#050: Problem vs Opportunity Selling

Read time: 5 minutes

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Understanding why your prospects make purchasing decisions can be the key to closing deals.

Fundamentally, people buy solutions for one of two reasons: to solve a problem or to take advantage of an opportunity. While both are valid, the way you approach each scenario can significantly impact your chances of winning a deal.

Problem vs. Opportunity Buyers

Let's break this down further. When you engage with a prospect, you’ll need to determine whether they are a problem-oriented buyer or an opportunity-oriented buyer. These two types of buyers have very different motivations and, consequently, require different sales approaches.

Problem-Oriented Buyers: These buyers are struggling to achieve their desired outcomes. Something in their current process or setup isn't working, and they need a solution to overcome this hurdle. Their focus is on fixing what’s broken and restoring efficiency or effectiveness. For example, if a lab is consistently missing its deadlines due to outdated equipment, they need a solution that will quickly get them back on track.

Opportunity-Oriented Buyers: On the other hand, these buyers are looking to get ahead, often by leveraging new technologies or innovations that give them a competitive edge. They aren't necessarily facing problems but are motivated by the potential for growth, new insights, or enhanced capabilities. Think of a research team that wants to adopt cutting-edge gene editing tools to push the boundaries of their work. They aren’t fixing a problem but rather seizing an opportunity.

Technology Adoption Curve

The curve uses five segments to categorize people based on their tendency to adopt new technologies.

While not an exact science, opportunity and problem buyers tend to fall into the following categories.

• Opportunity Buyers

  • Innovators: Eager to try and adopt new products

  • Early adopters: Enthusiastically embrace new products and services

• Problem Buyers

  • Early majority: Adopt new technology after it has been proven successful, and are more cautious and pragmatic

  • Late majority: Adopt a product or service after it becomes widely adopted

  • Laggards: Take longer to make a purchase decision

Real-Life Parallels: Understanding the Buyer’s Mindset

To better illustrate the difference, let’s look at some everyday examples:

• Problem Purchases:

  • Buying Lightbulbs: A bulb goes out, and you need to replace it.

  • Buying a New iPhone: Your current phone’s battery drains too quickly, and you need a more reliable device.

  • Buying a Home: Your growing family needs more space, and your current home is no longer adequate.

• Opportunity Purchases:

  • Buying Lightbulbs: You decide to switch to energy-efficient LEDs to lower your power bill.

  • Buying a New iPhone: You want the latest model with a top-notch camera to take stunning photos.

  • Buying a Second Home: You’re looking for a vacation retreat, perhaps a beach house, to enjoy your summers.

In each of these scenarios, the same products are being purchased at radically different price points, but the motivations behind the purchase are entirely different. One is about solving an existing issue, while the other is about capitalizing on a new opportunity.

Identifying the Buyer Type

In your initial discovery calls your first task is to identify which bucket your prospect falls into. Are they dealing with a pressing problem that needs immediate resolution, or are they early adopters exploring opportunities to enhance their capabilities?

In today’s market, where budgets are tight and companies are cautious with their spending, more prospects fall into the problem-oriented category.

Budgets for exploratory or opportunity-driven purchases have shrunk drastically from where they were a few years ago, and companies are reallocating funds to initiatives that are more proven (closer to the clinic, already validated, etc).

Aligning Your Sales Strategy

Given the current economic climate, one common mistake sales reps make is selling their solution as if every buying is opportunity-oriented. Highlighting all the fantastic things a prospect could achieve with your product might be appealing, but it doesn’t align with what most buyers are currently prioritizing. Most are problem buyers, especially when budgets are tight.

Instead of discussing your features and benefits, shift your focus to how your solution can resolve their most urgent problems. Align your pitch with high-priority business initiatives. Those that have significant budget allocations and there is a desire to solve the problem quickly.

The Technical Sales Discovery Framework

This is where the Technical Sales Discovery Framework helps you reorient the conversation to uncover the problems that are most closely aligned with your prospect's high-priority initiatives. Here’s how you can use it:

1. Goals and Objectives

   • What are they trying to achieve?

   • How are they measured?

   • What does success look like?

2. Problem Identification

   • What problems are getting in the way?

   • Why aren’t they able to achieve those objectives on their own?

   • Who does it impact?

3. Root Cause Analysis

   • Why do these problems occur?

   • When do they occur?

   • Where do they occur?

4. Business Impact

   • Is there a defined initiative to solve the problem?

   • What happens if it’s not solved?

   • How severely does the problem impact the organization?

   • What are the benefits of fixing it?

5. Solution Scoping

   • What have they done to solve this already?

   • What has worked and what hasn’t worked?

   • What does an ideal solution look like?

Recap

To summarize, in the current market, it’s more effective to sell based on problem-solving rather than opportunity-seizing. Use the Technical Sales Discovery Framework to identify and align your sales strategy to focus on solving high-priority business problems. You will unlock larger budgets and shorten the sales cycle by addressing urgent needs.

We have a dedicated Technical Sales Discovery course that shows you how to leverage this framework to create urgency and drive deals to close. You can access this course for free when you sign up for a free trial of Succession.

Apple Podcast | Spotify | YouTube

5 Strategies to Prospect and Close More Deals

• Nick and I recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago. Multple reps have reached out saying how helpful it was, so we’re sharing it again here.

• There are a few sections that are directly related to this newsletter article about aligning your solution to high-priority initiatives.

1. Lead Generation: We’ll build target lists, write scientifically relevant messaging, and send messages on your behalf to book qualified sales meetings with biotech and pharma companies.

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