Take My Money Vs. Solve My Problem (Lochhead Lessons)

“I just don’t want it to feel like an up-sell, you know? Like I’m just looking for more money. I know they need this, but they’re going to look at anything with an extra cost super skeptically. Not because the money is even the issue, but I know these people and how they think.”

(quote from a friend in a conversation we had recently)

You feel that friction? Grinding up something you’ll say against whatever someone else is going to hear?

Christopher Lochhead says (emphasis added),

Market your brand, and I think you want my money. Market my problem, and I think you want to help me.

I’ll reframe Lochhead’s insight, for my friend:

If I tell you what you need, you’ll know you’re being sold. But if you tell me what you need, you’re open for help (and maybe even paying for it).

If you don’t want it to feel like an up-sell, get them to speak the problem. Make it an and-sell. As in, “I need this AND that.”

They’re not always just going to throw their problem on the table either. You might have to work to coax it out of them. So make that the target of the conversation.

Not the overly excited up-sell, but the better defining of the obvious problem, in their words, ideally out of their mouth.

You know, converse with them. Talk. All importantly – listen before you solve.

That’s how you set the table for the and-sell.

Don’t deduce. Induce.

Then you can sell this AND that.

PS. Get more Christopher Lochhead wisdom from these notes

PSS. Are we connected on Twitter? I found and shared this Lochhead quote last week