Episode #97: No Pain, No Gain In Sales Baby

What does “No Pain, No Gain” really mean in a sales conversation?

In real-world B2B selling, “No Pain, No Gain” isn’t about heroic effort by the salesperson. It’s about the client’s pain. If a buyer doesn’t feel a meaningful problem today—or can’t see one coming tomorrow—there’s no internal reason to change.

Sales becomes especially difficult when you’re offering something valuable, but the client doesn’t yet believe they need it. The result is a stalled conversation, even if your solution is objectively strong.

Mini-summary: If the client doesn’t feel pain, they won’t move—no matter how good you are.

The most frustrating moment in discovery is realizing the client has no significant dissatisfaction. They’re comfortable with a current supplier and see no reason to take a risk switching.

Even when the salesperson is clearly “better,” the buyer often prefers the familiar competitor because it feels safe. This is the classic pattern:

• “The devil we know” feels lower risk than “the angel we don’t.”

• Comfort blocks curiosity.

• Satisfaction kills urgency.

You can attempt low-risk entry points like a small trial or limited pilot, but if there’s no pain gap, even those door-openers fail.

Mini-summary: Satisfaction creates inertia; without a clear pain gap, change feels unnecessary.

A high-quality sales conversation follows a disciplined flow—like moving along a railway track:

1. Build trust

2. Get permission to ask questions

3. Uncover needs

4. Match solutions precisely

5. Handle pushback

6. Ask for the business

The danger zone is discovery. If you uncover little-to-no pain, your “perfect solution” has nowhere to land.

Mini-summary: Structure matters—but discovery fails if you can’t surface real pain.

In Japan, once a vendor relationship is established, clients tend to stay loyal because the supplier is a known, stable factor. Risk is already processed and minimized.

A new supplier creates extra work and uncertainty. For risk-averse buyers, “no thank you” is often the easiest answer.

This is especially true in Tokyo (東京 / Tokyo) among large Japanese firms (日本企業 / Japanese companies) and major multinationals (外資系企業 / multinational companies).

Mini-summary: In Japan, switching vendors feels risky and burdensome, so buyers default to “no.”

Many large companies—especially global ones—already have internal programs or systems. The local leader feels:

• “We already have something that works.”

• “There’s no real pain here.”

• “Adding something new creates complexity.”

When internal solutions are “good enough,” the client sees no urgent reason to explore outside partners—even if an external option is superior.

Mini-summary: Internal solutions eliminate visible pain, which removes motivation to buy externally.

Even after leadership turnover, buying doesn’t automatically open up. A new executive may be polite but emotionally neutral—no buying signals, no urgency, no spark.

If your offering doesn’t clearly show a meaningful improvement over their status quo, you’ll still face passive resistance.

Mini-summary: New leaders don’t buy unless they see a new or bigger pain gap.

In booming industries, clients feel less pressure to change. When money is flowing, inefficiencies don’t hurt enough to matter.

Ironically, when the market turns downward, clients cut costs and reduce external spending. So sales timing becomes a paradox:

• Boom: no urgency to change

• Bust: no budget to change

A salesperson must therefore create strategic urgency independent of the macro-cycle.

Mini-summary: Boom kills urgency; bust kills budget—so you must create urgency through insight.

You can’t manufacture fake pain, but you can reveal hidden pain or future pain by helping the client see:

• What problems they’re tolerating unknowingly

• What risks they’re underestimating

• What opportunities they’re missing

• What “better” could look like in measurable terms

If the gap isn’t big enough, your mission is to paint the contrast between today’s reality and tomorrow’s potential using vivid, concrete business language.

Mini-summary: Your job isn’t to push—it’s to clarify the gap so the client feels the need to move.

What’s the key skill salespeople often miss?

Even experienced salespeople sometimes fail at word pictures—translating the value of a “brave new world” into language that triggers action.

You may feel the benefits clearly in your own mind, but unless the client can see and feel them, nothing changes. The sale dies quietly in politeness.

Mini-summary: Value must be made visible and emotional, not just logical.

Dale Carnegie Training provides sales performance programs (営業研修 / sales training) that help professionals:

• Build trust faster in Japan’s relationship-driven market

• Diagnose hidden or future pain through elite questioning

• Communicate value in concrete, executive-ready language

• Handle risk aversion and status-quo bias

• Create momentum without pressure tactics

With 100+ years of global expertise and 60+ years in Tokyo, we support leaders and sales teams across Japan’s top firms—both Japanese and multinational.

Mini-summary: We help salespeople surface real pain, clarify value, and move risk-averse clients to action.

• Clients don’t buy without pain—or a clear belief that pain is coming.

• Japan’s risk-averse buying culture makes switching suppliers especially difficult.

• Internal solutions often eliminate visible urgency, even when improvement is possible.

• Great selling requires revealing the gap and vividly describing a better future.

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.