Are You Really Implicating the Pain?

James Clear has a great way of seeing problems as either 'muddy puddles' or 'leaky ceilings'.

“Some problems are like muddy puddles. The way to clear a muddly puddle is to leave it alone. The more you mess with it, the muddier it becomes.

… Other problems are like a leaky ceiling. Ignore a small leak, and it will always widen… Some problems multiply when left unattended. You need to intervene now.”

I love to use this to set up a conversation with a customer about the Implications of a Pain they may be facing. After introducing the concept to the customer, you can refer to a particular identified pain, and ask:

“Do you think this issue is a muddy puddle or a leaky ceiling?”

(Of course, you know before asking that it's a leaky ceiling...)

When the customer responds to confirm it is a leaky ceiling you can discuss with them what they believe the implications of the 'leaky ceiling' are. In our Identify > Indicate > Implicate process it looks like this:

i1 Identify: It looks like you have a leaky ceiling there. Have you considered whether it will get worse?

i2 Indicate: Typically, if left treated, it will collapse and cost $X to repair. By solving it now, you can save $X in costs.

i3 Implicate: Have you budgeted for cost of the ceiling collapse? What other projects would be impacted by the collapse? What will be the implications of that impact?

Often, salespeople get to i1 Identify Pain, and think their job is done, but identifying Pain is rarely enough.

If you are a seller reading this, ponder over your pipeline... What Pain level are your deals at?  i1? i2 or i3? If they aren't at i3, you have some work to do to increase urgency and reduce the likelihood of inertia. 

REMEMBER: Pain is fluid - it doesn't matter if you've done a 10/10 job of Implicating Pain; unless you have maintained the implications in the customer's mind, the implications will fade!