��Knowing your customer better than they do is key”, according to Neil Patel, one of Forbes “Top 10 Marketers”. The first step in getting there is the discovery call. Before starting any marketing efforts, a discovery call should take place to understand your customer, their business goals, pain points, value proposition and mission statement. So, what are the must-ask questions to make sure you get all the insight you need to start off on the right foot?
Question 1. Why do customers choose you?
Communicating a client’s strengths is crucial. Does your client have the highest quality product? Are they the most inexpensive? Maybe they are entirely unique? Regardless, every client that comes to you has a key differentiator they bring to the table. This is the core of their business, their main draw. Positioning this at the frontlines of your marketing efforts is the first step in strategizing how to grow your client’s business.
Question 2. Why don’t customers choose you?
Knowing the weakness of a client is just as important as understanding their strength. Are leads getting lost in the consideration stage? Are prices higher than their competitors? Identifying where your clients’ pain points are gives you insight as to where you should focus your strategy. Don’t avoid weaknesses, address them.
Question 3. Who are your buyer personas?
There are several questions that go along with this. Demographics such as age, income, job, education, etc., are key to building a company's buyer personas. Your buyer personas are essentially fictional representation of your ideal customer and help us determine who we are trying to target. Who is the decision maker that you should be appealing to? What problems are potential customers having that lead them to seek your business out? Where would they look to find your service? With so many important questions to ask, it may be hard to know where to start. Fortunately, HubSpot has created a helpful guide to get started. It’s important to understand every aspect of the buyer persona. You can’t market to a person you don’t understand!
Question 4. What is the lifetime value of a cUSTOMER?
Your value as a marketer comes from growing your client’s business. In order for your client to see their return on investment you have to, first, bring the success, then show them the success. Knowing how much value one new customer brings to your client sets a benchmark for an appropriate cost per lead. If your cost per lead is $45, and the client only profits $50 from that lead, you will need to readjust your strategy. On the other hand, if a cost per lead is $45 and the client will make $4,000, we will spend that all day!
Having an effective discovery call is just the beginning of providing your client with an excellent service experience. With these four questions you’ll learn the positives and negatives of the company, who to target, and how much a client is worth to them. The answers you receive will jump start your understanding of a client, and how to best help them.
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