[Part 2] Picking a Large Problem & Framing it Correctly
Correctly framing a problem is key to startups. It guides what you build, and a miss here means costly pivots later. (Downloadable templates included.)
Also, this is part of an ongoing series, sharing exactly how we’re building Fluint.io. Connect or subscribe here to read on.
Everyone has an “aha” moment.
But you rarely call it that in the moment. It’s hard to pinpoint a new beginning while you’re living it. It’s easier to retrace your path and mark it later on.
The aha-moment for Fluint was a blank Google Doc and a complex deal. If you’re interested in the long version of the story, listen to the first minutes of:
The short story? The larger the contract in B2B sales, the more people involved. This was a big one, so I knew I wouldn’t be in the room for all the conversations. I wasn’t even sure just how many people were evaluating it.
So, I wanted to give my buyer something to guide her. When I wasn’t around. I also wanted to ensure she was proud of it. So I took her feedback and started a Google Doc. That let us build her message, together. To sell as a team.
Later, she wrote me this email. She loved the experience, so I kept doing it.
Problem was, the process was incredibly manual. It took time. We closed $1M in sales on Google Docs, though, so clearly, there was something here.
Don’t Mis-frame the Problem
As I spent more time exploring exactly what we had (or didn’t), I thought the problem was an horrible choice and tradeoff for follow-up to sales meetings:
(1) Sink lots of time into personalized sales material after a demo, or
(2) Use template content and marketing docs that buyers don’t use.
But we didn’t trust we were in operating in the right problem space yet.
Correctly framing the problem is key. It defines the trajectory of what you’ll build. A miss here always means costly pivots later.
Here’s what I mean, using a separate example from marketing:
So my partner Patrick Riley and I started to map the problem and its drivers:
Download the Miro template I made for this exercise and others here:
We were excited after this. We both felt like it was confirming.
Figure Out if Customers Actually Care
But it’s best not to drink your own champagne, even if you’re an “expert.”
Customers only pay if you solve a problem that matters to them. Not you.
So that was the next step. Customer discovery. Validating if others actually cared about the problem. And boy am I glad we talked to a lot of customers.
Here’s the framework I used to organize all the feedback:
If you look at the Job Statement above — a high-level summary of what our customers care about—it’s less about building sales materials.
It’s all about influencing a deal when sales reps aren’t in the room.
It took 30 interviews for it to click. To see a pattern. It was consistent with my experience, but we kept at it. More conversations, more confirmation.
You can download the template I made for this inside Notion here:
Find a Problem That’s Getting Worse
But if the problem is going away (e.g. fax machines are too big and customers want a more compact way to transmit paper), it’s not the right problem.
To build a venture-scale business, at least.
In B2B, Gartner and Forrester are prescient, and rooted in data. Gartner’s research on their emerging category, Buyer Enablement, was telling:
Your sales reps have roughly 5% of a customer’s time during their B2B buying journey.
-Gartner
How’s a sales reps supposed to control their quota if they’re not in the room when buying decisions are being made?
It takes two to tango in B2B sales, so we started interviewing buyers, too. Which led to a definition of our problem space from their point of view. More on that research, here.
Dig 5+ Levels Deep
Once we’d correctly framed a large problem that was getting worse, it was time to dig deeper. To look at the roots.
1. Sales reps lose deals when they’re not in the room.
Why?
2. Buying decisions are made during internal meetings — not sales meetings.
So what?
3. Deal champions — not reps — deliver the sales message when it matters.
So?
4. Sales teams focus all their coaching and content on reps. Not champions.
So?
5. Champions either wing their pitch, or build their own pitch materials. Not good, either way.
Why?
6. Sales reps give them materials filled with marketing speak. Not their buying team’s own, internal language.
Why?
7. Personalizing content buyers will actually use for each deal takes too long.
So there you have it.
What started as the problem at first ended up as #7 in our problem map.
That last root is one key part to how Fluint.io works. But it’s not the problem we’re solving.
The problem is much larger. It’s framed differently — which allows us to build out our platform and expand our solution over time.
Want to Keep Reading?
Connect on LinkedIn or subscribe here for updates on each new post.
