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How To Understand Customer Pain Points

customer pain points

When you are doing inbound marketing and start getting an increasing flow of leads, it is important to identify their challenges as early as possible. Preferably before you even talk to them. These challenges or problems, also called customer pain points, prevent the person or company from taking action as intended. 

By creating content that is aimed specifically at your target group and addresses their challenges, you can increase the chance of getting new contacts, leads, and more customers.

What Are Pain Points For Customers?

If your prospects do not feel that they have a problem or challenge that needs to be solved, there is no reason for them to buy your product or service. 

A solution to the pain point or the problem needs to be implemented as soon as possible.

That is why your content should also be about the customers’ pain points and not just about your company, products, or services. This becomes especially clear when you work with your buyers and buyer personas and identify the issues that are closest to their hearts.

In this article, I will address different types of customer pain points. I will also give you tips on how you can use them in your content and sales teams to attract and engage your target audience.

Types Of Customer Pain Points

1. Brand positioning

brand positioning - customer pain points

All companies want to attract more customers. But this is often challenging. Many companies think that they have control over their business while in fact, they are focusing on the wrong things. This makes them inefficient and prevents them from growing. 

Common pain points related to the brand’s positioning are:

  • “Nobody knows our company”
  • “Our competitors take our business”
  • “The market is changing, and we are lagging behind”
  • “We have not focused on inbound marketing, so we are now behind”
  • “Our customers are looking at solutions that our competitors offer but only a few of them know that we also have it”

The fear of not growing is associated with not getting new customers on time. If you succeed in identifying a brand-related pain point, chances are that your prospects will start to pay attention to you and your content. They would be interested in getting in touch with you to solve their problem.

2. Finances

finances

It goes without saying that money plays a big role in the business world. But few want to admit that many of their company’s problems are due to a tight budget. 

Here are examples of critical financial pain points that require immediate action:

  • “We do not sell enough to even stay afloat”
  • “Sales have increased but profitability is low”
  • “We do not have the information we need to make wise investment decisions”
  • “We probably spend too much on different systems and tools but do not know where we can cut costs”
  • “Changes are required, but the budget doesn’t allow us”

3. People

people

Many B2B companies forget that B2B clients are also people. People are the heart of every business and are often both the biggest asset and the biggest cost

Therefore, it is a priority in most organizations to minimize the challenges faced by the employees. It is important to make the organization as efficient as possible. 

So, what are the customer pain points related to people and staff? Following are some examples:

  • “The morale of our employees is low.”
  • “We lose the best employees because they get higher salaries elsewhere”
  • “We cannot grow because we are not able to find competent workers”
  • “Recruitment is not possible at the pace needed for our growth plan”
  • “Our employees lag behind in terms of skills compared to the rest of the industry”

4. Processes

processes

Companies and organizations need processes that work. The productivity is going to be low with inefficient methods and strategies. 

Experiencing this pain point, your prospects would wonder how much easier their situation would have been with the right process in place. 

Examples of pain points for customers arising from processes could be:

  • “We have a hard time keeping up with customers because our customer service does not have time”
  • “We have no system in place to manage our leads”
  • “Our employees work in different ways, which makes the organization inefficient and difficult to manage”

5. Productivity

productivity

It is often the task of the team managers to remove bottlenecks that slow down or prevent the team from getting the tasks done on time. 

If there are things that stand in the way of employees being able to work efficiently, you can position your product or service as a solution that saves both time and money. 

Pain points related to productivity can be like:

  • “We cannot book customer meetings because people work from home”
  • “We often miss our customer deadlines”
  • “Far too much time is spent in attending meetings”
  • “We spend far too much time on administrative tasks”
  • “Our product suffers from serious quality deficiencies that result in losing customers”

Conclusion

Your prospects may realize that they have a problem. Maybe they do not know how to take care of their problem today.  The chances of them paying attention to you are higher if you have something valuable to offer to them in this regard.