Customer pain constitutes powerful motivating factor

If you’ve ever spent time around a sales department or salespeople, chances are that you’ve heard the term “pain” bandied about. Unfortunately, this word is often used loosely. David Sandler, founder of the Sandler Selling System in 1968, is credited with being the first sales guru to identify the idea of pain as a powerful buying motive.

What Sandler realized was that a prospect moving away from something (pain) is a much more powerful motivator than one who is moving toward something (pleasure). That’s not to say that your product might not be a pleasure-motivated…