When it comes to marketing and selling your product or service, there’s one concept I emphasize often with clients: you want to be the painkiller, not the vitamin. Why? Because customers will always pay to relieve pain, right now. But they may delay or ignore things that are “good for them” if there’s no immediate need or discomfort.
Let me explain…
Painkillers Solve Urgent Problems
If you’ve got a pounding headache, you’re not thinking about your grocery list or your gym membership; you’re heading straight for the medicine cabinet. In business terms, your customer is feeling a pain point and will eagerly invest in a solution that promises fast, effective relief.
Think of:
- A plumber who offers 24/7 emergency service when a pipe bursts.
- An IT company that stops a cyberattack in real-time.
- A coach who helps resolve a toxic conflict between business partners before it explodes.
These are must-have services. The pain is real, present, and unavoidable.
Vitamins Are Good… But Not Urgent
Vitamins, like long-term strategy planning, leadership development, or preventative maintenance, are important, yes, but not always urgent. There’s no pain from not doing them today, so people tend to postpone or overlook them.
The solution? You need to frame your “vitamin” as a future painkiller.
Using the plumbing company as an example, instead of promoting “24/7 emergency plumbing” as a convenient feature, talk about the cost of waiting: the flooded basement, the ruined flooring, the insurance headaches, and the stress of not knowing who to call at 2 a.m. Make the invisible urgency visible. Paint the picture of the avoided disaster because you showed up when it mattered most.
The Psychology of Pain Avoidance
Humans are hard-wired to avoid pain. We act faster to prevent loss than to gain something. That’s why it’s not enough to say what your product or service adds — you need to show what it protects your customers from losing.
As a business coach, I often help owners shift their messaging from “here’s what this will help you achieve” to “here’s the pain this will prevent.” That’s when the real transformation happens — and the sales follow.
Key Takeaway
If you struggle to attract and convert customers, ask yourself: Am I selling vitamins… or painkillers? And if it’s the former, how can I reposition my message to communicate the urgent pain I help people avoid?
Let’s turn your “nice to have” into a “must-have.”
