Okay, this isn't really about selling sandwiches to children, but it's a useful metaphor.

It's happened with all three of my kids -- not long after they started eating sandwiches, they stopped eating the crust. One of them would pick the middle of the sandwich out with his fingers if I didn't cut the crust off. The others just whined and refused to eat until I did.

But cutting the crust off is a pain. And if you cut too much and you waste food. Cut too little, they won't eat it. Tough dilemma.

Compare that to your customers and prospects. You may have the greatest product in the world, but if it's not the way they like it, some of them will complain, whine, or just plain refuse to buy.

But catering to each person's individual tastes can take more work than you can afford. So what do you do?

The solution I finally discovered with my kids and sandwiches was to cut them in an X (the sandwiches, not the kids! :-), like pizza slices. It's a lot quicker and easier than removing the crust, and it enables them to easily eat the middle and leave the crust. And sometimes they'll just keep on eating and finish the whole sandwich.

Are your prospects getting a message about your product that's turning them off? Is there a feature that's not the way some customers want it? If it's not something you can fix entirely, maybe you just need to find ways to help them see past it. Help them see the big benefits more clearly, and make them easier to get to.