The Definitive Guide to Understanding and Identifying Your Customers' Pain Points

Salespeople, this is for you. If you want to increase your sales success, it's important that you understand and identify your customers' pain points.Your prospects need to have a sense of urgency and be able to see how your product or service can solve their business problems. In this guide, we will discuss what pain points are and how you can identify them in order to sell more products or services.We will also provide you with a free download of 101 Sales Qualification Questions that will help you uncover your customers' pain points quickly and easily!It's a huge drain on your sales productivity, budget, and team to sell to clients who don't or won't buy.The top 2% of earners must spend their time with individuals who need their assistance, desire it, and are prepared to collaborate with you to address their difficulties.There's one thing that prospects need above all else: authority and cash. Having company injury is more important than either of these things. If your prospects don't have business trouble, they aren't interested in what you're selling.There's no hope for a sale unless your salespeople can ask effective sales questions and discover business suffering as soon as possible[toc]

What are the pain points?

Acute pain points are time-consuming issues with a product or service that annoy customers and their businesses. Alternatively, they're unmet wants waiting to be fulfilled.On an individual level or for organizations on a broad scale, any type of client may have pain points. Let's look at some popular instances.

Pain Point Examples

For now, let's dive right into a few examples. A typical pain spot might be something like this:A client requires a service beyond their budget: Customers are unable to work effectively owing to financial constraints, which causes them to seek less expensive alternatives.

• A company with many superfluous steps in its plan: Process lead time costs money and indicates a need to decrease it.
• Disparities in information dissemination between departments: To reduce process errors, teams must find a method to communicate data more effectively.

All of these are examples of “pain” or “productivity stifling.” The first step in resolving these issues is recognizing how to recognize and eliminate them, so let's talk about how to do it for your clients.

Customer Pain Points

Customers' Pain Points

Your client can inform you about anything from poor customer service to a bad product or service to an innovative idea that has yet to be discovered.There are numerous methods for detecting and addressing customer problem spots, however, the best way to do it is by hearing what they have to say.Customers are your bread and butter at the end of the day. They're a must-have, whether they buy an end product or a service to help run their business. Now let's talk about what it means to have pain spots as a company.

Pain Points in Business

True business pain is the problem that a company needs to be addressed, which causes “pain.” The term "true" business pain refers to a problem that isn't merely a nice-to-have.It's a budgeted, must-get-rid-of-it kind of issue. Because they have an impact on the company's pain points prevent it from operating and must be addressed as soon as possible.

Business Pain Point Examples

You've discovered business pain areas if your prospects state they're having issues with employee dissatisfaction and retention, reduced productivity, and recruiting difficulties that are affecting their production and hiring.You've struck on a concern area when you identify consumer churn that affects revenue or a serious lack of leads that make it harder to achieve revenue targets.The first thing most salespeople seek in their prospects is pain, which is what starts them on a buying journey in the first place and is the driving force to find a solution.These are some of the most common sorts of company problems that your potential customers may be experiencing, along with examples:

1. Positioning Pain Points

What company doesn't want to acquire more or better clients? Setting this goal, though, is easier said than done.Many organizations may be aware — or believe they are aware — of the challenges preventing them from achieving their marketing and positioning goals.Here are some examples of what prospects may tell you when you ask about the issues hindering their positioning:

• “No one knows who we are.”
• “We're losing to our competition.”
• “The market is shifting, leaving us behind.”
• “Until now, we haven't considered digital marketing, so we've fallen behind.”
• “In our industry, we compete with other companies who have more green space than we do on most channels.”

It's critical to identify a positioning pain and provide a remedy for it in order to demonstrate value.

2. Financial Pain Points

Money is a major issue in business, and many problems can be addressed with more money. Every company benefits from improving its financial position. The following are some of the most pressing financial issues that demand big fixes:

• “We’re not selling enough to keep the lights on.”
• “Revenue is up, but profitability is low.”
• “We don’t have enough visibility to know if we’re making good financial decisions.”
• “We may be overpaying for equipment and tools, but we don’t know what to cut.”
• “We've got sign-ups, but they're bouncing.”

Your solutions might help firms that need to save money or better manage their cash flow.

3. People Pain Points

People are at the centre of every business, both its greatest cost and largest asset. If there are personnel challenges such as those listed below, they can have an impact on other parts of the organization:"Employee morale is low."

• "We're losing our top employees to higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
• "Our lack of diversity inhibits innovation."
• "We can't put our middle managers in charge of training and motivating us."
• “Our actual corporate culture does not match our stated values.”

If your product or service aids firms to manage, incentivize, or delight employees, you'll be relieved of the burden and appear like a hero to everyone else who is involved.

4. Process Pain Points

Customers' Pain Points

People issues generate operational difficulties (or perhaps the other way around). Your prospects understand that achieving consistent success is easiest by employing constant procedures.“How can they do it?” They might face challenges such as:

• “Our recruiting system is complex, and we're having trouble finding highly qualified individuals.”
• “Customer turnover is high since our service centre is flooded and unable to keep up.”
• There is no formal procedure in place to evaluate leads.
• “There are inconsistencies in each employee’s workflow, which leads to disorganization and varying performance.”
• “The software we currently use is out of date, but changing to a new one scares us.”

Ask your prospect to imagine what a smoothly operating firm, department, or system would feel like and how significant it would be.

5. Productivity Pain Points

Managers are in a position to clear the roadblocks for their teams so that things get done, productivity rises, and profits improve.That being said, it's all too easy to become caught up in the weeds of the company and be victimized by inefficiencies that waste a significant amount of time.Here are some examples of business productivity suffering points:

• "We keep missing our client deadlines."
• "We spend way too much time in meetings," says one executive.
• "Our administrative duties have gotten out of hand."
• "Quality concerns with our goods have caused expensive recalls and/or customer turnover."
• “Our employees aren’t supported enough to complete their assigned tasks.”

You may market your solution as a time, money, and frustration saver if there's something that prevents a firm and its employees from functioning effectively.

6. Small Business Pain Points

Pain spots that aren't addressed in a small firm may result in the business closing its doors for good.You should ask questions that address the numerous responsibilities of a tiny team rather than a bigger business with a more hands-on deck if you're working with a small company. Small company pain areas can include anything from:

• “Our team is already so stressed, trying to keep up with orders that consistently ship late.”
• It's been difficult to find the best talent for your company.
• “It's a pain in the ass to post on all of our social media sites.”
• “Managing a team is frightening to me in my line of work because I already have so many hats on.”
• “Keeping track of accounting becomes more difficult as time goes on.”

Many of these challenges might be addressed with a contemporary technology-based product or service solution. Small businesses may benefit from workflow automation and expert advice.

4 Ways to Address Company Pain

You can solve their problems once you've discovered a pain. This is an incredible instrument to use as a salesperson since you may now be seen as a solution provider rather than a product-seller.Here are three-pointers to get started1. When discussing pain, use your prospect's wordsThis is an approach to foster trust with your prospect that has a lot of psychological power. Instead of relying on jargon only understood by your peers, demonstrate that you care about them by using their words and phrases.2. Discover who's in charge of alleviating your sufferingFind the economical buyer as soon as feasible. Inquire about your prospect's budget and who would have to be involved in a purchase decision. It's pointless to spend hours talking with someone who can't write a contract.3. Identify any more key stakeholders as soon as possibleProspects are sometimes concerned that if they inform you that they aren't the only decision-maker, they will appear less authoritative. As a result, I prefer to use the following inquiries to avoid giving this impression.:

• Who else has a say in this choice?
• Who else would be interested in hearing that we spoke?

4. Frame your offer around the prospect's problemWhen establishing rapport with the prospect and hearing various viewpoints, you must tailor the solution to their unique requirements. If your product has a variety of features, make it clear which ones address their problems.It's easier to meet everyone's needs if you listen and affirm your prospect's problems while seeking information.Empathy is at the heart of inbound sales. To assist clients and prospects alike, begin asking pertinent questions to the appropriate people.