Hurt & Rescue

“What would happen to your family if you weren’t there or were unable to earn a living?"

“Don’t worry, buy our life insurance and they’ll be fine…”

Hurt & Rescue underpins a great many persuasion theories. The idea is that when someone is drowning, they’ll grab onto a lifeline.

We’re not suggesting you throw your prospects into a river, but to take a new course of action (ie buy your media for the first time) two things usually have to happen.

The first requisite for change is that we have to be dissatisfied with the status quo. If everything in your prospect’s world is just tickety-boo it’s unlikely they’re going to want to do things differently.

But what if they’re fairly happy but fancy something new? Well that’s the other half of the change equation - humans generally need to be dissatisfied with the status quo AND really want something different to make a real change.

The Hurt & Rescue principle is about helping your prospect evaluate the pain in their current position (or projected future position if they don’t address key issues) then presenting a solution – a rescue – to this negative outlook.

In simple terms just look at the example at the top of the page. The life insurance company needs to make you worried about what would happen if you had an accident – something that the majority of us don’t spend all day dwelling on.

And then they quickly follow up with the rescue – here you go, now you can relax.

If the situation is more complex, the solution more expensive or the change more difficult, then you’ll need more than just the notion of Hurt & Rescue – have a look at our article on SPIN Selling for another approach.

A word of caution – questioning around a prospect’s pain is a sensitive technique and should only be attempted gradually, once your prospect trusts you and with their permission.

Jumping straight into a bit of doom-mongering to try and sell your late space ad won’t work, and will more likely do irreparable damage to your prospect’s perception of you.

The message is the same as the one you’ll see by the river... tread carefully!