by Mary Cantando, Founder of The Woman’s Advantage, Guest Contributor

So many women still sell based on the features of their product or service. A much more powerful approach is to concentrate on what the prospect is struggling with and how your offering can help overcome that struggle or pain.

Here are five questions you can ask to build a presentation focused on prospect struggle or pain.

Five Questions about Prospect Pain

1. What struggle or pain does your product/service alleviate?

This is the basis for your entire marketing and sales message. If you don’t know this, ask your five best customers.

2. How bad is the prospect’s pain and how long have they been tolerating it?

If this is a minor inconvenience or a nice-to-have, move on and find someone who needs you more.

3. What evidence can you give that your offering removes this pain?

Do you have testimonials from current or past customers about results they received from your offering? (See great examples here.) (Make this a link to http://womansadvantage.com/pages/our-members ) If not, get them.

4. How difficult and time consuming is it to buy and apply your product/service?

Don’t expect prospects to jump through hoops. The simpler your process, the more likely they will be to take advantage of it.

5. What ROI will a prospect receive and how long will it take to get that?

To calculate this, start with the immediate and long-term costs vs the benefits (financial and other) that they will receive.