It is pretty obvious, although not always acted on that you should define the problem before you spend time trying to sell a solution.

    There are many techniques to getting to the point where the sale can be made, libraries have been written, but in my experience, 3 simple questions will get you there. They are not easy to answer, but once you have, a sale is the easy bit.

  1. How can you help your prospect build sales?
  2. How can you help your prospect to decrease costs?
  3. How can you help your prospect to increase productivity?
  4.  

    Answer these, and you have the problem your product can solve defined, and the sell is easy, after all, who can say no to any of these being delivered. One of the rules I use, never go into a sales situation (as distinct from an information gathering situation) without at least 2 of these answered in some form.