To identify the pain points of the customer, just like a doctor diagnoses a patient, it is necessary to first understand the type of patient. In general, "customers" can be divided into three broad categories:
- Sick - The customer's overall performance (or condition) is not as good as it should be, and there is a real problem that needs to be addressed.
- Healthy - There's nothing wrong with the customer's overall performance (or condition) and is just looking to get better.
- Ostrich mindset – the customer feels good about themselves and simply doesn't want to face the problems they face or the opportunities they might have to perform better.
Of course, many times the customer will not directly tell you where he is "in pain" or what is happening, so the best way at this time is to ask the customer if he thinks there are things that can be "better", that is, to raise the customer's "expectations". For example, when I first worked in the information industry, I was mainly responsible for the product lifecycle management (PLM) system, and when I pre-sold to customers, I would not tell customers, "Is your company's current product version management messy, every time a customer sends it for repair, you have to disassemble the machine to know what the parts are inside, and sometimes you can't find out after half a day." And my statement will be: "Do you want your company to be able to immediately know the complete list of components of the product by swiping the barcode or entering the serial number when the customer sends the product for repair, and see if the product has had a similar failure situation in the past and the final solution? The difference between the two statements is that the first one simply asks the customer to start their defense and reply, "We're okay now! On the other hand, the second statement is the one that triggers the customer's imagination and expectations, so the customer's reply is usually "Yes, if you can do this, it will be much easier to repair the product and track the problem!" To give another example, if you say to a customer in the current insurance industry, "Look, it's really hard to make your own investment, and now the stock market is shaking so violently and the profit margin is so small, it's really hard to make money, and it's good if you don't lose money!" When you say that, the client may think, "No, that's because your investment skills are too poor, how can I do what you say." 」
If you put it another way: "You see, in the past, it was necessary for large investors worth hundreds of millions of dollars to have someone to help manage the money and make investments, but now we only invest a few thousand yuan every month, and there are these professional managers to help operate, not to mention that the global economy is rotating so fast, and the industry has been rotating, don't you think it will be more reassuring to let experts help you manage your finances and diversify investment risks?" But in this "diagnosis" process, there is a very key point that "never want to milk a cow on a bull"! That is, if the customer is not willing to face the problem at all, or ignores his own needs, and is purely afraid of expenses, he will never listen to your introduction or diagnosis. That... Just let him go and let himself go! Keep kicking the same iron plate will not only hurt, but also unwise.
Of course, once the client is interested in your "better" and admits that their current situation can indeed be improved, the next three things to do are to help "clarify the cause", "inform the sequelae" and find out if there are other "added value".
