Pain Points and Positive Solutions for B2B Success
“Think Different,” “Just Do It,” “Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands,” and “Easy, breezy, beautiful…”
You can probably name each of these world-famous companies based on their tag lines alone. What is it that makes these businesses and brands so memorable? It’s not just because they came up with a catchy tagline for their brand. It’s because that business spent time asking the right questions so their advertising and marketing strategies would grab your attention. Memorable messaging captures what makes a product or service different (and better) than the competition. This is the essence of stellar marketing.
We want to take it a step further. What captures your attention when shopping for something specific and brings you back to the same company every time? They continue to meet your needs by providing the solution to the core problem you’re facing as a customer in their market. Your messaging framework is not just a message to market; it’s a problem to solve.
Define the Problem
In the face of the unresolved, everyone wants to be seen, heard, and understood. You must accept a harsh reality to succeed in providing a product or service. People don’t care about your product; they care about what it does for them. Since that is the case, there’s no choice but to lean in and come to understand your customers better first. Understanding starts with identifying the problem and asking the right questions. Leaning into that understanding will help build a messaging framework showing the customer that your business has the solution to their problems.
You may be wondering, how do we show what differentiates our company from others? How do we identify the problems our customers are facing to provide them with the ultimate solution?
Connect the Dots
You have to take time to connect the dots. First, identify the problems your customers are facing. There are three problems every consumer faces. The external problem, the internal problem, and the philosophical problem. The external problem involves meeting the initial need. Do you have what they are looking for? The internal problem, or bridging the gap, is discovering the unknown issues. Often in the B2B industry, exploring the internal problem is missed. B2C companies constantly consider the consumer and the gaps between the initial need and the customer’s core issue.
When it comes to B2B businesses, it’s easy to lose sight that businesses and companies have internal issues you are unaware of. This is where you must listen and develop an understanding of things in their world you may not know and bridge the gap by empathizing with what they are facing. Identifying the deeper issues the businesses you work with are facing will bridge alignment gaps and help you understand your customers and their brand more deeply. Doing so defines the value of your services or products and obviously differentiates you from the competition.
Align your Message
Finally, there’s one more challenge every customer faces, that will determine why they will choose one company over another. The philosophical problem. Are you providing solutions for the matters of the mind of the individuals behind the company? Odds are, your customer has not had their needs met in the past by a similar company that offers the same services, and you want to be the one that delivers. This is where you align the company goals with your offer being the ultimate solution to their challenges.
Put yourself in their shoes and ask, what have they dealt with in the past that hasn’t served them well? Where have they been burned before? Where have their most significant needs not been met based on their internal and external problems? Then ask yourself, How is what we are doing different? How can we provide better service and solutions? How can we make them seen, heard, and known?
This is mending past experiences based on external and internal problem-solving. It is reframing the message to meet the customer’s needs and serve as a solution to their problems. An effective messaging framework is built on setting aside the importance you put on your product or service. This will help lay a foundation of intentional understanding of your customer’s company and its challenges.
When you choose to take time to come to a mutual understanding of your clients and what they face, then the problems don’t look as hard to solve. Building a messaging framework with thorough understanding allows you to hear your customers, answer their questions, and uncover new ways to provide them with genuinely satisfying solutions. Needing guidance on the right questions to start asking to identify your customers’ problems? Book a Demo, and start building your solution-based messaging framework today!
