Visitors Into Customers Series 6: Identifying A Key Customer Problem (And Solving It)

To really sell a customer on your service or product on your website, you want to show them that you truly understand the problems they have in regards to your business.

This goes beyond a simple “I’m hungry, so I’ll buy a hamburger”. It’s more than just “My teeth hurt, so I’ll see a dentist”.

As consumers in a modern society, we cannot go back to the simple times of needing simple solutions to our problems. We cannot remove the emotional needs from the physical needs.

On top of the physical needs of being fed, or getting our teeth fixed, we also have emotional needs that “need” fulfilling. They’re really just wants, but a modern consumer views them as needs. This is true at least in our current state of ideals, where emotions are very important to us – in previous centuries, emotions haven’t been quite as important.

So where does that leave the dentist, who just…fixes people’s teeth?

The Problem/Pain Of Your Business

It leaves him in a place where he needs to focus on emotional needs in order to sell his services. In marketing, the easiest way to grab someone’s attention is to focus on the pain of their problem.

For a dentist, there are quite a few cliche pains/problems that you could focus on:

• I have a toothache, which is painful for me (the obvious problem).

• If I go to a dentist, this will be a very uncomfortable experience for me.

• It’s frightening to go to the dentist.

• I might find that I have more cavities or problems than I want

The two most well-known complaints about the dentist are fear, and discomfort. If you were a dentist, I would recommend you choose one of these problems as your main problem, and then drive that pain home.

Once you’ve reminded your customer of the “pain” (in this case, discomfort) you can then show them how your business is the solution to their problem.

This is a basic concept of copywriting (writing to sell) and the problem/solution idea should be showcased all over your website, marketing materials, billboards, newspaper ads, radio ads, etc.

You want people to know you as the solution to their emotional and physical problems!

Let’s Take A Look At A Local Chilliwack Business

Here is the website for a chilliwack dentist who uses this exact problem to his advantage. You can see that his headline reads:

“No More Pain, No More Fear.

I’m A Chilliwack Dentist Who Cares About Your Comfort”

From the very first headline, you can feel how this dentist focuses solely on the problem and emotional pain of going to the dentist.

He then drives that problem home in the first few paragraphs:

“At Dr. Hildebrand’s office, your comfort is my first priority.

Some patients find the dental chair to be an anxious experience. To help rid your anxiety, I encourage you to let me know about any discomfort you might have so I can fix it immediately. Maybe you need a pillow for your neck, or some additional freezing – just ask and I’ll make it happen, all with a smile! 

I’m always aiming to make your dental experience comfortable; Dr. Hildebrand is the place to go for comfortable dentistry.”

If you were someone that was afraid of going to the dentist, wouldn’t you be inclined to choose this dentist over someone else who says something generic like:

Chilliwack Family Dentist

We know how important having a great smile is to looking and feeling good. That’s why Dr. Garth Hildebrand and the entire team at our Chilliwack, dental practice is committed to providing the highest quality in family and cosmetic dentistry.

We invite you to look around our site to learn more about Dr. Garth Hildebrand and our Chilliwack dental practice to see how we can be an integral part of your dental care.”

Ugh! Painfully boring and generic. If you were deathly afraid of the discomfort associated with dentists, would that do anything to help you? I doubt it.

Now that you realize the importance of a problem/solution to focus on your business, how do you come up with one yourself?

Ask Your Customers

You can start by getting your customers to give you their biggest objections to using your business (over your competitors).

“What was the obstacle that would have prevented you from buying my product/service?”

That is the perfect question to ask for this type of feedback.

Once you’ve gotten a bunch of answers, put them in a list and examine them. You want to look for the most striking objection you can find. What do you really view as an important problem?

Beyond asking customers, you can also just do your best to examine the negative cliches in your business. For the above example (dentists), it’s a big cliche that everyone hates the dentist because it’s uncomfortable or painful.

Take a mechanic: we know they’re supposed to be kind of “shysters” who will sell you things you don’t need (like a new Johnson Rod for $500!) – the cliche is that they aren’t trustworthy, but this mechanic puts all his marketing on trust to help curb that pain, and it sells!

Find your customers biggest pain. Start by making a list of all the problems consumers have in your business, and then decide on which one you think is the most powerful.

Maybe the pain is “shipping is expensive”, so you decide to go full-out on saying that you offer “free shipping”. Sure, maybe your competitors offer free shipping too, but by consistently reinforcing yourself as the company with free shipping, customers start to emotionally align you with that concept – this type of alignment causes familiarity, and more importantly sales!

Get your pens and keyboards out – and start listing!