Saleshq.com has an excellent article for any salesperson in any market – Do You Probe For Pain?  We use the term “pain” in our discussions though it sounds a bit dramatic.  Even so, it is the most descriptive word for qualifying.  The article explains why:

People are fundamentally motivated in two main ways:

1. What problem or pain they can avoid and move away from

2. What pleasure or benefit they can move towards

That is absolutely true.  The key here is that people move away from pain faster than they move towards pleasure.  As described later in the article:

If a prospect feels content with their current supplier or their current situation, then it will be a huge challenge to motivate them to want to buy your product or service. That’s why every pain your prospect feels is an opportunity for you. Your task, during the initial fact-finding stage, is to uncover their ‘pain’ and help them to dwell on their problems.

The stronger the pain or the bigger their problem, the greater their motivation will be to move away from it. If you can convince prospects that your organisation can reduce one or more of their ‘pains’, then you will have suddenly discovered a powerful way to unleash their motivation to buy from you.

Finally, here are some excellent pain probes for any salesperson:

“What areas of your current situation don’t you like?”
“What is this costing your organisation each year?”
“How do you feel about (problem)?”
“Who else is aware of these issues?”
“How do they feel about it?”
“Why haven’t you tackled this before?”
“How do your issues compare to those in similar organisations?”
“Which of these problems is causing you the most concern?”
“What have you done in the past that’s not worked?”
“When did you begin noticing this issue?”
“Why is this such an issue for you?”
“When will you decide to resolve this?”

These items are just skimming off the top of this article so as they say, read the entire thing.

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