T3: Customer Pain Points

T3: Customer Pain Points

Three Thoughts:

Thought 1: We, as humans, seek to get out of pain before we can seek to make improvements in our life. This is crucial for business owners to understand — especially in marketing.

Thought 2: We don’t always know the pain points of our customers as well as we’d like to think we do. Often, we create a business that solves a problem we’ve already had. That’s great, but it also means we get really out touch really quickly with the pain points we experienced back in the beginning of our journey. Our businesses are built to serve those people back there, at the start of the path — since we’ve progressed, however, we’re no longer really in touch with those initial pain points. This means we sometimes try to start the conversations with our clients from where we are now not where we were or where they are now.

Thought 3: Addressing, discussing, and educating around pain points is necessary even when it is uncomfortable. It is our vulnerability here that will frequently create the trust needed to truly step in and help our customers.

Bonus thought: ALL businesses address a pain point — even if that pain point is not obvious. Artists, for example, often feel left out of this conversation. Trust me, they do solve a problem, it’s just not one that is overtly obvious. Art buyers seek to soothe the pain that results from the lack of connection to beauty and creativity among other things. This is a very real pain point and worthy of a solution.

Three Strategies

Strategy 1: In marketing, we are told to be positive — show the benefits is a frequent piece of marketing advice that is handed out by professionals. And, that’s perfectly fine, but remember your customers are much more frequently Googling how to remove their pain points than they are how to achieve the goals that would be realized if that pain point didn’t exist. I’m not saying don’t talk about goals and benefits, rather that there needs to be an empathetic understanding of your customer’s journey from where they are now (pain point) to where they are going (gain point). If you don’t address both, you may be missing the bus.

Strategy 2: Make it a practice to interview your customers often. Ask about pain points — and more importantly, what was the rock bottom they had to hit to seek to get out of that pain. These are key takeaways in how to build both your service/product menu as well as your marketing and educational initiatives. Ask questions, take polls and surveys, get involved in understanding. Also, do your research. Spend some time Googling, working in Ais like ChatGPT, and at the library going over your industry’s studies and data. Write your findings down and then always keep questioning assumptions and adding to or taking away from your list.

Strategy 3: Learn how to communicate about pain points. In all honesty, this is difficult because discussing our pain is complicated and frequently avoided. Businesses who serve populations who have experienced deep pain points and trauma, often stay around the edges of the pain point in an effort to not further add to the pain of their customers. I have found that when I’m very open and empathetic in discussing my customer’s pain points, they often experience a release — many times with a deep breath followed by a story they may not have shared before. Granted, many of my clients are dealing with an underlying trauma. Your business may address a pain point that is more annoyance than traumatic — and that’s okay. Your customers will still appreciate it when you recognize and empathize with the journey they are on. This is the first step toward building a lasting relationship with a customer. Seek to help them feel understood and seen — but not defined by their pain point.

Things that can help:

Get to know The Value Proposition Canvas. This tool, which is part of the Business Model Canvas, is a valuable tool in getting to know and understand your customer’s pain and gain points. I teach classes on it from time to time and I also do private consultations around this tool and the resultant information. I am not the only one. There is also a book called Value Proposition Design by Alex Osterwalder with other authors. It walks you through the process. In addition, there is a ton of info online in Google and YouTube to help you utilize this handy tool.

Talk to your customers — I’ve said it before and I’ll say it here again: customer research doesn’t stop when you bind your business plan and put it on the shelf. It is actually just beginning. Truly successful businesses make it a point to do continual customer research. They never stop learning and, to be honest, your own customers are your best resource for learning about your business. Interview, ask questions, follow them on social media, engage, and interact. Never lose your curiosity about your customers.

Hire a coach or consultant to help you with your messaging. You’ve heard the cliché you can’t see the forest for the trees? Well, it can apply here as well. Sometimes you’re so deeply involved in your own business that you lose track of how to pull back and see the bigger picture. A coach or consultant can help you. They can help you define and refine your message, brand, and offerings to reach the perfect customer for your business. Their insight from “outside” your business is often helpful in seeing the gaps in your industry and branding.