# Constructive sales friction

**Published by:** [Doug Lane](https://paragraph.com/@axalane/)
**Published on:** 2022-03-30
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@axalane/constructive-sales-friction

## Content

Late last year, I hired a designer to create a new brand identity for my business. She had an interesting sales process. Before she would even get on the phone with me, I had to complete a fairly elaborate interactive form. It was a multi-step kind of thing that would branch in different directions based on my responses. At first, I was taken aback by this. It seemed like a lot of hoops to jump through for the privilege of giving someone my money. But as I worked my way through the form, some very pointed questions forced me to articulate why I wanted a new brand identity. Some were surprisingly hard to answer. In the end, this process that I was a bit annoyed by at first actually made me feel great and got me to yes faster. (Actually, yes plus an upsell.) Why?It gave me greater clarity on what I was trying to accomplish (which I thought, incorrectly, that I knew already).When we did eventually jump on a call, we dialed right into how to best accomplish my goals because we both already knew precisely what they were.Now of course this interaction was nothing like an enterprise security sales process. A CISO or security architect will not sit there and click through a form for 45 minutes for the privilege of talking to you. But this interaction was the seed that got me thinking about the interactive video idea I’ve been exploring this week. What if we could guide security buyers through a similar process in smaller, more engaging steps? I don’t think it will be easy to accomplish. But I think the potential to start every initial sales call with a laser focus on a specific buyer pain point makes it worth a shot. -Doug

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