It is often (but not always) true that when people buy something – whether as consumers or for business – that they are doing so to solve a problem.

With some types of products and services this is more true than others. It is almost always true in health care. It probably isn’t true in toy sales, but maybe a mother is buying a toy to get her child to shut up – in which case “our toy will occupy your 3 to 5 year old for hours” could be a great selling point.

If you have a product or service that is basically a solution to a problem, then starting out by selling the problem works in more than one way:

First of all, it at once selects out someone who has that problem. That leads to headlines like:

Homeowners! Over your head in debt?

You don’t leave it at that but work your copy and imagery to make the reader / visitor / viewer / listener painfully aware of the problem.

Last year 500,000 US homeowners declared bankruptcy. This year those numbers are predicted to skyrocket to over 2 million!

Are you constantly upset by debt collection phone calls?

Possibly they’ve been trying to ignore their problem. You don’t want to let them do that. Once you’ve adequately brought home the depth of their difficulty, you’ve got them more ready to listen to a solution:

We can provide cash for the equity in your home in less than 36 hours. Call today!

Of course this is an obvious example, but you’d be surprised at the variety of products and services this works for. It’s worth considering when planning your marketing strategy.