4 Types of Pain Points Your Customer May Experience Right Now That Help You Grow Your Startup Business

Identifying your customer’s pain points can create solutions your customer is looking for and willing to pay for.

An customer’s pain point is the emotion they feel when they think of a specific need, problem, weakness, struggle, or an unfulfilled desire they didn’t find a solution for yet.

Defining your customer’s pain points gives you the opportunity to create product and/or service solutions that will take away their specific pain; creates trust and credibility for your startup.

In the online marketing industry, we say the money is in the niches. Likewise, in identifying your ideal client needs, the money is in their pain.

The Five Stages of Customer Pain

1. They feel somewhat uncomfortable in the situation they are in but overall they are good.
2. They are not happy with their pain but they can live with it.
3. They are very unhappy with their pain and wish for a change.
4. They want to change and start thinking about how they can do it.
5. They are desperate to find solutions.

At what stage is your prospect willing to stop and start listening while purchasing your products and services? The more your prospects climb up the ladder of pain, the more they are ready to be converted.

• When you review the product or service questions you get from your prospects, in your social media conversations, or when you out there, speaking and educating your fans and followers, start listening. You will here which stage of pain they are experiencing.
• Recognize what type of pain (read the customer pain point definition of the four types your ideal client is goes through below)
• Create solutions to overcome their pain.

Get familiar with the different types of pain your customer may experience. Use the examples below to think about the product and service solutions you can provide.

Four Types Of Pain Your Customer May Experience (that help you grow your business)

Pain Type #1: Physical Pain

When people speak about pain points, it can mean many different things.

When we hear about “pain”, the most obvious thing is to think about physical pain. Doctors, healers, or any health service providers take care of this obvious physical pain.

When I work with startup owners, I often hear them complaining about back and neck pain, shoulder pain, or headaches and migraines. I am not a doctor but by knowing my own entrepreneurial lifestyle of 24/7, business pressure and the need to make it as a successful startup, your pressure can easily show up as physical pain points.

Did you ever try to work with somebody who is in pain? It’s tough.

• Their mind is often not able to absorb information, think, or execute properly when you experience pain.
• You aren’t a doctor but you can guide them to find help through a therapist or any other professional minimizing the physical pain they are feeling due to being overwhelmed, fearful, stressed out.

The better your customer can think and function, the easier it will be for you to help them create an amazing business success.

Pain Type #2: Mental Pain

Mental pain often comes from data, information, or task overload.

Did you ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work? Or you couldn’t sleep because you worried you forgot a task?

Mental overload with this mental pain happens to all of us. The successful startups have three things in common:

1. They have a short term, mid- and long-term plan and goals in place.
2. All their daily tasks support their goals.
3. They create a daily to-do list the night before.

If you experience that your customer is dealing with mental pain points, help them to structure themselves better to feel less stressed out and accomplish more.

Pain Type #3: Emotional Pain

• Emotional pain can come from many things and often shows up in physical pain too.
• Emotional pain happens when people have a low self-esteem, self-love or self-confidence.

I think every startup business goes through this from time to time. We feel misunderstood, not appreciated or valued, criticized, judged, unloved, or feel a fear of failure or fear of success.

All these emotions come with one result, pain. And when we feel pain we become dysfunctional, have low energy, lose productivity, or in the worst case, give up.

Many of my clients start very excited and highly motivated, then comes the moment of truth. It happens mostly when they start executing what they learned, or when they realize they are responsible for the results they get. It benefits you to recognize if your customer is experiencing emotional pain and pick them up.

Help your customers with service or product solutions on how to overcome their emotional pain. It is a way to establish customer rapport, relationships, and nurture your way to becoming a trusted advisor.

Pain Type #4: Spiritual Pain

Spiritual pain often happens when startups do work against their spiritual belief.

When you love animals and you are against animal abuse, working in a battery-cage chicken farming environment can be brutal to your spirit. The same happens when entrepreneurs work with customers who have opposite beliefs.

Their attitude from loving their business can change very fast to hating to deal with their customers.

What I do when I first start working with clients is to identify not only the target market they want to serve to make money but also making sure that this target market fits their ethics, beliefs, and aligns with their WHY (why they are in business).

The closer your customers fit your own spiritual mindset, the happier both of you will be.

Unfortunately, most humans only learn through pain.

By understanding what pain your customer is going through, you have the chance to create product and service solutions that will help them overcome their pain points, create less stress, have more free time and make more money.

This also gives you the opportunity to pass your competitors in your market place and to become the number one authority in your industry.

This article was originally published on SozialMonster.com.

Does your startup or small business have an online presence? If so, are you attracting sales leads? Join us for our free 30-min consultation!

If this this post was helpful, kindly tap the ❤ button below!

About The Author
Dagmar Gatell is the owner of Global Empire SEO Consulting and the Co-Founder of Sozial Monster. You can connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.