#023: Use AI to turn features into problems

Read time: 3 minutes

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• Mastering Technical Sales Discovery - Uncover customer problems and impact to create urgency and win more deals

• How to Build an Automated Prospecting Engine - Put your cold email on autopilot and generate qualified meetings at scale

• Magnetic Messaging - Construct a sales story that attracts your ideal customers and compels them to take action

• 7 Sales Skills to Close More New Deals - The fundamental sales skills needed to be successful in any economic environment

The biggest mistake we see with prospecting messaging is focusing only on features and capabilities. When prospecting to scientists, who are skeptical by nature, their natural response to claims you make will be met with disbelief.

You must align your messaging with the challenges they face. If you can accurately describe the problems they’re having, they will be more likely to trust you and respond to your message. This approach ensures that your solution is seen as directly relevant to solving an active problem, rather than just another tool.

Problem vs product expert

We ran a poll on LI about this and 93% said being a problem expert is more important than a product expert.

But this result is in direct conflict with what we see in reality. Almost every prospecting email is about your product or service.

Scientists seek solutions that address specific research challenges, improve efficiency, or enable new discoveries. Reverse engineering your messaging to identify the underlying customer problems your features solve can significantly increase engagement.

From Features to Problems

Transitioning from feature-based to problem-based messaging involves a fundamental shift in perspective. Instead of highlighting what your product does, focus on the problems it solves for your customer. For instance, a feature like "high-throughput data analysis" translates to addressing the problem of "time-consuming data processing in large-scale studies." This shift not only makes your messaging more relatable but also demonstrates a deeper understanding of your customer's daily challenges, particularly important when dealing with scientists who value precision and relevance.

AI-Assisted Problem Identification

You probably already have messaging that’s heavily focused on features and capabilities.

AI can quickly flip your features into customer problems. ChatGPT can analyze vast amounts of data, including product descriptions, customer feedback, and messaging, to pinpoint common challenges faced by your target audience.

Here is the process:

1. Open up ChatGPT (or your preferred AI chat tool)

2. Prompt: Read these messages and reverse engineer what the top problems a potential customer might be facing and where these solutions would be the answer. My potential customer is a [insert info about customer]. Here is the messaging [paste all your messages]

3. Refine the AI-generated insights to ensure they accurately reflect the unique problems of your customers.

Now you’ll have clear problems you can focus your message around.

Write problem-focused messages

You can either write these messages yourself using some of our email frameworks or if you’re a ChatGPT Pro user, you can use our custom GPT.

Get it here: Succession.bio Cold Email GPT

Prompt: @Succession.bio Cold Email GPT - Based on these problems outlined, please write 5 different prospecting emails.

Don’t just send these emails as is. Use them for inspiration for writing your own emails. These are simply a first draft to help you get started.

Conclusion

Shifting the focus of your messaging from features to the problems your customers face will significantly increase your reply rates.

Using AI this whole process will only take 5 minutes.

Give it a shot! We’d love to see the results from before and after.

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Episode 10: [Leadership] Starting a company through founder-led sales with Dejan Husman

• Scientific founder to sales transition

• When to hire your first sales reps

• How to build your sales skills as a founder

• Global investment challenges

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