People buy a way out of a problem, not a product

You will be able to describe any product as the problem it removes and the change it makes for one specific buyer.

Nobody wakes up wanting a product. They wake up with a problem, sometimes a small one they have put up with for months, and at some point the problem becomes annoying or expensive enough that they start looking for a way out. That moment is where every sale begins, and it happens inside the buyer's head long before a seller is involved.

Take a phone plan. One person switches because their bill keeps going over and they are tired of checking data usage. Another switches because their parents in Malaysia cannot reach them on roaming. A third switches because a colleague mentioned a cheaper plan and they felt silly paying more. Same product, three different problems, and three different conversations a good seller would have.

This is the first idea of the course: a buyer is buying a way out of a problem. The product is only how they get there, and what they care about is the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, and what that gap costs them.

That cost comes in a few currencies. Money is the obvious one: overpaying, losing income, or missing a return. Time is the second: hours spent on admin or travel or fixing things. Stress is the third, and it is often the one that finally pushes someone to act, because a nagging worry is harder to ignore than a line on a bank statement. The fourth is how they are seen, by a boss, a client, a partner or their family. People will rarely say this one out loud, but it moves a lot of decisions.

Buyers usually explain their decisions with logic. They will tell you about features, price and comparisons. Underneath, they are moved by how much the problem costs them in those currencies. A seller who only talks about features is answering a question the buyer has not really asked.

This has a practical consequence. If you cannot describe your buyer's problem in one sentence, in their words, you are not ready to talk about your product. Sellers who skip this step end up delivering the same pitch to everyone, and it lands with almost no one, because it is built around the product rather than around the person sitting opposite.

Try it with something you sell, or something you could sell. A freelance designer might write: a cafe owner who knows their menu and signage look tired and is losing walk-in customers to the newer place down the street. An insurance adviser might write: a new parent who has realised their family depends entirely on their income and does not know what would happen if they fell ill. Neither sentence mentions a product, yet both tell you what the first conversation should be about.

Notice that the problem sentence also tells you who the product is not for. The cafe owner whose walk-in trade is growing does not have the problem, and no amount of pitching will create it. Knowing that early saves you and the buyer a wasted meeting, and it makes you more believable to the people who do have the problem.

In the next lesson you will see the five stages a buyer moves through after noticing a problem, and why what a buyer needs from you is different at each one. Before you move on, spend ten minutes on the activity below, because you will use the result in every module that follows.

Your task: pick one product or service and write a single sentence for each of three different buyers that says what problem it removes for that person. Use the words they would use and leave the product name out of every sentence.

Pick something you sell or could sell and write one sentence for each of three different buyers naming the problem it removes for that person.

Course

• Sales foundations: how people decide to buy