What Problems Are You Solving

The Million-Dollar Question

This is the million-dollar question that separates great brands from the ones that fail within a year. You are never selling what you think you are selling. And selling based on the product alone won't allow you to increase your margins.

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What Are You Really Solving For

When it comes to problem-solving and selling that solution, we've all heard the classic line, sell me this pen.

Most, when trying to sell something, rattle off all the features and benefits of their pen, regardless of knowing who they are talking to and what they need or want.

When it comes to selling, your prospects are trying to solve three things: functions, emotions, and status.

Does your product solve my problem, does it reduce my stress, and does it make me look good to those around me?

Knowing those three things about your prospect, as well as them getting the answers, allows you to close a deal effectively.

A perfect example is losing weight. There are a million ways, systems, platforms, and trainers out there that are all trying to persuade us they are the best but at the core, people don't want all their programs and solutions, people want to lose weight so just be clear about that and provide proof.

What Are The Outcomes Your Prospects Want

When you first started thinking about ideas for your platform you probably had some outcomes in mind that you were developing for, most likely functional ones.

But there are also emotional and status outcomes people want to experience also. Take a moment to list all the possible outcomes someone is looking to solve.

Personal Example

When designing Contineofy, when thinking through the eyes of potential prospects, I thought of the following outcomes:

• A marketing agency that actually drives customer acquisition
• I want to look successful towards my peers and others in the industry
• I want to provide more for my family
• I want to stop stressing over figuring out how to sell my platform
• I want more time to develop my platform

The Real Problem You Are Solving For

Knowing all the outcomes someone is trying to achieve using your software, now think about the common problems they run into while working through each outcome.

Personal Example

For the outcome, I want to stop stressing over figuring out how to sell my platform, when thinking of all the problems being solved, the process could go many different directions:

• I go to conferences, take courses, ask for the process my peers took, or reverse engineer other great marketers, then do the work myself
• I find and hire a team to manage all the marketing, having to ensure I hire the right people, train them on the platform, and then manage them to ensure the work is getting done
• I outsource the marketing to an agency, I work with them to understand the platform, but then they manage themselves and I fire them if they aren't delivering results

Focusing specifically on their outsourcing, I thought of all the problems I was going to solve for my customers so that they would achieve their outcomes.

• Understanding what marketing strategies actually work is confusing
• Hiring and managing a team, internally, takes a lot of effort, then there are payroll taxes and all the health benefits I have to worry about too
• There are so much marketing technologies out there, how I do even choose which ones to use
• There is always something new happening in digital marketing, how do I keep up with all the changes

These are but a few of the problems we solve at Contineofy.

Your Problems Have Problems

The reason problem-solving is so complex is that as soon as you add human emotions to the mix, you are no longer solving for the problem, but the problems' problems.... how does that even make sense?

Each problem comes with a breakout of additional problems, usually what you hear on a sales call.

These additional problems usually relate to time, money, and effort; I don't have the time, I can't afford it, and that's too hard.

Personal Example

When focusing on understanding what marketing strategies actually work is confusing a couple of the problems solved for are:

• I don't have enough time to go out to learn marketing while at the same time, I am trying to build a competitive platform
• There are so many programs out there to learn marketing, most of them there expensive, and I personally don't really have an interest in paying to learn this

I, personally, left effort out because as a software engineer, you're smart enough to build a platform, so you probably could figure out marketing and sales, reverse engineering those who do it well and do it yourself.

The problems we are solving for our time, process, and actual results so that you can be less stressed and be successful in the eyes of those around you.

Bringing It All Together

If you work through these steps and hone in on the outcomes your customers are trying to achieve functionally, emotionally, and status, you're going to create a good list of problems they typically run into.

Once you break those problems out based on time, money, and effort, the list of problems you are solving should be extensive.

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Who Are You Solving The Problems For

Whether you are just starting out or looking to scale, knowing who you are solving problems for will make all the difference when it comes to, designing your marketing, advertising, your sales process, and the ways you evolve your platform.

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