Product Positioning
Understanding Customer Pain: The Secret to B2B SaaS Success
It's easy to focus on the benefits of our products, but, the truth is, customers look for solutions to their problems.
Whenever I ask a b2b SaaS founder to define the pain they solve for their customer, I am almost always met with some form of a benefit.
"We save them time doing xyz."
Or
"We make it easier for XYZ to deal with abc."
These are all excellent things, but they all have one thing in common. They aren't pains.
As b2b SaaS founders, it's easy to focus on the benefits of our products. But the truth is, customers are looking for solutions to their problems. And understanding the pain is key.
One of my favourite questions to ask of my customers, thanks to April Dunford, is, "why do you love us?" The answer to that question will likely be rooted in real pain. And if they give me a benefit, I always dig deeper with simple "why" questions.
Knowing the pain will unlock insights into every aspect of your customer's journey. From the initial demo/trial through onboarding and activation and finally realizing the value they wanted when they first landed on your site.
Once you understand the pain, it's a short jump to the promise. For example, if the pain is "it's too hard to find and hire great talent," the promise could be "great talent is beating down your door, and you have your pick."
Or, if the pain is "it's difficult to integrate our company with our partners," the promise could be "onboard partners easily and automatically." When you know both the pain points and the corresponding benefits, crafting a killer copy is a breeze.
But it's not just about understanding the pain and promise; it's also about understanding their fears and aspirations. What happens if the pain goes unsolved? What keeps them up at night? And on the flip side, what does their business look like if the pain is solved?
So, try this, map out the present state of the pain, promises, and the future state of the fears and aspirations and then look at your current landing page, pricing page, and blog posts through this lens to see any gaps in mapping pain to value.
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