Painkillers vs Vitamins in B2B Marketing
Sell faster by fixing urgent problems
Hello welcome to this edition:
Painkillers vs Vitamins in B2B Marketing
Some founders and marketers struggle to sell, they get too many objections:
“Yes we are interested, but not now”
“I’m not sure our team have time”
“Can you call us back next year?”
Their prospects don’t have an urgent need.
The truth is, they are not selling a painkiller.
So in this edition I’m going to explain how to avoid this trap.
Here’s what you will learn;
The difference between painkillers vs vitamins
Why you should sell painkillers first (not vitamins)
How to increase LTV by selling vitamins
1.The difference between painkillers vs vitamins
One of the first thing I learned in marketing was the difference between painkillers and vitamins. The metaphore speaks for itself but here’s what you need to remember:
Vitamins are ‘nice to have’ items that will improve your customers’ life but are not necessary to fix their problems right now.
Painkillers are ‘must have’ solutions to your customers’ problems because they immediately relief a pain your audiences has.
It's easier to sell 'painkillers' than 'vitamins' because the need is more urgent.
Vitamins will improve your customers’ life with a long term effect, and painkillers will solve an urgent need.
Here is an example:
Vitamin: Corporate wellness program to improve long term productivity
Painkiller: 1-Day productivity workshop to teach AI workflows
2.Why you should sell painkillers first (not vitamins)
It’s much easier to sell a painkiller because it will fix an urgent problem that is tied to a negative emotion (fear of missing out, loss aversion, frustration). Buyers will make faster decisions because they need to fix the problem now.
You don't get "I will call you back next year"
You don't have to overeducate (they feel it)
You don't need to prove there is a need
To understand how this works in a B2B setting, you need to understand the ‘job to be done’ concept (JTBD);
Employees but also managers or C-Levels have KPIs (key performance indicators) and OKRs (objective key results). They need to achieve their goal and they are incentivized for this.
For sales → Hit closed won deals quotas
For product managers → Finish the new feature on time
For project managers → Finish the project in time
For customer success manager → Get a high NPS
To achieve these goals, they go through a series of steps, but sometimes they face challenges which become pains. These pains are linked to negative emotions.
That’s why B2B pros (at every level of the organization) will seek painkillers to fix these painful situation, and achieve their objectives.
If I take the same example (corporate wellness program vs 1-Day productivity workshop to teach AI workflows);
A head of operations will likely prefer a one-day workshop if it promises to improve their team's productivity within a month. They are incentivized to to increase productivity as fast as possible.
Also, here is a great add from Gaspard about how to adapt to each type of problem;
👋 If you love my free newsletter, you will love my paid subscription. For example, here is the last newsletter from the paid subscription:
3.How to increase LTV* by selling vitamins
(*LTV: lifetime value of a customer → total revenue your business can expect from a single customer)
All of this is true (as I said, it's one of the first things I learned in marketing).
But I'm going to add some nuance to this metaphor:
Your business should rely on retention and expansion.
So you can't rely only on fixing one-time problems.
Instead, you should aim to help clients long term.
Otherwise, they'll churn once the pain is gone.
So you should not only sell painkillers.
Fixing your customers’ most painful problems with painkillers is good. But you should not let them go after that.
Attract first with something easier to sell, then expand:
Acquire clients with a painkiller: solve an urgent problem with a killer feature and attract them this way.
Secondly, retain them with the vitamin: help them succeed in the long run to prevent churn.
If I take the same example (corporate wellness program vs 1-Day productivity workshop to teach AI workflows);
You can attract your customer with the 1-day productivity workshop. Then, when you prove the impact on productivity (let’s say within 3-month) you can sell a longer term package. This ‘vitamin’ will focus on improving the productivity slightly month by month rather than being a quick fix.
It seems like Lara is also loving this strategy;
👋 Alright that’s the end of this edition, if you have any questions;
You can answer by email
Or comment the substack post
If you enjoyed this newsletter edition, you’ll love my paid Substack newsletter.
For $15 per month, you get access to 3 eBooks, 2 exclusive newsletters per month, my full library of LinkedIn posts, and membership in my Slack community. It’s the boost you need to improve your content strategy.
Great!!
The one feature killing everything, thanks !