The Magic of Customer Interviews

When I'm working on getting a brand new customer, I will ask every potential customer who'll talk to me the same core set of questions.

• What's working well with the company you're buying this from today?
• What's not going well?
• On a scale of one to ten, how delighted are you with the service and experience they provide you?
• What could they do better than they're doing today?

And then using my fifth and final question is:

👉 If you had a magic wand and could solve this problem today, what would the ideal solution look like?

I ask that question because the customer I'm hoping to get is always framing answers in the context of what they buy now. To reference Henry Ford... “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”  The magic wand question helps us arrive at the car, not the faster horse.

 If I’m already buying from you and score you a 7/10; then by naming three things I wish you would incrementally improve - I'm always anchoring my perspective to what you do for me now, not what I would love for you to do for me in the future.

 But don’t stop there. The thing that really helps me is I say:

• “I'm going to fashion all of these learnings into an executive summary report. I'm interviewing 10 or 12 other companies like you. Can I come back and show you it when we're done with the interviews?”

And, of course, most all say yes because they want to know what they're thinking versus what their peers are thinking. So I get a yes nine times out of ten.

Then I follow that with:

• "Is there any company out there you'd like me to interview about this same topic? Somebody you don't feel is a direct competitor, but you'd like to see how they think about this?”

 I’ll typically get two or three introductions to even more people to talk to. So when I come back to them with this executive summary report, I'm coming back to them with a framing that includes much of their magic wand wish that I’m designing in this new product or service offering.

People buy when they see themselves in your picture. That’s what makes this so magical. They’re seeing the four or five points they came up with in my solution.

And when I first go back to them, I'll say:

• “I enjoyed visiting last time. I loved your magic wand answer. I interviewed 10 others. Here's what they had to say. These seven brought up things you did not. Just food for thought. Does that spark anything new in your thinking?

And then I’ll also ask:

• “Based on what I heard, here's what this design looks like. Could you give me feedback?

 And invariably, they're like, "Gosh, I really liked the thing the other seven brought up, I just failed to mention it. I wasn't thinking about it, but it would be amazing if you could do that.”

If you want to do all of the above…

Here’s where you start:

Identify the potential customer, then approach them with:

👉 “You're an expert in this space that I’m studying. I'm considering launching a product that might be a solution, but your expertise would be helpful to know. Is this problem real? Do people care enough to want it solved? Could I get 15 minutes of your time? 

When you position them as the expert, you can ask lots of dumb questions, and it's okay because you've already said, "I'm not the expert. I'm not trying to convince you I know your industry better than you."

 By positioning them as the expert, you don't need a lot of upfront things done. Now, what you have to do is establish this relationship in such a way that you can keep coming back periodically, showing the incremental changes. And that means you have to be super respectful of their time. You've got to give them something they want. And what I've learned over the decades is what prospective customers really want is to know:

How do other companies solve this same problem I’m struggling with?

They're so intrigued by it. They fear missing out if they don't know, so they'll keep meeting with you because you say, "I've identified 15 other people that do what you do. I found some common issues you all face and some of them have some pretty ingenious solutions. Would you give me 15 minutes to hear what they're up to and react to it?”

They’re just compelled to say, “Yes!”

And if you keep the window of time 30 minutes or less, and every time you provide new insight and value, you slowly build a relationship with them.

 At some point, it’s no longer a case that you’re selling them something. You’re working on a solution together. And ultimately, even if they don't buy, they’ll be inclined to refer other potential customers to you because of the experience.