Back to School: Worst Questions to Ask Your Potential Customers

It has been awhile since the last edition of Student 2 Startup, but I am excited to say that I am back and more excited than ever (perfect in time for this back to school season). Over this time though, I have been thinking about how to revamp it to give you the best content, support, and lessons I can possibly provide. Obviously any suggestions, let me know too!

What’s on the horizon:

• Newsletter drops every Sunday to your inbox with lessons, case studies, and insights to get you from student to startup

• New content in a variety of forms (but more about that later)

• More support offerings and Q&As to support you on your journey

Let me know what is on your mind, or if there is something that can help you get where you want to go on this journey of entrepreneurship.

If you are new to the newsletter, every week or so I try to answer a reader generated question. And, this is one I appreciate!

Getting customer data is essential, I would argue from as early as possible. But often times, we ask the wrong questions or good questions to the wrong people. Let’s tackle the former with a few examples and how to better reframe these:

1. “Do you face [X problem]?

Firstly, this is a yes or no question. You never want a yes or no question if you are looking for a depth of answer.

When we want to dig deeper into customer behavior, we want to ask questions that allow them to input their insights, not just cut off the conversation at a simple yes or no. (That is surface level stuff!) The biggest predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Instead ask, “When you faced [X problem] in the past, what did you do?” or “How did you solve [X problem] in the past?”

Now you can understand how they combatted the issue by seeing their previous behavior and actions.

2. “Would you use this?”

People are unreliable, point blank. With a hypothetical like this, they may just give you a flippant answer. (Usually based on however they are felling!) If you base your business off this question, it can lead to expensive and timely mistakes.

Rather, ask something along the lines of, “What is the biggest roadblock you have that keeps you from achieving [goal or success]?”

This allows the customer to mentally prioritize the problems they face and highlight with you the one that is their most pressing and top of mind. (And they might share a hurdle you did not think about or rank high in your assumptions.)

3. “Do you use [X product, service, or alternative to your startup]?

Though we want to know about their current processes or what they are using, this pigeonholes them into an answer.

For example, if I was building an accounting software, I may ask, do you use Xero? They would say yes or no (which we know is not great in giving customer bandwidth to share what they care about….) They may say no—and I think great! They don’t use a competitor. But actually they say no because they use Excel or a book keeper… (but see, you did not ask them that question.)

Ask instead, “What tools or processes do you currently use to solve [X problem]?”

Now we have an opening to understand their processes and the variety of tools (fit for purpose or not) that they are using to tackle this issue.

4. “How much would you pay for this?”

Once again, people may not think fully about the answer to this question and just say a number. (And that number may be higher or lower than you think!) If you are building a service or a product they use or buy quite regularly, they may already have a benchmark in mind.

Ask, “How much does [X problem] cost you or your business?”

Problems cost money. But, this money may be trickling across various places for example, individuals may pay consultants, service providers, and products to solve the problem.

If I am developing an HR platform, someone may have a full time HR assistant, software, and training, that costs $$$ whereas my solution would replace all of these. If I only asked about their HR software, I would only get a slice of the total cost of the problem. And, if you are anchoring your price in value-based pricing, understanding the total cost of the problem is critical.

5. “What features would you want?”

Now, you can investigate features without giving them broad and wide range like this. People may put on their wizard hat and ask for all the features in the world with a question like this. (And I do not think any of you are Harry Potter just yet..)

Ask, “Which of these features is most important to you and why?”

Now, you have a list of the features boundaried or share with them before they answer, and they give you a ranking of what is most important to them. With this information, you can start tracking the patterns of what is a need to have, versus what is a nice to have. And, we leave it open with that ‘why’ to give us insights on the reasoning of their ranking.

Constructing Quality Questions Takes Practice.

These are a few common examples I see when it comes to asking rookie questions—I know I have been there too. Let me know what questions have worked for you (or any flops-because trust me, all great entrepreneurs have plenty of flops.)

Do you have a question you’d like to submit? I would love to hear about your own QoD here, and it may be answered in a subsequent edition!

Thanks for reading! My goal is to make this as practical as possible for you. If this has been useful to you or if you have feedback to improve, please drop me a quick line by hitting reply or drop a comment. Or don’t hesitate to share this edition with a friend!