My mom asked me to buy her a new computer, but I said no.
Here’s how it went down.
Mom: “I want a 27-inch iMac, a 5k display, and 512MB SSD Drive.”
Me: “What will a new computer allow you to do that you can’t do today?”
Judi: “Log into Facebook.”
Me: “Log into Facebook?”
Judi: “Yes, since I can’t log into my account, I have to keep creating new accounts. Like I said, my computer is broke.”
My mom wanted a new computer, but the problem was that she didn’t know how to reset her password.
A new computer wouldn’t have solved her problem, so I said no.
There’s a good lesson here.
Sometimes solutions prospects ask for don’t solve problems.
Peel the onion.
Dig in a bit to understand the root cause behind why the prospect is asking for the solution.
For example, people often call me because they want a cold email workshop.
Here’s me:
”This is going to sound like an obvious question, but what will a cold email workshop enable you to do better?”
Prospect: “Get more meetings.”
A cold email workshop is a solution.
Prospects don’t want “more meetings.”
What they want is more revenue.
There are sixteen strategies to consider that is a faster path to revenue than reaching out to strangers.
The takeaway?
Be on the lookout for solutions masquerading as problems.
A cold email workshop and a new computer are solutions masquerading as problems.
Your prospects might ask for solutions that they think will solve the problem too.
Are you giving people what they ask for or what they need? Sometimes those two things aren’t the same.