An effective methodology to track a problem’s impacts right through an organisation to create a truly compelling sales value proposition

1. THE PAIN CHAIN
An effective methodology to track
a problem’s impacts right through
an organisation to create a truly
compelling value proposition

2. THE PAIN CHAIN IS A GREAT SALES TOOL BECAUSE
• A Pain Chain helps you:
 Understand the full impact a
problem is having on an
organisation
 Widens your base of contacts in
an organisation
 Help you qualify an opportunity
by having a deeper perspective
 Prepare a powerful value
proposition and sales proposal
 Improve your negotiating
position

3. DOMINO EFFECT
• All the people and functions
within an organisation depend
on each other
• An impact in one area will have
impacts on other areas
• When exploring a problem in an
organisation, a key question is
“Who else does this affect and
how?”

4. FOLLOWING A PROBLEM WIDENS YOUR CONTACTS
• Today organisations buy
collaboratively
• The sales challenge is to identify
everybody with a say in the
decision
• Following a Pain Chain will take
you to everybody affected by a
problem

5. MORE CONTACTS MEANS BETTER KNOWLEDGE
• Talking to all the people affected
by your proposal will result in
better information and
perspective
• Understanding all the solution’s
impacts in an organisation helps
you qualify the opportunity
better
• Being able to propose a
thorough value proposition
differentiates your solution and
increases its value

6. HERE’S HOW THE
PAIN CHAIN
WORKS…

7. PROBLEMS, REASONS, IMPACTS AND EFFECTS
• A PROBLEM is caused by a
REASON REASON
• A Problem has an IMPACT –
probably financial – on the
person you’re talking to PROBLEM
• A Problem also has knock on
EFFECTS in other parts of the
organisation IMPACT
EFFECTS

8. THE PAIN CHAIN IS A POWERFUL TOOL
• The Pain Chain often looks like an
organisation chart, but it’s not
• Problems at one level become
reasons at the next level up
• Use it as a living document to plan
and refine a pursuit
• In meetings, the Pain Chain can
help diagnose a problem’s impacts
• In presentations, the Pain Chain
can show the end-to-end effects of
a problem
• The Pain Chain is a great basis for
internal sales reviews

9. FOLLOWING A PAIN CHAIN
• Chief Information Officer
 Problem and Effect
 The marketing function are
unhappy because they can’t
implement new promotions
quickly enough
 Reason
 “The booking system is old. It’s
hard to make changes and they
take a lot of time”
 Impact
 The old system is expensive to
maintain and that’s costing £n

10. FOLLOWING A PAIN CHAIN
• Chief Marketing Officer
 Problem and Effect
 Sales are reduced because we
can’t get attractive offers to
market
 Reason
 “We’re losing market share
because we can’t introduce new
booking promotions fast
enough”
 Impact
 We’re having to spend more to
promote the offers we can make
and that’s costing £n

11. FOLLOWING A PAIN CHAIN
• Chief Sales Officer
 Problem and Effect
 “I’m getting grief from the CFO
because sales targets aren’t
being met”
 Reason
 “We’re losing business
customers because our offer
isn’t exciting enough”
 Impact
 The sales team isn’t as effective
as it could be and that’s costing
£n

12. FOLLOWING A PAIN CHAIN
• Chief Financial Officer
 Problem and Effect
 Missing quarterly revenue and
profit forecasts
 Reason
 “The sales targets aren’t being
met”
 Impact
 Our revenues are reducing but
our costs are constant so our
profitability is reduced by £n

13. FOLLOWING A PAIN CHAIN
• Chief Executive Officer
 Problem and Effect
 Earnings per share is falling
 Reason
 “We’re missing our quarterly
revenue and profit forecasts”
 Impact
 Shareholder value is falling
because market capitalisation
has reduced by £n

14. THE COMPLETE PAIN CHAIN
CEO CFO CSO CMO CIO
Problem: Problem: Problem: Problem: Problem:
Decreasing Missing Sales targets Selling offers Can’t
earnings per revenue and not being met not exciting introduce new
share profit forecasts Reason: enough promotions
Reason: Reason: Selling offers Reason: fast enough
Missing Sales targets not exciting Can’t Reason:
revenue and not being met enough introduce new Inflexible
profit forecasts promotions booking
fast enough system

15. EVERY LINK IN THE PAIN CHAIN HAS A FINANCIAL
IMPACT
Problem Reason Financial Impact
CEO Decreasing earnings Missing revenue and Reduced market
per share profit forecasts capitalisation - £?
CFO Missing revenue and Sales targets not being Lost revenue and
profit forecasts met margin - £?
CSO Sales targets not being Selling offers not Increased cost/sales
met exciting enough ratio - £?
CMO Selling offers not Can’t introduce new Increased marketing
exciting enough promotions fast costs - £?
enough
CIO Can’t introduce new Inflexible booking High maintenance
promotions fast system costs - £?
enough

16. AND THE VALUE PROPOSITION BECOMES…
• The new booking system will
enable you to:
 Reduce your current IT costs by £n
as result of having a more flexible
booking system
 Increase your market share by
being able to implement new
promotions faster whilst reducing
current marketing costs by £n
 Sell more by having more exciting
frequent offers and increasing sales
productivity by £n
 Increase revenues and margins by
an estimated £n
 Increase earning per share and
stop decline in market
capitalisation

17. SUMMARY

18. SUMMARY
• The Pain Chain
 Gets you wider access in an
organisation
 Helps you shape a stronger value
proposition
 Enables you to build stronger
relationships
• As you talk to people, recognise
 Problems are caused by reasons
and have a financial impact
 The reason at one level becomes
the problem at the previous level

19. HELPFUL?
• If you’ve found this helpful and • Mike McCormac founded Sales
want to learn more, now Success and More to help
schedule an hour’s sales professional sales people selling
high value services achieve more.
coaching with me to help you He has an MBA and his sales
apply the principles to your background includes over 15 years
situation. success selling IT services and
• Go to Sales Coaching at Sales outsourcing. Mike works mainly in
the UK and Cyprus.
Success and More!
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