How to Keep Client Pain Points Top of Mind

On #WorkingWithClients | I employ something called a 3 to 1 ratio when working with clients. When a client asks me a question, I have to ask three clarifying questions before I give one response. This does three things: 1.) It slows my processor down. My initial inclination is to solve the client's problem. And boy, does my mind race with all types of plausible solutions. Utilizing the 3 to 1 method helps me self-regulate my excited emotional state while not triggering that of the clients. 2.) Over the years, I've learned that hearing the client and listening to the client are separate activities. When I hear my clients, my biases and interpretations of what they say usually get in the way of my judgment. When I listen to the client, I navigate an empathetic process to deliver a compassionate solution. 3.) Lastly, compassion can only happen when I genuinely understand and feel the spirit of my client's needs. I can only do this effectively by asking follow-up questions that allow us to get closer to the truth about my client's situation. Remember, story truth and factual truth can be the same to the client because they are speaking to the emotion of their experience. I aim to work from story truth to factual truth and back to story truth again. Where does this come from? When I worked at LaGrange College (circa 2008/2009), our college President, Dan McAlexander, gave a presentation on engaging dissonance. He used the metaphor of peeling the onion to identify friction points in the workplace—we could only understand and solve a problem by understanding it two to three levels beneath the surface. Given my role working with families and students, it made sense to treat them in the same manner. I haven't looked back since and have encouraged thousands of young financial professionals to do the same. Cheers! Dr. Thomas

I get it—closing deals is exciting. No one likes to close deals more than I do. You hit your quota, ring the bell, everyone claps. But here’s the thing: It's a marathon, not a sprint. If all you care about is closing, you’re setting yourself up for long term failure. 💼 Being successful in SaaS sales (any sales for that matter) is about how well you solve problems. If you’re pushing for a close before understanding what your customer really needs, you’re basically just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks. I've been working with client looking to figure out why their churn rate is skyrocketing. Not to be a spoiler, but it turns out that they are much more interested in closing a deal than they are in helping their clients solve a real problem. Churn = slow, painful death. Here’s what I had to tell them—and what I tell every sales rep who thinks closing deals is the end-all-be-all: 1. Listen More Than You Talk - You've got 2-ears and 1-mouth for a reason - I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen salespeople talk themselves out of a deal. Just shut up and listen. They’ll give you the answers to the test. Your job isn’t to rattle off features or recite your product demo—it’s to identify the pain points and offer a solution. For my client, this was a game changer. Once they started actually listening to their customers, they could tailor their approach and make the sale a lot more smoothly. This also makes customer retention easier too. 2. Qualify Hard, Disqualify Harder Alex Cramer is the best at this. Not everyone is a fit for your product. The reality is, if you’re pushing deals through just to hit your numbers, you’re going to end up with customers who churn faster than you can onboard them. Churn = slow, painful death. (I should put it on a t-shirt) I worked with this client to focus on the ones who are a great fit. Let's get the "ideal" back in ICP. It’s always better to lose a deal upfront than deal with a churn nightmare down the road. 3. Deliver Value at Every Stage, Not Just at the Proposal So many sales teams act like the only point of the sales process that matters is the proposal stage. This couldn't be more off base. If you’re not delivering value at every touchpoint, you’re basically just throwing in the towel early. The sales team at this client raced to get proposals out the door, but were like robots during the overall sales process. We changed that. We focused on delivering value at every conversation. To be curious and empathetic. Not surprisingly, the deals started closing faster, and the churn rate? Down. Win. Bottom line: If you’re laser-focused on closing without solving, you’re setting yourself up for short-term wins but long-term headaches. SaaS success isn’t about closing—it’s about solving real problems and building lasting relationships. So what’s your secret to shifting from “salesperson” to “problem-solver”? Drop your best tips below! 🛠️👇

I've seen too many enterprise software companies get caught with customers in the 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽: • Promise too much = lose focus • Listen too little = lose trust I was super lucky to have two incredibly product-minded co-founders in Ted and Joshua. Of the many things I learned from them, one that has really stuck with me is that while customers understand their pain points better than anyone, they're not best positioned to solve that pain - they're too close to it and just don't have as many data points across variants of that pain, resulting in a failure of imagination as to the optimal solution. Customer feedback is absolute gold, but that doesn't mean every nugget should get directly translated into the product roadmap. The topic came up during the AMA after our Logicbroker All Hands last week - here's what I shared with my team:  1. 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 - Make sure the customer is heard and build a 3D model of their pain in your head by probing into the granular details of what they're dealing with 2. 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 - Thank them for the feedback and communicate how this will inform related product research as we work towards an optimal solution 3. 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - Have we already solved this pain point, but in a counterintuitive way? Educate the customer on how other clients are successfully handling this today. Encourage them to try it out and share back additional feedback to round out our understanding 4. 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 - Advocate for clients by employing methodologies like RICE (Reach x Impact x Confidence / Effort) to map feedback to prospective projects in a structured way that will automatically reprioritize initiatives as incremental data points are collected over time  5. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝗽 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 - In subsequent client QBRs, share new learnings around initiatives their feedback has matured. Be transparent about where they fall in the company's priorities and update on new related releases that may partially address their original pain point  Valuing customer feedback and protecting the product roadmap are not mutually exclusive. These two goals are inherently intertwined and mutually reinforcing. Building every client request will degrade the product, but ignoring client feedback will also degrade the product - it's a fine balance. Customers don't need a 'yes' - they need to be able to trust that you're listening and leading with purpose.