Uncover Your Customers’ Pain Points and Share them with your Referral Partners

Do you know what your customers’ deepest pain points are? Equally important, do your referral partners know what they are?

You always want to know exactly what’s in the heart and mind of your customer so that you can better understand how to help them. But have you taken the time to train your referral partners in knowing what to listen for?

Your referral partners need to know what products or services you offer and they need to know how they can help you. But often we forget to educate them in understanding what to listen for so they can make the right referrals.

Here are some simple questions to ask your customers and reflect on. Keep in mind though that even if they seem simple, taking the time to really understanding your customers’ pain points is worth it.

Understanding your customer’s pain points…

  • Imagine a day in the life of your customer. What problem does your product or service address?
  • Ask current customers about their lifestyles and goals. How do they perceive themselves?
  • Ask customers what motivates them – and what doesn’t.
  • Find out what the customer really needs.
  • Uncover what is the true source of their pain. Sometimes, you’ll need to read between the lines and listen past the immediate requests.
  • Who sees the most value in having that pain removed? (Hint: these will be your best customers)
  • Who will ultimately pay for a solution? Remember that the end user of your product/service is not always the one who pays (i.e. child/parent or pet/owner)
  • For businesses, what’s your customer’s biggest inhibitor to company growth?
  • What does your customer obsess about?
  • What takes up the most time in their day?

You might do this on a regular basis, and we all should. So once you’ve spent some time uncovering and digging deeper into their pain points, your next step is to talk to your referral partners about these pain points and train them how to listen for them so they can make referrals when appropriate.

Finally, make sure you do the same for their customers’ pain points. Doing so will enable you to better help your partners and demonstrate your investment and commitment to the partnership.