#70: Identifying The Root Causes Of A Prospects Pain

#70: Identifying The Root Causes Of A Prospects Pain

Read Time: 2 min

Today, I’m going to discuss a simple framework for quickly identifying the root causes of pain points. 

If used correctly, this can be the most important skill set you acquire on your founder-led sales journey.

The art of uncovering pain and identifying use cases when speaking with prospects lies in your ability to ask the right questions in a specific sequence.

I often see founders jumping from question to question without unpacking and addressing some of the prospect's key points. You will never reach your true potential until you learn how to extract all the right information. This begins and ends with asking strategic questions.

 
The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it’s taken place.

~ George Bernard Shaw

I have something that I’ve used successfully for years. It’s what I call the triple III framework. It is a comprehensive approach to identifying and addressing the root causes of a prospect's pain points. By asking a specific sequence of questions, the framework helps understand the duration of the issue, educates prospects about potential solutions, and guides them through envisioning what their life could look like after utilizing your product. This process is not just a series of questions but rather a psychological journey that helps prospects not only understand their challenges but also see a path forward toward a better future.


Triple III

• Identify pain

• Imply consequences

• Imagine the problem solved

Identify pain:

These questions are broad-based and start with these phrases.

• I’d love to understand how you’re currently managing this workflow now. What does that look like?

Imply consequences:

The goal here is to highlight the consequences of incorrectly dealing with the issue. This is rubbing salt in the wound. Here, you want to understand what they’re doing, if anything, to solve the problem(s) they’ve conveyed. These questions would look like this.

• How long has this been a problem?

• Was there an incident that has motivated you to take action now?

• Why is now the right time to address this?

• Why is this on your radar now?

• What type of resources have you thrown at the problem so far?

• What have been the likes and dislikes?

Imagine the problem solved:

The goal here is to have them envision what life would be like when they’re in the driver’s seat using your product. It’s life before and life after using your tech. These questions would look like this.

• If we were able to do ____________, what would that look like for you and your team?

• What does the ideal situation look like for you when it comes to managing ______________? In a perfect world, what would that look like for you?

Asking questions in this style will result in a much better understanding of problems and help zero in on how motivated they are to solve them.

That’s it for today!

See you all next week.



Darren

P.S. If finding PMF and scaling to $1M in ARR through founder-led sales is on your radar, book a call with me here

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