Identifying Pain Points

Identifying your customers’ pain points is something every person in sales has had drilled into them throughout their career. We look for the symptoms and diagnose the cause and hopefully we can offer relief. But, do you know that there are four primary types of pain businesses are trying to solve? Regardless of the product or service the customer provides, they will at one time or another likely experience one or more types of pain.

Customer pain points are specific problems that your prospective or existing customers are currently experiencing. Pain points are essentially problems that your prospect has, such as frustrations, obstacles, threats, and inefficiencies, that limit their growth or success in some way.

It is wise to look deeper and categorize the type of pain to determine if you have a solution that can help them eliminate or at least minimize the pain. Strategic initiatives will often be driven by these various pain types.

Process Pain

Customer has issues with their business systems or processes that are restricting them from achieving their desired outcomes. It could be attracting new business, interactions between systems, the ability to have what they need when they need it, or a myriad of similar concerns.

Productivity Pain

Customers, like most salespeople, see time as money. Their existing equipment and systems are not efficient or do not optimize their processes. This could be equipment failures, interaction of systems, or even workforce or supply chain shortages or other areas that are taking time away from their primary business initiatives.

Support...or lack of

This one comes both before and after the sale itself. If the customer feels that their current product or services supplier’s attention to their issues and needs are not meeting promises, they are often willing to change providers. In fact, studies show that up to 80% of the customers who have a bad experience with a supplier, either before or after the sale, support will change.

Financial Pain

For sales, this can be interpreted as not having or wanting to spend the money for the recommended solution. However, in the customers’ world, the financial pain can come if they feel they are overpaying, or that the product or service is too expensive for the same relative value your competitor is offering. What benefit do they receive by choosing your solution?

Knowing the need of your customer includes asking questions around each category of pain using a series of questions throughout the sales and buying process.

Here are some example questions that can help identify the needs and build a strong relationship that is centered on solving the customers’ needs and simultaneously leading to a potential sale.

Current situation:

“What challenges are you facing?”

“What have you tried to overcome those challenges? Did it work? For how long?”

“How does your boss see these issues?”

“If you could change one thing, what would that be? Why did you choose that?”

“What are your short-term and long-term goals?”

“What would success look like? What’s the ideal outcome?”

Changing technology or service providers:

“What are your buying and success criteria?”

“How does your company evaluate the potential of new products or services?”

“Where would you put the emphasis regarding price, quality, and service?”

“What is the timing that you think it would take to make a change?”

Customer pain points are specific problems that your prospective or existing customers are currently experiencing

These are among the many questions one might ask depending on the need you have already uncovered. You can research questions regarding each category for a more definitive list of questions.

While the questions will provide added insights, the act of actually listening, asking for clarification, and demonstrating your desire to help the customer solve their problems as much, if not more, than you wish to make a sale is critical.

If through your discovery and diagnosis, if you cannot help to solve the issue, concern, or need it is imperative that you be honest and tell them that and why you can not help. You never know if in the future you can help, and honesty helps the customer trust and respect you.

Your honesty leaves the door open to working with you in the future and leaves the customer reflecting on your integrity and wanting to find a way to work together in the future.