Great question came in yesterday about how to identify the ‘localized pain’ of your target client.

The simple answer: just ask them.

I’ll explain - and since we’re talking about pain, let’s imagine you’re a doctor:

A patient comes to you because something doesn’t feel right.

They may not know what the root cause is…

(Though they may have tried to self-diagnose…)

They may not know what the remedy is…

(Though they may have tried to self-treat…)

In fact, they’re very possibly coming to you in the first place because trying to take care of it themselves has not worked.

However, what they do know, intimately and exclusively, is what their pain feels like in the moment.

Only after they tell you what hurts can you leverage your expertise to diagnose the root cause and offer a remedy.

Let’s put this in our context.

You’re an expert in your domain (people ops, product strategy, sales coaching, etc.)

You’re aware of common problems that teams or individuals in your domain have.

You’ve worked through many of them firsthand or via work with prior clients.

All in all, you’re a well-educated and experienced ‘doctor’ of your domain.

But you can’t go out handing out prescriptions to people on the street, assuming you know what’s wrong with them.

Rather, there’s an entire population out there of teams and individuals in acute pain.

Perhaps from problems you’re aware or. Or perhaps some that you aren’t.

Either way, you can likely leverage your expertise to diagnose and help them.

If you just ask them what hurts.

One of the most effective ways to do this is through 'market discovery' conversations.

These are informal conversations you have with people in your network that are either within your ideal client profile (ICP), or tangential to it.

Importantly, you should frame invites to these conversations as purely informational.

Having a conversation outside of a sales context allows the person to speak freely without feeling like they're about to get sold to...

And also allows you to focus on listening for pain points rather than formulating a commercial solution.

This doesn't need to be complicated, just ask:

• What’s your biggest pain point these days?
• What have you done so far to try to resolve it?
• What happens if this continues?

Then, you just listen.

💡

-Wes