Answering your customers questions before they ask
Back in February 2013, Google published and article in their Think Newsletter discussing how much of a sale is completed before the buyer even contacts the seller. According to them, it’s 57%. Think about that for a second, your customer has already learned 57% of the information they need before buying your product before they even contact you. Looking at it on the surface you might be tempted to say “great!” and move on, but there’s a more important issue buried beneath the surface. Nestled underneath that innocuous number is a frightening reality — if your website doesn’t answer 57% of your customers questions, they will likely never contact you.
For context, here’s the abstract from Google’s article:
New research from CEB’s Marketing Leadership Council shows that potential business customers are increasingly using digital channels to form opinions about major purchases. Today’s business buyers do not contact suppliers directly until 57 percent of the purchase process is complete. The challenge for marketers is to be present in these channels at all times with content that educates buyers and helps guide commercial decisions.
At Identity Visuals, we thought long and hard about what questions we needed to answer in order to get our customers 57% of the way through our sales process. However, at the end of the day, all of our answers were merely informed speculation — we didn’t know the questions our customers were asking at early stages. Realizing this unfortunate reality, we’re now establishing a plan to learn what questions our customers need answered in that first 57%.
Step One: Observation
Like most businesses, we take a hybrid approach to selling our services. We use our website for education and lead generation, but also employ two salesman who attend networking events, go for coffee, and talk on the phone. When salesmen start talking to a potential customer at a networking event or over coffee, that person is going to ask some questions about our services. We’ve instructed both of our salesmen to observe and pay closer attention to these questions.
Step Two: Research
If you’re running a startup, you likely know a few other people who run businesses of their own. We know a few of these people and we’re starting to ask for a few minutes of their time to pick their brains about the questions they would want answered when looking for a creative vendor. It’s important never to forget about the network of people who want you to succeed. Many of them, customers of your business or not, probably have a lot in common with your customer.
Step Three: Tracking
I asked this question of twitter today:
@SamuelCowden
Are you tracking the questions your customers are asking? How do you do it? Spreadsheets, software, etc. #startup #startups
Unfortunately, nobody responded to me — meaning I don’t have the right followers or everybody is keeping a very big secret.
We’ve decided to go the old-school route of just using a spreadsheet on Google Sheets. Our entire team can access and edit it to add new questions or give points to an already existing question.
An important note: we aren’t entering each question individually. People have an amazing ability to ask the same question in very different ways (silly people). To combat this, we’re focusing more on the answer to the question, rather than the wording of the question itself. For example, “what do you make?” could be asked many different ways, but the answer would always be “video production and motion design.”
Wrapping Up
We probably should have started this practice the day we started Identity, but better late than never. I’ll try to write follow-up posts to update you on our progress and the things that we learn.
If you’re tracking your customers questions and using a more efficient system, please share it! I’d love to know about your experience and how it’s changed the way you communicate with your customers.
Samuel Cowden is an Executive Producer at Identity Visuals, a Nashville-based video production and motion design studio.
