What I think that I want and what I really want sometimes are very different. So, your customers may think about one thing and want a totally different thing.
What you think that I want is different from what I really want. The same is with your customers.
This happens if you don’t know the core of my needs.
This is a true problem for small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and especially marketers.
Why Are We Customers to Specific Businesses?
If I went to a coffee shop to drink a cup of coffee, I didn’t go there because of the coffee, although in some cases, the coffee quality can be a reason. However, I can go to drink coffee everywhere around me. I can go to drink a coffee with my friends. I can drink coffee at my home or in my office. But, the real reason why I go to the coffee shop is to escape the daily routine and see persons with which I want to see and make a conversation.
If we take clothing as another example, we cannot say that we need cloth because it is inappropriate to go naked. Probably, it is one and most basic reason. However, we don’t use that reason today, and we don’t buy clothes because of that reason. We want and need clothes that will look great on our bodies. Sometimes we want something fashioned. Sometimes we buy some type of clothes because it will show our personality in a greater way.
As you can see from these two examples, there are much more customers’ needs than only one.
What if the Real Needs of Your Customers Still Don’t Exist?
Sometimes the real needs even don’t exist, and your job is to create them if you want your business to succeed.
Stop for the moment, and start thinking about all of your products. What are the customer’s needs that you will need to satisfy your customers?
Tips to Brainstorm Different Customer’s Needs
Now, let’s go one by one with the tips that can help you to brainstorm as much as possible different needs that your current or potential customers have:
- Start with their public saying about what they want. Ask them when they buy from you. Use surveys. Talk to your current customers.
- Make a list of their public wants.
- Try to be in their mind. What will you want when you dress in their shoes?
- Continue with your thinking about what they want.
- Make a questionnaire and ask them what they really want.
- Analyze their answer and go much deeper to find all possible hidden needs.
- Talk with your customers about their biggest frustrations and dreams. There you can find many hidden real needs.
- Ask your sales team about their experience with your customers.
- Make a list of their hidden needs that you find from questionnaires, your direct conversation, and your sales team.
- Study your list from this exercise, and prioritize their needs.
- Implement the findings into your products and services, but be sure that implementation goes according to the priorities.
