Do Not Launch Another Offer Until You Do This One Critical Thing
If you’re looking to grow your business, it’s not enough just to offer a product or service. You need to know who your customers are, what they want, and how you can meet their needs.
And the best way to figure that out is to talk to them. Yes! Talk to them.
Why Talk to Customers or Potential Customers?
Because people buy things to solve problems. And if you’re not talking to your customers, you’re missing out on valuable insights that could help you grow your business.
- A study by Salesforce found that businesses that understand their customers are 60% more likely to be profitable.
- A 2022 study by McKinsey found that businesses that focus on customer experience are 5 times more likely to acquire new customers and 3 times more likely to retain existing customers.
Specifically, getting a really deep understanding of your customer’s wants and needs can help you:
- Create products and services that solve real problems or meet real unmet needs
- Develop more effective promotional campaigns that are targeted to specific interests.
- Provide better customer service
- Build stronger relationships with customers.
These in turn help you increase your reach, generate more sales and leads and increase customer loyalty and repeat business.
What Should I Talk to My Customers About?
If you’re just getting started with customer discovery conversations, it might help to pretend you’re a journalist and start with Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions.For instance, the owner of a yoga studio might start with questions like these:
Who
Tell me a little bit about yourself? What do you do when you’re not taking yoga classes? When did you start doing yoga? Why?
What
What are your favorite types of yoga classes or instructors? Why? What are your least favorite? Why?
When
When is your favorite time of day to take a yoga class? Are there always enough classes available when you want to take one? Are you ever not able to take a yoga class even though you want to? Why?
Where
Where do you practice yoga? What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? What do you look for in a yoga studio?
Why
Why do you practice yoga?
How
How do you choose a yoga studio? Do you come to yoga alone or with friends? How much do you spend a month on yoga?
Tips for Talking to Your Customers
- Be open-ended. Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no.
- Listen and invite them to expand on their answers. “Can you tell me more about that? or “What do you mean when you say “X”?
- Be patient. It may take some time for people to open up and share their thoughts with you.
- Just because you think you know the answer doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask the question You may be surprised.
Talking to Customers Might Be What You're Missing
The customers that already work with you, know you have a great offer. But if you’re having trouble attracting or converting new customers, it might be that you need to adjust your offer or the messaging around your offer to be a better match for a problem that needs solving by a greater number of people. And the absolute best way to get this insight is to talk to the people who are currently buying from you (assuming they are the kind of clients/customers you would like to have more of).
If you’re just getting started and you don’t already have customers, you might want to check out my post on how to create a customer profile (a lot of people call this an ideal customer avatar). By the way, this doesn’t get you out of talking to people, it just gets you thinking about the kinds of people you need to be talking to.
Bottom Line
If you want to grow your small business, you need to understand your customers. And the only way to really understand your customers, and what they need and what will interest them or solve their frustrations is by talking to them. But if you design your business around their needs and wants, the return on that investment is a business that is successful and sustainable. How cool is that?
