How to Approach a Frustrated Customer

For today’s article, I want to talk to you about how to approach prospects, but this article is about prospects who are unaware of what you sell; however, they are focused on a solution that you can offer. How can you leverage that solution to talk to them?

Let’s review the three vital things that you have to know in order to talk to a prospect with respect. First is desire. 

What motivates this person?

In regards to what you sell; how much does he or she know about your product, and how many other products or businesses have they compared it to? It’s up to you to differentiate if they know your product and which category you can use to your advantage.

This helps you establish their awareness or sophistication level. You have to match their level of sophistication. Your solution-aware prospect knows the results he or she wants but doesn’t know what you have to offer. That’s why you must know what desire is driving your prospect.

This person knows what they want as a solution, but they haven’t found it yet and they don’t know about your product. That’s why we call them solution aware. 

Technically there are two ways to categorize this customer:

• Your prospect knows the result she wants but is unaware of your product. 
• Your prospect is frustrated with the current product or solution and has come to rely on a substitute that doesn’t really fulfill the desire.  

Your prospect is unaware of your product 

After eight years of service in the military, I wanted out. I wanted to have a family, make more money, and build a life for myself. That was my desire. 

I had some vague idea of how to move forward – I could peruse the Help Wanted section of the newspaper. I could go to college because, at the time, the common stance was that more education equaled more money. But I didn’t really want a job or to go to college. 

That was my frustration point; I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know the best solution. 

Your prospect settles for a substitute

Now let’s dive into the second – the prospects using a substitution. 

Here’s another example from my life – my battle with acne. I had an acne problem for years and I felt compelled to resolve it. I tried everything. I was solution aware in every sense. 

When prospects are solution aware, they’re not necessarily aware of the products available to them. They might not even have the knowledge of where to look for them. I see this a lot in teenagers with acne. They scrub their faces, strip out the oils, and cover it all up with makeup. Others will hear someone say they need to exfoliate, so they scrub the heck out of their face until it’s red and burning. But these are substitutes for the real solution.

It’s clear that they’re solution focused. The same thing happens within the Network Marketing Power audience. There are a lot of people in network marketing who tell me that this is a solution for them, yet they haven’t gotten the results they want yet.

I know that that’s who I serve. I’m serving the solution aware.

This is a post that really struck a chord with me. This gal posted a picture of herself before and after she took off her makeup. It went viral. 

She wanted to show people her frustration with her skin and the judgment she faced every day.

The OP wrote, “Acne doesn’t make you ugly, a heart full of hate does.” 

She is the epitome of solution aware here. But how did she solve the problem?

Makeup. That became her substitute for a real solution to her skin problem. There’s a lot of people out there living in quiet desperation. That’s what it really is. Much like many of our teens cover up bad skin with makeup, tons of people substitute their desire to run a business with a job.

I was solution aware and FRUSTRATED

Here’s an old picture of me. For about 10 or 12 years, I had this severe acne on my forehead and down the sides of my head. I tried so many treatments, you can’t even imagine how many creams and ointments, not in a million years.

One doctor told me I had too much acidity in my body and I had to get it out. I was so desperate that I listened. 

After that appointment, I ate nothing besides boiled cabbage. I sweat in a sauna until I was peeing on an acid test stick and turned purple. This is what this doctor was telling me that I had to do in order to get better skin, but it just got worse and worse.

Despite my failing health, he told me,  “You’re almost there. You’re almost there.” After months of this, I finally said, “To hell with this, man. I’m not doing this anymore.” 

You’ll never guess what the real problem was – a vitamin deficiency. And all that sweating made it worse because all it did was deplete this vitamin from my body. Simple.

Understand that your prospects are failing

So many people are in the same boat. If they just had this one thing, an extra piece of knowledge, the right product, they could get what they want.  I knew someone or something would improve my skin. I found it in a book I read when my wife was pregnant about skin problems with newborn babies.

All I could think was, “Are you kidding me?” I had flown all over the world to the greatest dermatologists, and a baby book had the answer. 

In summary, the solution-aware prospect wants results. In our first category, they don’t know about your product or service and that you may be able to solve their problem. 

In the second category, they’re frustrated and they’ve settled for a substitute. The reason that I had to break this into two different groups is so that when you sit down with somebody, write sales copy, or post on social media, you can draft these differently depending on the target.

How to work with frustration

Let’s focus on your group whose stand-in solution isn’t getting them the result that they want. I want to warn you about this group. This category of individuals is hell-bent on getting a result, but they’ve tried and tried without success. No matter what they do, it doesn’t seem to work out.

This cycle drives them into apathy until they just want to sit down and cry. As such, this group is fragile and you need to treat them gently. The wrong approach is the equivalent of lighting a fuse and you can end up with a very upset prospect. 

Remember the person with a skin condition. They know they don’t have what they want, they have to wear that frustration on their face out in the world. They are outcome focused. It’s up to you to build the bridge from their desire to your product. 

This is very important. You need to show them how this time it’s going to be different or their money back. You’ll have to convince this prospect that you understand what he or she really wants and needs before you can complete your bridge. 

Sit and listen. Imagine it’s a therapy session. Let them talk and tell you about their last experience in network marketing. When they say, “Oh, it was horrible!” and then dive into how bad it was, just listen. Get into the details and let it all gush out. Find out what happened.  

No matter how badly you want to, don’t interrupt and never handle an objection. You do not handle an objection. Just listen. That’s what this group needs. It’s the only way to work with someone in this phase. 

Sit and listen. Imagine it’s a therapy session.

After you’ve heard this person out, then you can start to build a bridge and explain how your solution will be different from anything they’ve tried before. 

My personal experience on this journey

A man named Rick Mayo did that for me. It’s because of him that I educate people now. Mayo was the person who sponsored me in network marketing. When I met him, I was solution aware. I was not product aware, I had never heard of network marketing and I never thought in a million years I’d be in a skincare company. 

At the time, I thought Amway was a train. Amway, Amtrack. I thought it was a train. So when he said something rather about it, I didn’t really know what he was talking about. 

Rick sat me down and asked me about my desire. I said, “Well, I’m thinking about going to college. I want to get out of the military.”

He asked, “Why do you want to get out of the military? Why do you want to go to college?”

“Well, I want to have a family.”

 And he said, “Which one are you leaning towards?” 

I responded that I’d like to get an education on it because I wanted to make more money. He grabbed a stack of papers and set it in front of me. 

“Okay,” he said, “This is you wanting to have a family and make more money. You want to spend time with them instead of being away all the time. That’s that.” Then he turned to me and asked, “How are you going to do that? Tell me how you’re going to pay for this college education.” 

He wasn’t antagonistic. He was friendly and helpful. As a result, I trusted him and shared all of my concerns with this complete stranger. Then he built a bridge from my desire to his solution – network marketing. 

Today, I do it the exact same way that Rick Mayo did with me that day.

Share your experience

What’s your thoughts on the solution-aware crowd? Comment with your stories or examples or join us in my Telegram group. The more we share with one another, the better we’ll get at spotting new opportunities for bigger sales. 

Sometimes you’re in a conversation with somebody and then all, and then BAM, you realize where they are. They’re in solution. They have their substitute, they’ve settled for some alternative thing. In other words, they are suppressing their desire for what they really want, because they’re ashamed about not being able to get the solution.

If you can catch someone in that moment, it can be really special.

Need help with your message?

Here’s my training for what to say and how to say it. If you don’t have a team or haven’t recruited anyone (or less than 10 people), this is THE course for you – Network Marketing Training Course