Change The Frame
- Dan Greenberg
- Jun 21, 2024
- 5 min read
In Oren Klaff’s very informative book “Pitch Anything” he asserts that any two individuals have perspectives, and often different ones. These perspectives govern how they each see a particular situation or thing. These perspectives, or frames, cannot coexist because whoever’s frame of the situation is more persuasive, or powerful, will be used to discuss and evaluate the matter at the expense of the other frame. This is very important because it means that if your customer’s frame wins, then the way you would like them to perceive you, your company, and your solutions will be irrelevant.
One of the most obvious and pervasive instances of how frames can collide in a sales context is the decision of which lens to view your solution through. If a client is comparing your solution to their ideal desired solution, your solution will likely always come up wanting. However, if the client is comparing it to a status quo with definable problems that are in need of fixing then the deficiencies of your solution won’t be focused on, rather the improved state that it will likely bring about is what will be focused on.
This is an easily understandable collision of frames for many sellers and so it is a good way to discuss the concept; if you, as a seller, are not constantly ensuring that the conversation is framed around what needs to change for the buyer, then it will likely end up being framed around whether or not your solution is the right solution, or the perfect solution. And, if that becomes the case, you have a much higher likelihood of losing.
Another way to think about this is what I once heard Lou Paskalis, former Marketing Executive at American Express and Bank of America, and current Ad Executive, talk about, “You can’t sell what’s in the bucket until you sell the bucket”. What he meant by this is that if the client doesn’t buy into the frame, that it is your job to establish, that their current status quo is bad for them and their organization, then, it just won’t matter how well you pitch your solutions, you aren’t likely to get very far.
The frame that a seller is trying to impose on any situation is a frame which says that the buyer is currently in a bad situation and that they need a solution in order to correct the problem. If this frame guides the conversations, then the seller has a chance to be influential, however, if the frame is more like the buyer evaluating possible solutions just to see if anything strikes their fancy, then the seller has very little chance of being influential, because the buyer is not focused on their problems and the issues with their status quo.
I have referenced the “all-knowing judge” in previous posts, where the client positions themself, knowingly, or maybe even subconsciously, as the judge of your solutions by saying something like, “OK, let’s just get to the demo”. This is a frame that the buyer is trying to impose which positions them in a comfortable place of judgment, and the seller, as a vendor, like all other sellers. This, as a frame, is great for the individual across the table, but bad for you, as the seller, and likely bad for both the buying organization as a whole, and obviously, the selling organization.
There are other types of frames that get used in sales settings as well.
A moral frame is used when a person believes they have law or morality on their side. A person using a moral frame tries to position their way of thinking as the only way to think. Moral frames must be pushed back on powerfully with competing frames.
An analytical frame uses logic to show that the other side is thinking about something incorrectly. It can also drag a presentation into the weeds which will cause you to lose your audience. Analytical frames should be addressed by quickly answering questions and at a high level, and moving back to a frame that focuses on the buyer’s problems.
A time frame can be used to wrestle away frame control. Time frames tend to set artificial time limits or deadlines, and ask the other party to adhere accordingly. Being brief and engaging proactively usually avoids this type of frame being used.
There are a number of other types of frames that can be used by sellers to control conversations. A prize frame positions your team’s time as incredibly valuable, and an intrigue frame leaves interesting information uncovered. However, buyers tend to lean very heavily on a few types of frames that you are likely to come across over and over again. These are the ones mentioned above, and it is important to be familiar with them and how to handle them.
The other important takeaway when it comes to framing is that frames do not last forever so constant reframing is very important. Salespeople tend to make one pretty serious mistake. Once the problem has been framed and discussed, they tend to forget to bring up the framing conversation again. They move on to their solutions, they get comfortable, and they rattle off a list of solutions, products and features, with the understanding that their client will be connecting them all back to the problems throughout the presentation. This understanding is misguided. It is not how human brains work.
Your buyers are not experts in your solutions like you are, so they are just trying to take in information and they do not have the ability to take in new information and also consistently relate it back to something that was discussed earlier.
As a seller, you have a consistent responsibility, I mean 10–15 times in a 30 minute presentation, to reframe your presentation of solutions around their problems, and tie it up in a neat little bow with a picture of what the desired outcome will look like if they adopt your solution. Another way to look at it is, every time you introduce a solution, or feature, or product, it has to be a response to a problem, and it has to lead to a detail-free, comfortable and safe outcome that can be visualized.
You can think about using phrases like the following every single time you introduce a feature, or product, or solution.
“Earlier you shared with me that you were struggling with such and such, which actually aligns nicely with something I had planned to show you anyway…”
Or.
“Something we hear consistently from others in your industry is such and such. Because of that we built this product into our overall solution set and I wanted to show it to you…”
Or.
“We hear a lot of your peers talk about such and such, is that issue top of mind for you as well?
Only after you get buy-in on the issue that you are surfacing should you then show off the product or feature that you had planned to. If you don’t get buy-in on the problem, showing the feature will cause your audience to lose focus and care less, and it will cause you to lose control of the room.
Lastly, don’t forget the outcome. The buyer has to think about what the state of the world will look like when they have adopted your solution, and no longer have to deal with their problem. If they leave the situation thinking about the problem, they will leave with a negative subconscious association with the solution, and you don’t want that. They are not likely to put problem, solution, and outcome together in their own mind because that’s not their job. It is your job to paint the picture for them, all the way from problem, with buy-in, to solution, to visualizable outcome.
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