The pain funnel is a Sandler questioning sequence that moves a buyer from the problem they first mention to its business cost and personal impact. It runs in the Pain compartment of the Sandler Submarine, after the upfront contract.
The question sequence
Mike Crandall, a Sandler principal, explains the idea: what buyers share first are symptoms, and the funnel starts wide and narrows until the real pain is on the table. The eight-question version most Sandler trainers teach runs: tell me more about that; can you be more specific, give me an example; how long has that been a problem; what have you tried; did that work; how much has that cost you; how do you feel about that; have you given up trying to deal with it.
- Tell me more about that
- Be more specific, give an example
- How long has that been a problem?
- What have you tried? Did it work?
- How much has that cost you?
- How do you feel? Have you given up?
The order matters more than the wording, and reps are expected to put the questions in their own words. In a 1:1 the manager asks one thing about a discovery call: how far down did the buyer go? The surface problem, its business cost, or the personal stake.
Ramp time, down the funnel
This example is illustrative. A buyer says, "Our new hires take too long to ramp." The rep asks for an example: one hire took five months to close a first deal. How long has it been a problem? Since hiring doubled last year. What have they tried? A buddy system, which faded. The cost: about a quarter of each hire's first-year quota. How does the buyer feel? "I'm the one presenting the miss to the board." Have they given up? "No, it's this quarter's priority." That is the surface problem, the business cost and the personal stake, all in the buyer's words.
The difference shows in the rep's notes. A rep who stopped at the top writes "ramp is slow, keen to fix". A rep who went to the bottom writes "five months to a first deal; about a quarter of first-year quota per hire; presents the miss to the board; priority this quarter". Only the second gives the manager something to coach and the forecast something to stand on.
Related terms
- What is an upfront contract?
- What is the Sandler selling system?
- How to run discovery with Sandler: the pain funnel on a live call
- How to coach Sandler selling on live deals
Replicate Labs has no partnership with Sandler Training. A Sandler team can load its own playbook into Caty, who then asks which funnel level the buyer reached on each live deal (master your sales methodology).
FAQ
How many questions are in the Sandler pain funnel?
The Sandler pain funnel has eight questions in the version most Sandler trainers describe. They run from "Tell me more about that" to "Have you given up trying to deal with the problem?" Sandler's longer sheet lists 20 questions; the order matters more than the count.
What are the three levels of the pain funnel?
The three levels of the pain funnel are the surface problem the buyer mentions, its business impact such as cost or lost revenue, and the personal impact on the buyer. A deal with only the first level has no cost for anyone to act on.
What comes after the pain funnel?
After the pain funnel, the rep recaps the pain in the buyer's words and confirms it. Then the conversation moves to the Budget and Decision compartments of the Sandler Submarine.