What does it take for someone to be ready to buy?

Usually, they need some kind of big problem or opportunity you can help them solve. Something big enough to justify the pain, cost and time of making the change.

But what if they're not aware of that big problem?

Frankly, that's most often the case. After all, if they were fully aware of their big problem or challenge they'd be working on it already.

So it's your job to educate them and show them the huge opportunity they're missing, right? Show them the big mistakes they're making that you can fix?

Hmmmm.

Has anyone ever shown you a big mistake you've been making?

How did you react?

Unless you're some kind of angel, then chances are that your immediate reaction to being told you were wrong or making a big mistake was probably indignation. 

Maybe followed by a determination to prove your accuser wrong. Or at least to argue your case.

It's human nature really, we hate to be wrong. Or at least, we hate to be shown to be wrong.

Psychologists call it the “backfire effect”. When your beliefs are challenged with evidence, especially deeply held beliefs, then rather than reform your beliefs you tend to reject the evidence and harden your beliefs.

So we're left with a paradox.

We need to challenge our clients and get them to see they have problems in order for them to buy. But the most likely outcome of that challenge is that they push back against us. 

How do we break that paradox?

One way is to get our potential clients to discover their problems for themselves. Give them a diagnostic they can do that will enable them to see where they're going wrong. 

Or tell them a story about how you or one of your clients discovered the problem yourselves and they'll learn by analogy. 

Or “let them off the hook”. Give them a valid reason for why they're making the mistake that doesn't make them feel stupid or challenged. Maybe these new opportunities have arisen through new technology. Or a new way of organising things. Or maybe they were too busy focusing on other areas to notice this.

However you do it, you need to avoid triggering the kind of push-back that will prevent your client from seeing the truth and from buying from you.