Imagine digital marketing as an exciting adventure. 🗺️ ✈︎
You enter a dark and very quiet room, and you know that in it lies the key to the real needs and pain points of your prospects and leads. 🗝️
You have to find it amidst the doubts and hesitations. To discover the key and understand your customers’ hidden pains and challenges, you need to know the essential questions to ask your prospects. ❔
In this game, you have to be a professional with a keen eye so that every question you ask brings you closer to discovering the truth. 👀
So, be attentive and careful. Even an extra comma in your questions and the given answers can change your path❗❗❗
Let’s begin the adventure. 🏁
The Mind Maze -Understanding Pain Points
In the maze of sales, identifying pain points can be an exciting discovery. Just like a detective uncovering the hidden motives of a crime, marketers must dig into the minds of their customers to uncover the challenges that drive their decisions.
Simply put, Pain Points 👉🏼 are the problems that the customer, as their main and challenging need, seeks to solve with the product or service available in the market.
These issues negatively affect the customer experience, and every business must solve them to attract or retain customers.
Of course, these problems can be very diverse, and identifying them all is not as easy as you might think. Getting to the bottom of customer pain points involves thinking outside the box and putting yourself in your customers’ shoes.
While a pain point may be a specific problem, whether small or large, it is common to divide it into categories to better understand how to solve it. Let’s take a look at two of the most common pain points.
1. Financial Pain Points
Budget and financial issues are the number one pain point for many customers and leads. Financial problems are related to cost challenges, such as expensive solutions, hidden costs, or affordability.
Potential customers in financial traps are usually looking for a way to make better use of their money and save as much as possible on their budget, so they are attracted to sub-businesses with a higher ROI.
2. Productivity Pain Points
Productivity is something that plays a main role in most people’s narratives. Productivity pain points arise when inefficiencies, outdated tools, or cumbersome processes slow progress and hinder goals.
For example, a company with a highly complex software system that reduces productivity is likely eager for a simple solution to increase productivity and save time. So, open the door to a smoother workflow for them by offering tools and services that increase efficiency.
There are two steps to follow when dealing with pain points: process and support. You need to process the pain points you get. These pain points include challenges tied to unmanageable workflows, lack of integration, or complex systems that create complexity. It helps you overcome these challenges with the simplest solutions.
Another thing to remember when dealing with pain points is support. Even the most attractive solutions lose their appeal if you don’t appear supportive. Don’t leave your customers without guidance, troubleshooting, and after-sales customer support. People are always attracted to a business that is there for them every step through a challenge.
Let me clarify this once and for all: “Companies prioritizing excellent customer service and proactive communication can build trust and loyalty, turning a pain point into a lasting bond.”
Understanding these involves analytical thinking and an approach that empathizes with customers. Most customer decisions are pre-designed by a combination of logic and emotion.
Understanding the weight they feel because of their frustration with a solution is like putting together a puzzle. So, it requires business people to actively listen, ask probing questions, and connect the pieces of what they are saying.
The Interrogation Room-Asking the Right Questions
Just like an interrogator in an interrogation room who asks people smart questions, a marketer should use the essential questions to get to know their prospects’ needs, interests, and pain points.
Mastering the skill of asking the right questions allows you to dig beneath the surface of conversations and uncover your prospects’ real challenges and needs. Here are a few techniques to help you do just that.
✔️ The Power of Open-Ended Questions
One of the most powerful weapons you have as a marketer at this stage is open-ended questions. Unlike closed-ended questions that can only be answered with a simple “yes” or “no,” these questions encourage prospects to share details and talk to you more than they initially intended.
For example, “What are your challenges?” This question invites the prospect to talk about what challenges they face and what problems they are struggling with. You can even say, “Can you walk me through your day-to-day struggles?” and let them paint a picture of where they are.
These questions allow frustrations and desires to flow into words, giving you great insight into their needs. In addition to helping you gather important information, an open-ended conversation builds trust with a connection. Prospects feel heard and understood, which can lead to a sense of trust and deeper relationships.
✔️ Reading Between the Lines
In my experience, a customer may be talking to you without any problem, but in many cases, the words they use can have different meanings. Professional marketers and sales reps learn how to read between the lines and detect subtle emotional cues, hesitation, or inconsistency throughout their careers.
For example, a customer might say, “It’s not a big deal,” in a conversation about a recurring topic. This may not seem like not a big deal, but it could indicate a deeper issue they’re unwilling to discuss.
Similarly, pausing or changing their tone when answering questions can indicate discomfort or uncertainty and point to unspoken problems.
Learn active listening; it’s so important. Listen to both what’s being and what’s not being said. Follow up with questions like, “Can you elaborate on that?” or “Why do you think that’s not a big deal?” These prompts encourage deeper reflection and often reveal the full scope of the issue.
✔️ Essential Questions for Unmasking Pain
Interviewing is not just about asking questions and answering them. Just like a professional detective carefully chooses his tools, you need to tailor your tone and style of questioning to the characteristics of the person you are talking to.
You can do this by always ensuring that your data is accurate and complete before the first call using lead generation platforms like CUFinder. This platform has over 98% data accuracy and a database with data related to over 419 million people and over 269 million companies worldwide.
📌 Here are some essential questions to include in your toolbox ⤵
➤ What’s the biggest obstacle holding you back from your goals?
This cuts to the most important pain points and motivates them by going straight to the actionable insights in the discussion.
➤ If you could change one thing about your current process, what would it be? This question helps the prospect identify their pain points and clearly identify what is most important to them by focusing on one challenge.
➤ How does this challenge impact your big picture or performance?
This follow-up connects their pain points to the larger implications and reinforces the need for a solution.
These are powerful hooks to get valuable information while also presenting yourself as the solution.
✔️ Solving the Mystery
Let’s consider this case. Emma is a smart salesperson from a mid-sized logistics company. Imagine her first meeting with a very high-quality lead. She meets with a polite CEO who seems hesitant to talk about their operational struggles. However, Emma gently encouraged them to talk, using a series of open-ended questions.
👩🏻 Emma: “What are some of the challenges you’re experiencing in your supply chain?”
👨 Prospect: “Nothing out of the ordinary, just the usual delays.”
👩🏻 Emma: “Can you walk me through a recent delay and how that impacted your operations?”
👨 Prospect: “Well, last month, we missed a key delivery deadline. It wasn’t ideal, but we managed.”
👩🏻 Emma: “How did that affect your team’s workload or your client’s experience?”
👨 Prospect: “It caused a lot of stress for the team, and our client was pretty upset. We had to offer a discount to smooth things over.”
Using these questions, she got to the heart of the problem: the strained relationship the target business had with its customers and, of course, the financial implications.
By empathizing with the customers and offering targeted solutions, she successfully positioned her product as the answer to their problems and ultimately closed the deal.
✔️ Identifying Patterns in Responses
When meeting with your leads, it’s important to understand their needs beyond the superficial statements. You need to look for patterns in their responses—what they say and how they say it—so you can better understand the issues they’re struggling with, their needs, and so on. This ability to connect the dots requires active listening, strategic pauses, and an observant approach.
When we talk about active listening, we don’t just mean listening to what the prospect says. We also mean analyzing the language choice, tone, and recurring themes.
Imagine you’re talking to a prospect about a phone finder service. The prospect keeps mentioning their frustration with the performance of their sales team but won’t say what specific challenge they’re facing.
Repeatedly expressing frustration with their team’s conclusions in B2B sales could indicate a deeper pain point, possibly related to leadership dynamics, resource allocation, or unclear expectations.
Once you identify these patterns, you will not only find and solve a problem, but also find the underlying causes of the customer’s problems and needs. Consider the following scenario.
Imagine you are talking to the CEO of a company. He keeps saying, “We used to have very good results, but for a while we haven’t been getting the results we are used to.” (Repetitive phrase) While this person says there is a problem, he /she also defends his team’s performance (emotional cues).
He/she says the results are not satisfactory, while he/she believes their team’s performance is ideal (contradictions). All of these cues can point to resistance from members, and of course, the CEO themselves, to organizational change.
Your new insight can help you listen more sensitively to the customer and suggest strategies to improve results without demoralizing their team.
✔️ Active Listening as Surveillance
Active listening is not passive; it is an intentional effort to truly understand the challenges of a potential customer. There are a few techniques you can use to get better at it.
🔹 Mirroring: Try repeating keywords or phrases the customer uses. For example, if they say, “The current pace is too slow, ” you can say, “Too slow?” This will encourage them to provide more details.
🔹 Summarizing: Periodically review what you’ve heard. This not only ensures that the information you’ve gathered is accurate but also tells the customer that you value the meeting you’re having with them.
Imagine that during a meeting with a customer, they keep complaining about not meeting their deadlines. The mirroring technique encourages them to discuss this further. Using the details you’ve provided, you’ll realize that the real problem is misalignment among the stakeholders. Now, you’ve come up with a solution to fix their timeline and increase productivity.
✔️ Using the “Unsuspecting Silence” Technique
Silence is your ally; don’t be afraid of it. Strategic pauses create space for prospects to reveal more than they initially intended. Most people always feel obligated to fill the silence, so they try to do so by saying something relevant to the conversation.
How it works? ⤵
1. Ask a leading question: Ask a question that requires introspection, such as: “What would an ideal outcome for your team look like?”
2. Intentional pause: Resist the urge to jump in with follow-ups. Silence shows your patience and interest.
3. Analyze the response: Prospects often fill the gap with valuable information, such as unspoken fears, desires, or pain points.
✔️ Example
Imagine that after identifying patterns and using various techniques, a healthcare manager suddenly says in the middle of a meeting, “Honestly, I think lots of my staff are burned.”
So far, the discussion has been about technical issues, but now the hidden human factor behind the problems is showing up. Understanding the main issue allows us to provide a technological and employee-friendly solution. In the infographic below, I brought you a series of questions to organize your mind with it.
The Red Whale-Avoiding False Leads
In sales and reaching out to customer pain points, false leads can be as distracting as seeing a red whale in the middle of a crusader’s battle. They can lead you away from your goal, waste time, money, and energy, and cause missing opportunities to address key issues, etc.
Recognizing and avoiding this trap is one of the most important things you need to learn before getting to know the essential questions to ask your prospect. Let’s explore how to navigate the murky waters of misleading information and distinguish symptoms from underlying problems.
Recognizing Misleading Information
Imagine watching a crime movie, but the detective keeps chasing after misleading leads instead of going after the real suspect. This can also happen with prospects who intentionally or unintentionally give you the wrong leads.
Customers may downplay their challenges due to embarrassment, lack of awareness, or mistrust. How can you tactfully probe deeper without alienating them?
Using the techniques we’ve outlined above, you can often avoid these pitfalls and uncover the truth, which is what builds trust and lasting relationships.
Differentiating Symptoms from Root Problems
Just as in the movie, not all leads lead to the suspect; many of the leads people give don’t address the real problem. This same misdiagnosis of the root problem may temporarily solve one of the surface challenges, but has taming the red whale won you the battle? No, the core challenge still exists.
Use patterns and techniques.
For example, notice that when a customer constantly complains about high costs, perhaps the real problem is the ineffectiveness of similar products or services they already used. I suggest examining the broader context of their performance to uncover these patterns.
Another way to avoid traps is to use the “Five Whys” technique. At least in between conversations, you should ask a few “why” questions.
For example ⤵
“Why do you think the cost you’re paying is wasteful?”
“Because I’ve used similar services before, and they didn’t get results.”
“Why do you think the problem is with the service?”
“Because the team’s performance was fine before the production slowdown, and they’re still working the same way.”
“Why is pricing a concern?”
“Because it’s putting a strain on our budget.”
“Why is it putting a strain on our budget?”
“Because our production process is slow and resource-intensive.”
By the fifth “why,” you’ve probably reached the root issue: production inefficiency.
Test Hypotheses with Data
Once you’ve identified the core problem, use various data, such as metrics, case studies, or direct customer feedback, to confirm that addressing it will lead to the desired results. Consider the following scenario.
A customer complaint about employee turnover may seem straightforward at first. But after some digging, you realize that this is just a symptom and that something bigger is going on: poor hiring processes. People don’t quit because they hate the company. They quit because they feel they are not right for the job. If you fix the problem of hiring the wrong people, the problem of constant resignations will go away.
Turning Insights into Action
So, you’ve searched the dark room, gathered all the clues, listened actively, asked strategic questions, and finally found the key. It’s time to use it. Start by addressing their concerns directly and showing them that you’ve been focused on them throughout the entire meeting. This means giving them a personalized solution rather than a generic answer.
For example, after discovering the real problem of unproductive leads, you could say, “Your real problem is the challenge of getting the correct leads, and we at CUFinder have a solution for that exact problem.” This is where the customer realizes that you understand their problem, even if they didn’t state it directly or immediately.
Paint a picture for them. Every great story needs a good ending. Explain to them how you concluded what their real problem is. Step by step, you retrace the path, what you heard and saw, and how everything pointed to this one answer. This familiarizes them with your logic and creates a great sense of trust.
But don’t be a Mr. knowing it all, who knows everything from the very first second. Don’t corner them; keep them engaged. For example, ask, “Does this sound right to you? Is this what you thought it would be?” No sales process is a monologue; it’s a two-way conversation, an opportunity to ensure they feel involved and valued.
Let me tell you, this is the beginning, not the end. The relationship you’ve built must be maintained. Follow up after their purchase, ask for their opinions about what they bought from you, etc. Remind them that this is more than a one-time solution—it’s the start of something better, a way to solve today’s problems and avoid future ones.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve examined the essential questions to ask your prospects and covered various aspects of them, from how to ask them to how to use the information they provide. Remember, these questions are not set in stone, but they flow like water and can easily change. However, you can always apply the techniques and tips I’ve mentioned in this article to your sales journey.
FAQs
1. What are the top 5 questions customers may ask about your products?
Customers commonly ask the following:
- What does this product do?
- How is this product different from others?
- Is there a guarantee or return policy?
- What are the key features or specifications?
- How do I use this product effectively?
2. What are the key questions to ask from prospects?
Key questions to ask depend on the context, but general examples are:
- What are your goals or objectives?
- What challenges are you trying to overcome?
- How can this product/service help you?
- What is your preferred timeline for results?
- What additional support do you need?
3. What are the most common pain points for a prospect?
Prospects’ most common pain points involve cost, whether the solution is worth the price, whether it would save time or add to their workload, trust issues about whether the brand can deliver what it promises, complexity, and ease of use. Finally, they doubt whether the solution will meet their specific needs.
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