If you’ve worked in staffing long enough, you’ve been trained to chase job orders.
You pick up the phone, call a hiring manager, and ask:
That’s what the job used to be.
But here’s the harsh truth: That’s not selling.
In today’s market—where uncertainty reigns and job orders are drying up—those questions don’t get the job done.
They make you sound like everyone else.
They keep you stuck in a reactive, transactional sales cycle.
And they prevent you from doing what great sellers do best: creating demand.
The Shift: From Job Orders to Problem Discovery
A job order doesn’t begin with HR writing a job description.
It doesn’t start with procurement approval or a budget request.
Every job order—FTE or consulting—is born out of a problem or a goal.
At first, the business tries to solve it internally. They reassign staff. Stretch timelines. Extend budgets.
Only after those options fail—and the cost of doing nothing becomes too high—do they look externally for help.
Even then, leaders weigh tradeoffs. They ask:
“Of all the problems we could solve, which ones matter most right now?”
They prioritize based on:
Eventually, a line is drawn—above it are the projects that get funded. Below it are those that don’t.
That’s where job orders come from.
And here’s the reality: most reps are never in the room for those conversations.
But you should be.
Because that’s where influence—and revenue—begin.
Your Real Job: Find and Sell a Problem
If there’s no problem to be solved, there’s no sale to be made.
If all stakeholders don’t weigh in, they won’t buy in (to solving the problem, hiring your candidate)
If you can’t frame a problem, you can’t create urgency.
Your job isn’t to find job orders.
Your job is to find and sell problems.
Pain—whether operational, technical, or strategic—is what motivates change. It’s what gets people to move off the status quo.
When prospecting, you’ll meet three types of buyers:
Unaware Buyers
There’s a problem, but they don’t see it yet—or they’ve rationalized it away.
Your job: help them see and contextualize the issue, including the cost of doing nothing.
This—right here—is selling.
Aware but Stuck Buyers
They know the problem exists (think: technical debt) but don’t know where to start.
Your job: diagnose the root cause and co-create a vision of the solution.
Active Buyers
They’re already searching for solutions. At this stage, your job is to reframe their understanding of the problem so your solution becomes the obvious choice.
How to Frame a Problem so it Demands Action
Uncovering pain isn’t enough. You must frame it as a growing threat—one that ties directly to executive priorities and KPIs.
Framing a problem means shaping how it’s perceived. It’s about helping the customer see:
Here’s how to do it:
Find a Problem That’s Already Costing the Business
Look for pain that’s visible in results:
Then, ask diagnostic questions that expose root causes, not surface symptoms.
Frame it as a Growing Threat
Tie it to an executive metric or priority.
Use loss aversion—the idea that people act faster to avoid loss than to gain benefit.
Examples:
“Every quarter this delay costs $250K in lost revenue.”
“If this isn’t fixed by Q2, time-to-market slips another 30 days.”
Make it clear: the longer they wait, the worse it gets.
Align Stakeholders Around a shared Problem Statement
Interview multiple people affected by the issue. Write a short, clear statement:
“Despite trying [X], we still can’t [achieve Y] because of [Z].”
Share it back and ask, “Does this reflect your perspective?”
When multiple stakeholders validate the problem, they’re far more likely to unite around solving it.
The Bottom Line
If you’re still waiting for prospects to hand you job orders, good luck.
The best salespeople create job orders—by uncovering and framing the problems that matter most to executives.
They don’t ask, “Do you have any needs?”
They uncover the needs the buyer didn’t know they had.
That’s how real value is created.
That’s where real influence begins.
And that’s how top performers thrive in any market.