Staffing sales professionals have been trained to go find job orders. Most calls sound like this:
“Do you have any needs?”
“Can I send you some resumes?”
“What projects are you working on?”
That’s the job.
But let’s be clear—this isn’t selling. And in a market where job orders are harder to come by, this approach breaks down fast.
What Actually Happens Before a Job Order Exists
A job order doesn’t start with the hiring manager or HR writing a job description. It doesn’t start with procurement, and it doesn’t start with budget approval. Every job order—consulting, contract, temporary, or full-time—starts with a problem or a goal.
A project is behind schedule.
A product launch is slipping.
A system isn’t performing.
A key initiative is losing momentum.
A customer is not happy.
At first, the business tries to handle it internally. They shift priorities, reassign people, stretch the team, and delay timelines. Only when those options stop working—and the cost of doing nothing becomes too high—do they consider bringing in outside help.
And even then, they don’t act immediately. They step back and evaluate how important this is compared to everything else, the cost of not addressing it, whether they have the resources, and what the return would be if they fix it. Every company is constantly prioritizing where to invest their limited resources. Some initiatives get approved. Others don’t. That’s how job orders are created.
And most salespeople are nowhere near those conversations.
But we should be.
We need to be.
Your Job Isn’t to Find Job Orders
Your job is to find and frame business problems. If there’s no problem, there’s no reason for the customer to take action. If stakeholders aren’t aligned, nothing moves. If there’s no urgency, decisions get pushed. This is where most salespeople struggle.
The Two Types of Buyers You’ll Encounter
When you prospect, you’ll run into two situations. The first is where the problem exists—but it hasn’t been fully recognized. Sometimes the issue is there, but it hasn’t been clearly defined. The team is dealing with it, the impact isn’t fully understood, or it’s been accepted as “just the way things are.” Other times, they’ve tried to solve it before and failed, so they’ve stopped trying and assume there is no solution. Your role here is to help them see the problem clearly and understand what it’s costing them.
The second is where the problem is known—but not being acted on. In these cases, the buyer knows there’s an issue. Take technical debt. Most technology leaders understand the impact—more bugs, slower releases, higher maintenance costs—but nothing changes. Why? Because there’s no clear path forward, no defined starting point, and no alignment on what to do next. Your job is to help diagnose the issue and work with them to define what solving it actually looks like.
What It Means to Frame a Problem
Uncovering a pain point isn’t enough. Saying “your system is outdated” doesn’t move anything forward. Framing a problem means turning that issue into something the business has to take seriously. It requires clarity around what’s happening, why it’s happening, who and what it’s impacting, and what happens if nothing changes. This is where deals are either created—or lost before they ever exist.
How to Do It
Instead of looking for open roles, look for problems that are already costing the business something. Pay attention to missed targets, manual workarounds, technical debt, burnout, and delays in execution.
Then go deeper. Don’t stop at surface-level symptoms. Understand the cause. Test the seriousness of the issue by asking, “What happens if nothing changes?” If the answer is “not much,” it’s not a priority. If the answer exposes real risk, now you’re getting somewhere.
Turn It Into a Problem Statement
Once you understand the issue, document it clearly. A simple structure works:
Despite trying [X], we’re still unable to achieve [Y] because of [Z].
Then validate it. Share it back with stakeholders and ask, “Does this reflect what you’re seeing?” If multiple people agree—and it ties to something the business cares about—it becomes real. That’s when things start to move.
Why This Doesn’t Scale on Its Own
Most organizations have one or two reps who naturally do this well. They know how to get into conversations, ask the right questions, and turn a vague issue into something the business takes seriously.
Everyone else defaults back to “Do you have any needs?” and “Can I send you resumes?”
Not because they’re lazy—but because they’ve never been taught how to do this in a structured way. And even when they are, it’s usually introduced once and never reinforced.
So the skill never sticks. That’s why you end up with the same pattern: a few people create the majority of the sales opportunities, and everyone else waits for them.
Why This Matters
If you wait for job orders, you’re reacting to decisions that have already been made. If you help define the problem, you’re part of how those decisions get made. That’s a completely different position.
The best salespeople don’t wait for job orders. They create them. They do it by helping their customers understand what’s at risk, why it matters, and what needs to happen next. But in most organizations, that capability lives with a few individuals—not across the team. That’s the difference between isolated success and consistent performance.
If you want to build this into a repeatable skill across your entire team—not just something a few top performers know how to do—I break that down in my book:
It shows you how to:
Teach reps how to identify and frame real business problems
Build consistency across the team
Move from reactive staffing to proactive, problem-led selling