How do you (or should you) sell to people when they’re down?

Great photo by Nathan Cowley

​This is a sensitive one. It’s based on a recent experience with a client of ours. 
 
We need to exercise discretion here, but know that our client serves a certain target audience who is, well, for lack of a better word, suffering. 
 
Yes, suffering. 
 
No, this client of ours is not a personal-injury lawyer. Not a chiropractor. Not an undertaker. Nothing like that. They’re a professional-services firm that just so happens to specialize in helping out a very niche audience who is, by nature of their “situation,” out-and-out miserable. 
 
It’s the context of that “situation” which our client specializes in. Thus the audience of sufferers. 
 
This begs a bunch of questions: 

• How do you approach this suffering audience? 

 

• How do you sell to this suffering audience? 

 

• Should you approach this suffering audience? 

 

• Should you sell to this suffering audience? 

 
Here’s why you should keep reading: 
 
These questions don’t just pertain to our super-specialized client. 
 
They also pertain to you. Believe it or not. 
 
To suffer or not to suffer
 
We’ll spare you any suspense: We believe it’s absolutely appropriate to approach, and yes sell to, this audience. 
 
Of course that assertion comes loaded with caveats. 
 
But before we go there, let’s go here: How does this pertain to you? Who ever said your prospects are suffering? 
 
We did. Right here at Copel Communications. 
 
Think about it. If they weren’t suffering, they wouldn’t need your services. Here’s a kind of warped parallel: 
 
Ever see one of those “ghost-hunter” shows on TV? The ones where a group of “paranormal experts” descend upon some old house or hotel, and wire it up with equipment and recording devices, to try and capture the energy from long-dead spirits? 
 
If you have, great. If you haven’t, great. Because we’ll tell you the “secret ingredient” in all of these “reality” shows. (Boy did we ever smirk when we added the quotation marks to the word “reality,” but that’s the topic of another article.) 
 
Here’s the secret sauce, which all of these shows employ generously: If you think about the “team” of ghost-hunters, who do you think of? Exactly: People who are well-versed in the paranormal and the technology used to try and capture mysterious otherworldly behavior. People who know their history. People who are naturally curious, and certainly not afraid of the dark or things that go bump in the night. 
 
Wait. Scratch that. 
 
What?
 
“People who are not afraid of the dark or things that go bump in the night.” 
 
Nope. Not a qualifier for these TV shows. In fact, the exact opposite is true. 
 
Watch any one of these. Sure, there will be a team of experts who are intrepid. But every time—trust us on this—there will be one person on that team who is utterly terrified of the dark, who jumps out of their skin at the slightest noise. 
 
Think about that. Why would you ever, ever, intentionally add a scaredy-cat to your ghost-hunting team? 
 
(Don’t worry. We’ll connect this to “suffering target audience” in just a second.) 
 
The answer: It makes for good television.
 
Mind you, it’s not the professional ghost-hunters who choose Mister Scaredy-Cat to join their team. It’s the show’s producer.
 
Because if the team were all nothing but ice-cool professionals, they would go in, do their job, get their info... 
 
...and the show would be boring. Simple as that. 
 
Approach with caution
 
If you watch any of these ghost-hunter shows, the best parts are when some door creaks, or a bat flies out of a pantry, and Mister Scaredy-Cat utterly leaps out of his skin and runs off screaming into the night, knocking down expensive equipment as he goes. It’s delightful. It’s funny. It’s fun to watch. And it gives you a little dosage of smug self-satisfaction as you think: I would never do that!
 
And it keeps you watching the show, instead of switching the channel. 
 
So back to our client and their suffering audience. And at least as important, yours.
 
If you only reach out to prospects who are the “professional ghost-hunters,” you’re barking up the wrong tree. To mix metaphors (one of our dubious skills here at Copel Comms), that tree is connected to the wrong sales funnel. The lower in the funnel, the more your prospects are suffering. Not necessarily personally (as is the case with our client), but certainly professionally. 
 
So. Now we can pick up the thread, and tell you how our client—with a little help from us—approached this delicate situation. 
 
Our client is truly empathetic. Spoiler alert: The principal is also a veteran/survivor of the exact same “situation” as their target audience. So they know what these prospects are going through. 
 
Importantly, they also know that there’s light at the end of the tunnel—something that none of these prospects can grasp, deep in the doldrums of despair. 
 
And that’s the way in.
 
This is about comfort. It’s about succor. It’s about understanding. It’s about hope. 
 
Then it’s about professional expertise. About helping prospects face a difficult reality. It’s the delicate balance of “tough” and “love.”
 
Now think about your prospects. We can safely assume they’re not as all-out depressed as our client’s prospects, but they’re still suffering, in their way. 
 
And this leads to some interesting creative/marketing approaches for you. Depending on the degree of “suffering,” you can dial up (or down) the level of comfort-and-compassion accordingly. 
 
But just knowing that opens up a new window, for you, to really reach these people, and connect with them at a much deeper level than you might ordinarily do through traditional approaches. And then, of course, once you’ve engaged with them—once you’ve gotten their attention—you can segue to the value that you bring. Which will end everyone’s professional suffering. 
 
Even yours. 
 
Need help unpacking challenges like this? Contact us. We’d be happy to help. 

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