You’re not you when you’re hungry, Bob and Greg write in their book Demand Side Sales 101. This slogan is a switch from supply-side sales to demand-side sales. It focuses on the struggling moment.
This podcast was about switching perspectives. Stop asking: Who buys it? Who needs it? Who wants it?
These are the wrong questions for demand-side sales. Instead, think like a therapist:
“You need to be able to understand the progress that the buyer wants and the progress that the user wants and understand the tradeoffs - you can’t do both - and how do you get them to common terms on the things that aren’t possible?” - Bob Moesta
This change in perspective means switching the questions you ask.
One of Bob’s favorite books is Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss. Among the negotiation tips and stories is Voss’s warning about the ‘counterfeit yes’. Sometimes we say yes just to be nice.
These yes answers don’t “frame the playing field”. Instead, focus on no.
No allows further questions about what’s important. No sets the tradeoffs. No gets to the progress people want to make.
The demand-side no-focused mindset is difficult because we are insiders. We see the world through our own eyes: as parents, business owners, and citizens.
But move from the internal language of features and benefits and to the external language of customer progress.
Assignment: Stop and think, are you just throwing up Features and Benefits, or thinking about a customer’s progress?