Measuring Pain is More Reliable than Listening to Pain

Stop asking for your client's opinion. Those answers are wrong and will lead you in the wrong direction. Instead, find a way to measure action and choices. This isn’t my opinion. It’s backed by science. And it was a guiding belief for Steve Jobs.

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Steve Jobs, 1998

The famous Steve Jobs quote is in response to a question Business Week asked him about the design of the original iMac. More than a decade earlier, Jobs had a run-in with a focus group.

The iconic 1984 Super Bowl ad almost never ran. The focus group flunked it. Then the Apple board of directors pulled funding for the ad. What is one of the best ads in history almost never ran because of an opinion from the voice of the client.

Solving the client pain is all about finding the words and the solution they can’t find on their own. They don’t know the answers.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” – Henry Ford

A recent guest on the Leaders & Legacies podcast said you are either selling opportunity or the removal of pain. Apple’s legendary success comes from figuring out the pains people want solved when they couldn’t express what they wanted.

Shouldn’t You Talk to the Client?

Absolutely listen to the client. Absolutely ask questions. But be careful about the questions you ask.

When you ask the wrong questions, your problem isn’t bad data. Your problem is corrupt data that will lead you to the wrong decisions. Such as the focus group recommending against Apple’s 1984 commercial.

When you understand the pain, you create revolutionary products. The iMac for example… the Model T for example.

The challenge is figuring out the client’s pain.

You should start with interviews. But the next step is critical.

Measure – Don’t Ask

Measuring action is always more reliable than asking questions. 95% of decisions are made in the limbic system at lightning speed. People don’t understand why they make those decisions. They just do. This is proven science.

They ran an experiment in the 1960s to treat epilepsy patients. In that experiment they severed the connective tissue between the left and right brain. It was those experiments where scientists started realizing that people don’t really know why they make most of their decisions.

So, if folks don’t know why they made their decision, why would you ask them?

If you’re going to tap into the decision core of the brain, then you need to measure actions instead of asking questions. Here is one way of doing that.

A Test Audience is Available and Cheap

Facebook is a great platform for measuring pains. And yes, it works for B2B as well. There is a surprising opportunity for B2B on Facebook, and you can read more about that in an earlier newsletter, The Missed Opportunity of High-Ticket B2B Facebook Ads.

Start by strategizing the top pains you believe your client has based on client interviews. Then have those pains compete for clicks. The pain that gets the highest click-through ratio over 1000 impressions wins.

In this setup, you’re measuring action which is driven from the limbic system in the brain. It gives you the most reliable answers. And the winning pain will almost always surprise you.

Once you test the pains, then test benefits and challenges. For about $1500 you can have reliable insights on pains, benefits, and challenges from 15,000 impressions. And this data is more reliable than answers that come from client interviews.

Get Started

Don’t assume you know your clients’ pains. Sure, you’re starting from an informed position. Start with client interviews. Then back up your informed position with hard data.

Reach out if you want to learn more about structuring these tests.

Download our guide on Facebook ads for high-ticket B2B.

Read the newsletter on The Missed Opportunity of High-Ticket B2B Facebook Ads.

Read our blog on Long-Form Facebook Ads and Why They Work.

The strongest growth comes when you know what pains drive the action center of your client’s brains. Structure a test and remove all doubt.