Map each pain to the offer and name the price

1. Map: link what is wrong to what you sell

Next, you map. Mapping means linking the problems the prospect has given you to the solutions you have, and then confirming with them that it would help. The benefits come in at this point too. What else goes with each solution, beyond the benefits and the check: Not established on this page.

How the problems meet the solutions depends on how many problems there are:

• If they have one problem, map it to all three solutions, breaking it down into smaller problems to do so.
• If they have over three problems, that is great: gather them under a single solution able to solve more than one of them.

The solutions are counted as three here. Whether an offer should have three: Not established on this page.

2. The turn: ask to take them through it

Then comes the turn from their situation to your offer, called the transition. First, sum up their problems, this one and that one, and ask whether that sounds about right. When they agree, tell them that, given all they have said about the business and what is going wrong in it, you think this would really help, and ask if you can take them through it. They say yes.

3. Take them through it, one problem at a time

Take each problem in turn. Name it, say what in your offer deals with it, and ask whether they think that would help. When they say yes, move to the next.

The example is a prospect with too few leads and too few sales. In it, each problem is met by a person on the seller's side who covers that area, and the solution is the chance to ask that person questions, or talk to them, directly:

• For the leads problem, a specialist on content and ads who can take them through what to do right now to get past it, and who can help them improve their funnel. In the example, this person is called a superstar. Then the check: would that help?
• For the sales problem, a specialist on sales. Mention things this person has done that the prospect would find really impressive (three, in the example). Then ask whether, on the strength of those, they think this person could help with the small thing they are struggling with.

A second run of the example. Midway through the first run of the leads example, the steps are flagged as done out of order: the process probably should have been followed. When the leads example is run again, the praise and what the person can do for them both come before a single check, put this time as: if this person improved the thing you want, would you like that? Which step was out of order: Not established on this page.

4. Why it is thought hard to say no

Think about it for a second: how does the prospect say no to that? They have just told you about their problem. You asked whether you could take them through the offer, and they said yes. Then, for that same problem, you put in front of them someone who can improve the thing they want, and ask whether they would like that. This is a view, put as a question.

5. Three rounds, then the ask

Then you stack them: the pains they had, three or four of them, onto your solutions, also three or four. Do this three times. After that, ask for the sale. That is all there is to it.

How three rounds line up with three or four pains: Not established on this page.

6. Name the price and go quiet

Then, with something like "great", give the price, and after that stop talking. Keeping quiet after the ask, and for how long, is the subject of SOP 237 — Mark a script for tonality, section 5.

7. A tip for newer reps: call it expensive first

Especially if you have some newer salespeople, you can put "it's expensive" in front of the price, and it works fine. If some of them get a little nervous, they can just say it is expensive, then give the price.

Why it works, as offered here: believe it or not, the word acts as a price anchor. The appeal of "expensive" is that what counts as expensive differs from one person to the next, so the anchor has no fixed size. In one example, a person told that something was expensive would assume it cost a fortune.

• If the buyer is rich, you call it expensive, you say the number, and to them it is not expensive at all; in the example, they are in.
• If the buyer is poor, you have at least prepared them for it.

So it works on both sides.

When the prospect is the one who calls it expensive, section 6 of SOP 99 — Classify an objection reads that as, sometimes, no more than an observation rather than an objection. Anchoring with a far pricier version shown first is a separate move, set out on SOP 68 — Run the anchor upsell.

8. What this page does not decide for you

• The benefits. What goes with each solution beyond the benefits and the check: Not established on this page.
• Three solutions. Whether an offer should have three: Not established on this page.
• The order. Which step was out of order in the first run of the example: Not established on this page.
• Three rounds and three or four pains. How these fit together: Not established on this page.
• The price. This page gives no figure for the price.

9. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	Link each problem the prospect gave you to your solutions, and check with them that it helps
2	If they have one problem, split it into smaller problems and map it to all three solutions
3	If they have over three problems, gather them under a single solution able to solve more than one of them
4	Sum up their problems, check you have them right, and ask if you can take them through the offer
5	For each problem, say what in the offer deals with it, then ask whether that would help
6	After three rounds, ask for the sale
7	Give the price, and then say nothing more
8	If a newer rep gets nervous, they can say "it's expensive" and then give the number

10. What this page does not cover

The pain cycle, including how the pain is stacked before you reach this point, is SOP 240 — Label the problem and run the pain cycle. What everything said ahead of the ask is for sits on SOP 239 — Build pain before the ask and clarify why they came. Voice and silence at the ask belong to SOP 237.

Objection handling is not covered on this page; it begins at SOP 99. When the answer is anything but yes, the closes are on SOP 100 — Run the reason close and SOP 101 — Run the general closes.

Another way to build the pitch, around what a person needs in order to succeed, with an analogy for each part, is in section 5 of SOP 147 — Make new customers consistent — advertise. Setting the price you name is not covered on this page; SOP 82 deals with it.