Ask your customer questions about their business and where it’s going. Focus on collecting information relevant to what, why and how customers buy from you. In addition, you also need to share this with the marketing department. (If you don’t have one, then you are the marketing department.)
I’ve divided up 16 customer questions into two categories – questions to learn more about your customers and questions to learn more about their perceptions of you.
8 questions to learn more about your customers:
- What are some major trends occurring within your industry right now?
- How is your competitive landscape changing?
- What value do you get from being a member of the <industry> Association?
- Who is the guru of your industry?
- What are the ways you use LinkedIn to help you in business?
- Which social media platforms do you use for business? Why?
- What future plans are you most excited about?
- How can we make doing business with you easier?
8 customer questions to discover their perceptions about you:
- What made you choose us over our competitors?
- How would you describe the benefits of using our products/services?
- What projects do you have coming up where we might need to be involved?
- Which search terms would you use to find a company like ours?
- What would you tell a colleague about your experience working with us?
- Who else do you know who might benefit from our services?
- Who else in your organization do you recommend that I get to know? Why?
- What is the best way for me to get connected with decision-makers/influencers in your industry?
Use these questions to stay ahead of your competition. They are working hard to replace you as the preferred vendor. As you acquire more information from your customers, you’ll begin to see buying patterns and more clearly defined value propositions that you can use with future prospects.