Complaints aren't demand. A buyer can grumble about a problem for years and never spend a dollar on it. The test is whether they'll pay money for the pain to go away, and the fastest way to learn the honest answer is to call the customers who fired you.
A technical sales leader I spoke with on the podcast recently put it plainly. The core skill isn't answering questions or running demos. It's understanding how big the customer's pain is. And it's not just because they complain about it a lot. As he put it: "will they pay money for that pain to go away?"
Why complaints fool you
Complaints feel like demand. Buyers bring the problem up on calls. Your reps hear it constantly. Marketing writes about it.
But people complain about plenty of things they'll never fix. The pain is real, they've learned to live with it, and nobody owns the budget to make it stop. When you build a pipeline on complaints, you get lots of friendly first calls and a forecast that never closes.
Signs you're selling to complaints, not demand
- Buyers agree the problem is real, then go quiet when you talk about price.
- Nobody on their side can say what the problem costs them.
- There's no owner and no deadline.
- Lost deals end in "no decision" more than in a competitor.
Start with the free 40-Point Outside Audit.
It is the part of the 100-Point GTM Autopsy that can be scored from outside the company, from public sources alone. No mystery shop. Scored by Colin, with an offer to walk through what he found. The 100-Point GTM Autopsy is $5,000, ten business days, required before the 90-day fix, credited in full toward any engagement, and covered by a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.
Book your free 40-Point Outside AuditStart with who fired you
When that same leader started in a new role, the first thing he did was ask who had fired the company recently. Then he got on the phone with them.
His reasoning: it's easy to talk to people inside the company. They're on your side, and they'll tell you the product is great, everyone should buy it and you win every deal. No company does that.
So he called a customer who had churned and asked four things:
- What did you like?
- What didn't you like?
- Why did you leave?
- Where did you go?
That outside view is how he figured out where the company's advantage was real.
Know the next best alternative
The last of those questions matters most. Every buyer has a next best alternative: another vendor, something they built themselves, or doing nothing. Your price and your pitch get judged against that, not against an empty space.
If you don't know what a buyer does when they don't choose you, you can't say why the pain is worth paying to fix.
What to do this week
Pull a list of the customers who left in the last year, and the deals you lost to "no decision." Call three of each. Ask the four questions above and write down the answers word for word. Then put what you hear next to what your team says about why you win. The gap is where your go-to-market is guessing.
If you want a structured way to check the rest, the 100-Point GTM Framework lists every point I score, free to download. When you're ready for experienced help leading the revenue side, here's how I work.
Not sure your pipeline is built on real demand? Start with the free 40-Point Outside Audit. I score the roughly 40 points of your go-to-market that can be read from the outside, from public sources alone, and walk you through what I found. If it's useful, the next step is the 100-Point GTM Autopsy, which scores your whole go-to-market with your data and your team. Book your free 40-Point Outside Audit.
Questions this post answers
How do you know if a customer problem is worth solving?
Ask whether they will pay money to make the pain go away, not whether they complain about it. Look for a budget, an owner, a cost they can describe and a deadline. If the pain is real but tolerable, they will keep living with it, and your deal will stall.
Why should you talk to customers who churned?
Customers who stayed and people inside your company tend to tell you what you want to hear. Customers who left give you the outside view, including what they liked, what they didn't, why they left and where they went instead. That shows you where your advantage is real and where it isn't.
What is the next best alternative in sales?
It's what the buyer will do if they don't choose you. That might be a competitor, a homegrown workaround, or doing nothing. Your value is measured against that alternative, not against an empty space, so you need to know it for every deal.
What questions should you ask a customer who left?
Keep it simple. What did you like? What didn't you like? Why did you leave? Where did you go, and what do you use now? Listen more than you talk, and don't try to win them back on the call.
Start with the free 40-Point Outside Audit.
It is the part of the 100-Point GTM Autopsy that can be scored from outside the company, from public sources alone. No mystery shop. Scored by Colin, with an offer to walk through what he found. The 100-Point GTM Autopsy is $5,000, ten business days, required before the 90-day fix, credited in full toward any engagement, and covered by a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee.
Book your free 40-Point Outside Audit