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TABLE OF CONTENTS
How to Identify Customer Needs and Wants
Stop guessing! Learn effective methods and questions for true customer discovery. Understand how to identify customer needs and wants through insightful conversations.
View our related series on Positioning and Messaging (Toggle For More)
Messaging & Positioning Template
• Intro: (i) The Positioning Pyramid; (ii) 5 Expert Tips
• Needs: (i) Customer Unmet Needs; (ii) Persona Worksheet; (iii) Discover Needs
• Niche: (i) Ideal Client & (ii) Ideal Client Worksheet
• Differentiator: (i) Differentiators & (ii) Value Proposition Worksheet
• Category: Market Category
Overcoming Objections
• Proof
• Workflow Redesign
• Offers
Strategic Learning
• Clarify: Copy Testing
• Discover: Discover Needs; Use channel partners
• Validate: Customer Validation;
• Questions: 4 key questions (quick start)
• Scale: Smart Feedback
Why Understanding Needs is Step Zero
You have an idea, perhaps even a prototype, but do you truly know what your potential customers need and want?
Skipping the crucial step of deep customer discovery is a common pitfall. You might build something nobody uses or craft marketing messages that fall flat, simply because you haven't genuinely understood the problems and desires of your target audience.
Guesswork is expensive. Real conversations are invaluable. While market research reports and analytics offer broad strokes, digging into the specifics requires direct interaction.
This guide focuses on how to identify customer needs and wants effectively through structured conversations, often referred to as sales or customer discovery. Getting this right is the foundation upon which successful products and marketing campaigns are built.
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The Goal is Understanding, Not Selling (Yet!)
The primary aim of this phase is to listen and learn. You're seeking to validate or disprove your initial hypotheses about customer problems and motivations. While this often happens during early sales interactions, the immediate goal isn't closing a deal, but rather gaining deep insight.
Think of it this way: spend the majority of your initial interactions (around 50-75%) purely on discovery – understanding their world – before you even think about pitching your solution.
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Asking the Right Questions to Identify Needs
Uncovering and validating core unmet needs is the heart of the discovery process. We explored this in depth in prior posts in the series, and now we've got a set of questions to help you dig into these needs. Your goal is to move beyond surface-level statements and uncover the deeply felt, often unmet, needs.
Tip
The following questions provide a framework, but make them your own. Reword them, combine them, or change the order so they feel natural within your conversational style and suit your specific audience. Authenticity matters more than sticking rigidly to a script. This takes practice, but genuine interactions yield better insights.
Question 1: Prioritize Unmet Needs — the Foundation for Your Entire Discovery
Don't just ask what's important; ask where they are actively seeking help or improvement.
A problem isn't truly a problem for your business unless the customer is actively looking for a better way to solve it.
The discussion starts broad to make sure you quickly cover lots of ground. It can be a mistake to narrow in too deeply in the beginning and miss an incredibly important and meaningful area for your target market.
- Question Example: "Regarding [TOPIC], What are the top 1-3 priorities or goals where you feel you need more help or improvement right now?"
Tip
Since this question can be quite broad, I recommend narrowing it down to a topic that you are confident is relevant to both you and your audience. The topic can range from “your professional life or work” to something more specific, such as “serving a specific customer category like high-net-worth donors.”
- Follow-up: If they list many things, ask them to rate each from 1-5 to identify one area to focus on.
- Foundation for your discovery: Focus your subsequent questions below on the highest priority area area: (a) they desire change; and (b) you feel is most relevant to the need or solution you’re working on.
Question 2: Uncover Limitations of Current Solutions
Tip
It is worth reiterating that all the questions here are focused on the top item you uncovered in Question 1. The goal is to delve deeper into the area they consider most important to them and most relevant to you. This will help you gain richer insights that you can later use in the validation session or to rework your offering.
Most potential customers are already using something to address their needs, even if it's a makeshift workaround. Understanding the flaws in their current approach reveals opportunities.
- Question Example: "What are the biggest unresolved frustrations or limitations with the top ways you’re addressing this need today?"
- Follow-up: ”What are the top steps or strategies you’re taking to address this need today? Roughly how much time or money do those involve?” This confirms it's a real, felt need. Note down specific steps in their workflow, tools, or methods they mention. Dig deeper if possible to understand the root causes of their dissatisfaction and the biggest bottlenecks in what they’re doing today.
Red Flag
Furthermore, as we discussed in customer unmet needs, problems that are not actively being solved today might imply these are not actually urgent or pressing.
If you’re finding this to be a widespread phenomenon in your segment, this is a major reason to not pursue your chosen problem.
Question 3: Quantify the Stakes
Understand why this need matters.
What happens if this need is not addressed? What's the potential upside or “dream outcome” they can get if it is?
This reveals whether this is a truly core problem in their life.
- Question Example: "Thinking about [the priority area mentioned], what are the consequences if that doesn't improve?”
- Follow-up: Gently probe for specifics where appropriate. Understanding specific wealth, health, or emotional / social costs of inaction is crucial:
- What do you think would be the specific dollar value impact if this isn’t solved? Why?
- What would be the tangible benefit if you could solve [the priority area] effectively?
- Identify success targets: “What are specific success
C) Going Deeper Into Needs (Optional)
If time allows, explore these related areas for richer context:
Question 4: Define Success and the Current Reality
Once you understand the significance of the problem (the stakes), it is crucial to clarify what success looks like from the customer's perspective and where they stand now. This helps define the gap your solution might bridge.
- Ask about the Success State: "Thinking about achieving your goals in [the priority area], are there key metrics or outcomes you're aiming for? How did you decide on that target?
- Determine the Current State: "Given that target, where would you say you are right now in achieving it?"
- Identify Urgency/Timeline: "Is there a specific timeframe or deadline by which you need to see progress or reach that goal?"
Clearly understanding the gap between the customer's current state and their desired (and necessary) future state, along with any time pressure, helps you precisely position your solution's value and urgency.
Question 5: The "Magic Wand" Question
This helps uncover deeper aspirations and potential unmet needs your current solution might not address, offering insights for future development and differentiation.
- Question Example: "If you had a magic wand and could instantly have the perfect solution or support for [the problem area], what would that look like? What capabilities or help would be most game-changing for you?"
This question encourages thinking beyond current limitations and can reveal breakthrough opportunities or confirm if your ultimate vision aligns with their desires.
Streamlining with Pre-Interview Surveys
To make your live conversation time more efficient, consider sending a short survey beforehand.
- Content: Include multiple-choice questions based on your initial research and hypotheses about their needs, current solutions, and priorities.
- Benefit: This allows you to gather baseline data quickly, freeing up conversation time for deeper probing into the most critical areas identified in the survey responses. It helps you focus your questions effectively.
Tip
Even if they don't fill it out beforehand, briefly running through key multiple-choice questions at the start of the call can structure the conversation efficiently.
For specific guidance on this approach
Summary: Core Needs Discovery Questions
Question | Question Example |
Unmet Prioritize improvement areas, not just importance | What are the top priorities or goals you’re looking for more help or improvement? If they share a large list, ask them to rate each from 1-5 in terms of areas of help desired, and focus the rest on the top item. |
Core Quantify the stakes | What are some of the consequences on your finances if this isn’t addressed? What about your clients / community? Where it feels natural in this or future conversations, get at specific numbers and how they derived them. |
Challenges Uncover deep-seated limitations of their current solutions. | What outstanding challenges keep you searching for better solutions? What’s most not working about your current solutions? If they share a large list, ask them to rate each from 1-5 in terms of areas of help desired, and focus the rest on the top item. See if they’ve actually spent resources trying to solve the problem to confirm this is a real problem. Often they’ll share specific solutions; make sure you get specific names and costs. |
ㅤ | [Optional] Going Deeper (time permitting) |
Urgent Identify current solutions and workarounds — and their costs. | What are you doing to address this need today? Name specific strategies, tools, and workarounds How much time or money are you spending on (solutions mentioned above)? |
Channels Sources of learning | Where did you learn about the specific tools or workarounds above? Provide specific names. Name specific publications, communities, conferences, organizations, or thought leaders to find solutions to these types of needs. |
Conclusion: The Foundation for Everything Else
Thoroughly identifying customer needs and wants is not just a preliminary step; it's the bedrock of a successful product or service.
By asking the right questions, listening intently to the language your customers use, and understanding the true nature and severity of their problems, you build the essential foundation needed before moving on to validating your specific solution.
Only once you truly understand the need can you effectively test if your proposed value resonates.
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