If you are a solution type of person like me, then the concept
that symptoms sell might not be intuitive at first. "What do you
mean symptoms sell? I am hired to offer a solution!" Yes, thats
true. But selling symptoms and offering a solution are not
mutually exclusive. The trick is in your timing. You see, until
your almost-client feels you understand their problem, they are
not going to listen to a solution you offer.

The funny thing is, when you spend measure asking questions to
uncover their problem and dig deeply to find out what theyve
already tried to solve it, it naturally prevents you from
jumping in too soon with a solution. This means you are
following my golden rule: Its Not About You, Its About Them.

Asking about symptoms takes the pressure off of you to sell.
You are just engaging your almost-client in an in-depth
conversation with one purpose in mind - to find out how bad
the problem is, and what happens if they dont fix it.

You dont have to spend hours engaged in this type of a
conversation, even as few as 5 minutes can reap huge rewards.
Precision questions generate this easy. Now I realize that if you
are a dyed-in-the-wool solution person this take a bit of
awareness and practice.

Here are 2 reasons why adopting this practice is assessment of worth it:
#1 You may help more many people if they feel you understand their
situation. And helping many people is probably why you do what you
do, isnt it?

#2 The greater the problem is, the less important funds will be
to your almost-client. Think about this for a moment - the more
important the problem is, the easier it is for an almost-client
to find the money to hire you. This means you have
little-to-no-quibbling about your fee.

So why not prepare 2-3 precision language questions this week
that will help you unearth the symptoms your almost-client might
be experiencing? Get relaxed hearing about their problems
and do not be satisfied until youve discovered what the
consequences are in not resolving them. Dig deeply and you will
find incredible treasures in your conversations!

Once youve dug deeply to uncover the symptoms and what happens
if they do not fix them, its finally time to transition your
conversation to the solution you have to offer. With this caveat
- do NOT, under any circumstances, spend more than 1 minute
going into detail about how to work with you.

The temptation to go into more detail will be strong. Resist.
Heres a rule of thumb to keep in mind. Follow it and you will
be following my golden rule: Its Not About You, Its About
Them. The rule of thumb is: You are either asking a question or
summarizing what theyve said.

So to transition your conversation to a solution, you can say
something like this (Ive used my own business as an example,
but this will work equally well for yours):

"So youre looking for a way to stop spending so much measure on
your selling and instead get better results with the measure you
do have to spend, is that right?"

Now comes the transition