Sell The Problem, Not The Solution

The best way to engage with media on an ongoing basis is to sell a problem. This is perhaps the one time that bootstrapped founders can compete for media attention with their venture-backed peers.

Startup founders want to engage with the media when it’s convenient, but category kings start their relationship with press on Day 1. Funding rounds and launches are traditional life cycle events that generate buzz. They’re rare, and, unfortunately, not always newsworthy.

To be a media master you have to make your own news. This is especially true when you don’t have a product on the market, or you’re operating in stealth mode, but still need media to help recruit or fundraise.

How to Sell The Problem

World change doesn’t happen simply because it’s necessary, or even the right thing to do. Change only happens when someone defies the odds to bring that change to life. And it starts with a problem worth solving.

Editors are constantly looking for strong opinions that inform and challenge the conventional wisdom. Your ability to sell a problem will help you form these media relationships, and establish your brand.

Most people will acknowledge when asked that the tools and systems they use to do business are arcane. They still won’t start looking for solutions until their pain becomes unbearable. Your job as problem-seller is to make the pain excruciating.

Your prior experience makes you familiar with the problems your market deals with. Reflecting these problems back to your audience demonstrates empathy, and helps you build credibility.

Pairing your personal experience with strong data points is another important way to boost your authority. The combination of compelling facts and life experience form the basis of a head-turning story.

Identify the Stupid Majority

Another way to sell the problem is to ident the “stupid majority.”

In order to be a successful in business you only need two ingredients, a stupid majority and a smart minority, says Swedish PR executive Jerry Silfwer , aka Dr. Spin. Stupid majorities are the dominant group who about to be proven wrong. They stupid majority exists everywhere, Silfwer says.

RedBull proved that skateboarding is a sport. Netflix proved that people would pay to stream their favorite video content without cable. Steve Jobs and Apple proved to the stupid majority that people care how technology looks on the outside. To capture attention as a challenger brand, you don’t have to prove that you’re right, just that the stupid majority is wrong. The smart minority stands poised to take action.

A hardware client of mine struggled to explain the value of their wireless sensor until I understood their stupid majority. Building managers use IP cameras connected to the Internet to track activity inside their properties. This is stupid for a litany of reasons. Video cameras violate your privacy by storing images. They’re expensive and cumbersome to install, consume huge amounts of computing power, and require thousands of feet of cables. My client’s wireless sensors use body heat to track behavior, which is completely anonymous. They also use a fraction of the data, and at 1/10 the cost of a camera. And because they are battery-powered they install in seconds. Clearly cameras are not the best way to monitor activity. If only the stupid majority knew.

## Conclusion

Empathy is the key to building trust for challenger brands and industry insurgents. But before you can claim to credibly solve someone’s problem, you need to demonstrate that you’re an expert in the problem. The more painful the problem, the more demand you create for the solution. In the beginning its going to be hard to prove to the market that you're the one to solve the problem, but that’s not your job. If you're successful at mapping out the stupid majority in your industry, you’ve made a case for why your solution needs to exist, and who will benefit. Without attention it’s much harder to build the future you want to see, so be proactive about cultivating media relationships before you think you’re ready.

The better you are at selling the problem, the more qualified you are to eventually solve problems for your customers.