webinar on how to do REAL discovery

3. Exercise authentic empathy

To accomplish points 1 and 2, you’ll need to have this ability. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 State of Sales Report, 63% of buyers voiced distrust in salespeople. 

For you to transport your prospect to paradise, you must accompany them. Simply tossing them a map or feature-focused demo won’t get them there – they need a personal guide; one they know and can trust.

As PreSales professionals, it is our greatest mission to be that trusted guide. If we were trekking up a large mountain, we would want an expert climber who knew the terrain, the altitude, and the best paths up. We would want them to know if we had a weak ankle or a fear of heights. And, when we’re two-thirds of the way up the peak and navigating extremely precarious cliffs, we would want them to describe the immense beauty awaiting us at the top of the peak – not the inches of clearance we have on this particular patch of icy precipice or the lack of oxygen! 

Make it your mission to be your prospect’s trusted guide. Learn and understand your prospect’s fears, but also their strongest motivations. Keep asking and digging until you find the emotion behind the business case (sometimes called the “need behind the need”). This is where trust is built. This is the set of coordinates leading your prospect to paradise with your product. 

Notice that Mara didn’t say to Alan, “Hey, you should go get tacos.” 

She said, “Hey, want some tacos?” 

It implied togetherness and companionship. Be sure that your prospect sees you are a trusted guide and committed navigator, not just a technical expert at arms’ length. 

What are some approaches you have taken to find out your prospects' most important considerations and transport them to a future image of themselves delighting in using your product?

About Lyndsey Weber

Lyndsey Weber is an experienced solutions consultant in the SaaS finance space, with a background in engineering and former experience leading global projects at a Fortune 10 company. She currently works as a Senior Solutions Consultant at Quantrix, and in her free time, she enjoys eating, painting, writing, boxing, and playing tennis.

Unlock this content by joining the PreSales Leadership Collective! An exclusive community dedicated to PreSales leaders.
Read this content here ↗

Have you seen this Progressive Insurance commercial?

 

Mara would make an amazing Solutions Consultant.

 

How you frame the problem and the solution should be tailored to every prospect and customer. Each customer has unique motives, concerns, and things they place the most value on. It's up to you to figure these out as quickly as you can.

 

Put the customer IN your solution: What's it like to use it? How does it feel? What positive emotions can you tie the experience to?

 

Enter, tacos. Alan isn't feeling up for tacos at the beginning of the commercial, but Mara is an expert taco seller.

 

"Yeah, you're right. So messy, all the napkins, those different toppings —"

 

Are you hungry? Can you taste the guacamole? (Or in my case, the amazing carne asada tacos a half-a-mile from my house.)

 

"Actually, I'm in."

 

Are you getting this response from prospects when you are walking with them through an evaluation of your solution?

 

If not, it might be time to think about what will pique their appetite and transport them into a vision of eating their favorite tacos (er, using your product) across from you.

 

Here are three strategies Mara employed (that you can, too) to help her audience build a connection to her offering:

1. Create a desire for problem-free* paradise

Within the first 15 seconds of the commercial, the prospect voices her doubts about whether she really needs to bundle her insurance. Mara takes a unique approach to shift her mindset from doubt…to missing out. 

(Note: While I personally wouldn’t likely execute this tactic with the same level of sass that Mara does, it might be effective in the right time and with the right audience!)

Mara presents the opportunity cost of not investing in bundled insurance. “Renters and homeowners can bundle and save. For what? A trip to Bora Bora? Bora-boring!”

See the positioning? 

“Our customers can [your key value proposition] which gives them the ability to [do something they couldn’t do before, that not many others can do].” 

This rings a bit like a common saying these days called FOMO, or fear of missing out. FOMO is really just a new name for opportunity cost. 

If you don’t purchase/invest in this solution, what are you leaving on the table? What opportunities are you missing? 

In this case, the prospect realizes that by bundling, she could have extra savings to put towards a well-deserved vacation in paradise. In that split-second of positioning, the prospect has moved from worrying about the investment to clearly envisioning herself on a beach in Bora Bora, saving money while taking in the sea air and sun! There’s an emotional tug to walking away from the decision that is stronger than her original thoughts of reservation. 

*A quick (and hopefully obvious) caveat: When positioning your product, be honest. Create a very impactful but realistic picture of “paradise” with your product. If you’re promising Bora Bora, make sure that the experience from start to finish in your sales cycle and product implementation does not turn out more like a sandbox next to a kiddie pool. 

2. Don’t neglect the five senses, and make it personal

Having deftly secured the prospect’s confidence to bundle her insurance, Mara moves to her next challenge – convincing her colleague, Alan, to go get tacos with her. As we have already outlined, Mara brings the experience to life – not by explaining the transaction of tacos, but the tantalizing enjoyment of tacos. With product demonstrations, it’s easy to focus solely on the “sight” and “sound” senses – and for most products, those may be the most obvious components of your solution. But don’t forget to include stories, context, and experiences in your presentation that teleport the prospect to the taco stand with you. 

Did you notice that Mara didn’t specify exactly which kind of taco? Instead, she described the key components of any taco experience – messy, crumbly toppings falling out of warm tortillas…a stack of napkins to help you clean up your hands or wipe sea salt flakes from the corner of your mouth. Alan could taste and feel the experience.

Let the customer fill in the personal minutiae of the story. Instead, focus on what their life feels like using your product. If it’s more free time, describe working outside in the afternoon because refreshing the data source now takes just one click and two minutes rather than three hours and two extra-large monitor screens at the office. Can you hear the tranquil sound of birds chirping? 

The goal here is to find the most impactful methods to transport the prospect to a future where they see a better version of their own reality because of your product. This should bring feelings of hope, excitement, or even relief to the forefront, rather than doubt, suspicion, or fear of uncertainty or investment. 

When a customer buys your product, they are ultimately buying the vision of themselves using and benefitting from the product. This is sometimes called psychological ownership, where the customer so clearly sees themself in the product that there is an emotional attachment or extension to it. Make sure you are crafting that vision with care. 

To do this, you’ll need to become an expert in discovery and learning what is most important to each person and prospect. For helpful tips on upskilling your discovery methods, check out this PSC webinar on how to do REAL discovery

3. Exercise authentic empathy

To accomplish points 1 and 2, you’ll need to have this ability. According to LinkedIn’s 2021 State of Sales Report, 63% of buyers voiced distrust in salespeople. 

For you to transport your prospect to paradise, you must accompany them. Simply tossing them a map or feature-focused demo won’t get them there – they need a personal guide; one they know and can trust.

As PreSales professionals, it is our greatest mission to be that trusted guide. If we were trekking up a large mountain, we would want an expert climber who knew the terrain, the altitude, and the best paths up. We would want them to know if we had a weak ankle or a fear of heights. And, when we’re two-thirds of the way up the peak and navigating extremely precarious cliffs, we would want them to describe the immense beauty awaiting us at the top of the peak – not the inches of clearance we have on this particular patch of icy precipice or the lack of oxygen! 

Make it your mission to be your prospect’s trusted guide. Learn and understand your prospect’s fears, but also their strongest motivations. Keep asking and digging until you find the emotion behind the business case (sometimes called the “need behind the need”). This is where trust is built. This is the set of coordinates leading your prospect to paradise with your product. 

Notice that Mara didn’t say to Alan, “Hey, you should go get tacos.” 

She said, “Hey, want some tacos?” 

It implied togetherness and companionship. Be sure that your prospect sees you are a trusted guide and committed navigator, not just a technical expert at arms’ length. 

What are some approaches you have taken to find out your prospects' most important considerations and transport them to a future image of themselves delighting in using your product?

About Lyndsey Weber

Lyndsey Weber is an experienced solutions consultant in the SaaS finance space, with a background in engineering and former experience leading global projects at a Fortune 10 company. She currently works as a Senior Solutions Consultant at Quantrix, and in her free time, she enjoys eating, painting, writing, boxing, and playing tennis.

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