Understanding Emotional Triggers Behind Customer Pain Points

Are you bringing a knife to your client’s emotional gunfight? If only “better” or “more” information was the answer to making emotional decisions, life would be easier. Instead, decisions are made in the messy middle between emotion, identity, and intuition. In my latest Barron's Advisor podcast, Daniel Crosby, Ph.D., Chief Behavioral Officer at Orion and author of The Soul of Wealth, explained why logic rarely wins the day—and what financial advisors can do to guide clients more effectively through uncertainty, volatility, and emotional bias. Here are 3 key takeaways: ➡️ 1. Logic Without Relationship Is Useless Advisors often lead with data—thinking a well-reasoned chart or Monte Carlo projection will move the needle. But if your client didn’t use logic to form a belief, they’re not going to use logic to change it either. In fact, it may backfire. 🔥 Recommendation: Don’t lead with the math. Lead with empathy, trust, and alignment. Spend time validating the emotion behind the client’s viewpoint before presenting alternative perspectives. Only when rapport is established does the logic start to matter. ➡️ 2. Help Clients Bend, Not Break When clients are anxious, they want to act. Rather than forcing them to do nothing, Daniel suggests offering small “behavioral relief valves” that help clients feel in control without compromising their long-term plans. 🔥 Recommendation: Offer tools like a safety bucket, a small “cheat day” trading account, or a 24-hour waiting period before acting on an impulse. These allow clients to feel agency while staying on course. ➡️ 3. Social Media Warps Our Financial Reference Points Clients often compare themselves to the airbrushed, curated versions of others they see online. That comparison creates unnecessary dissatisfaction and misaligned goals. “Who you compare yourself to is a better predictor of contentment than how much money you have.” 🔥 Recommendation: Help clients re-anchor their definition of success around personal values and life goals—not external benchmarks. Use storytelling, vision exercises, or legacy planning to shift the frame. 💪 Bonus Insight: Money Is More Emotional Than Sex, Death, or Politics Daniel cited FMRI studies showing that money conversations light up more areas of the brain than even the most taboo topics. That’s a signal, not a glitch. Advisors who ignore this emotional intensity miss the heart of the conversation. 🔥 Recommendation: Train your team to recognize emotional cues, slow down at key moments, and reframe technical content in more human, values-based language. Questions for Financial Advisors: ✅  Do you build emotional rapport before offering financial advice? ✅  Are your planning tools designed to help clients bend without breaking? ✅  How are you helping clients break free from distorted comparisons? What resonated most with you from these insights? See comments for the link to the show.

One of the fun parts of starting a new job is getting to ask “Why” a thousand times a day.* Why is this our strategy? Why is this our target customer? Why choose this problem? Why do we believe this market is big enough? Why do we believe our solution is differentiated? Lean Startup Canvas is a handy tool to remind ourselves of the kinds of questions to ask. If there are questions about revenue model, market size, or similar “what needs to be true for this to be big enough, and how confident are we that those assumptions can become true one day”, I like to model out all of those assumptions, and then see which we need to de-risk.* If there are questions about what customer we want to target, what Jobs To Be Done we want them to hire us for, what would make us a differentiated solution, I like to turn to generative research. This starts with recruiting 6-10 people who 1) have no prior relationship with me or anyone at the company, 2) are likely to represent the kind of customer we would focus on. Then, we should interview them with open ended questions that stay within the context of our focus area. And don’t sleep on the power of ethnographic research, diary studies, card sorting exercises, etc. Let them take us to where they want to go, what’s on their mind, what feelings do they have. What we’re hunting for are flare ups of emotion that can reveal a worthy pain point. These are subtle — an edge to their voice that lasts half a sentence, a big sigh or rolling of the eyes, a shaking of the head. We’re fully present during these interviews, because these moments are easy to miss. When we see those moments, we pounce. “Can you say more about that?” “How does that make you feel?” “How do you deal with that today?” These are the nuggets of gold that can lead us to a problem worthy of Product Market Fit, if we can validate that the problem is 1) wide spread enough, 2) solvable in a differentiated way, and 3) can be monetized sufficiently. What we absolutely must not do is pretend we’re doing generative research but actually we’re user testing solutions we already have in mind. Evaluative user testing is a great and under-utilized tool, but it’s not the same thing. If we go looking for proof that we are right, we’re pretty likely to find it because human brains are great at confirmation bias. Don’t: “What if I presented you with this solution, that could do x, y, z. Would you use it?” Do: “You mentioned [problem hypothesis]. Tell me about the last time [problem hypothesis] happened. What was it like? What did you do? How did it make you feel?” We’ll get to the solution design soon enough, but until we have confidence and clarity about what problem we want to solve, any solutions we do build are hard to evaluate.* —————— *If you’re interested in reading the footnotes as well as my work-in-progress thoughts (today: “good and cheap” > “great and expensive”), sign up for my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/g44P3_rB

A B2B brand leader recently told me that their customers only make logical decisions, not emotional ones. 🚫 Sorry — wrong answer. Research repeatedly shows that B2B customers are significantly MORE emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than B2C consumers are. And B2B purchasers are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service when they see PERSONAL value in the purchase. If this data surprises you, think of it this way: Your customer has a lot at stake. When was the last time somebody got fired for buying the wrong jar of peanut butter? A whole lot of emotional energy is invested B2B purchase decisions — because there's a whole lot of emotional pressure on your customer to get them right. Their personal and professional reputation — and maybe even the next step in their career path — is directly tied to choosing or advocating for your brand as a smart business choice. So think about your B2B buyer's emotional triggers: 👉 Relieving pain is the biggest purchase motivator there is. What pain do you solve for your customer? What emotion will replace the pain they feel? Is it confidence? Peace of mind? Joy? Relief? Name it. 👉 How do you support their aspirations and desires? How will you make your customer look like a hero to their boss? Are you helping them save big money, or permanently solve a pestering business problem? Put a name on the upside they get, too. 👉 How are you alleviating their fears and anxieties? Promoting any new solution comes with inherent personal and professional risks. Be clear on how they can measure performance, and demonstrate it up the food chain. Create opportunities for quick wins as well as long-term success. If you can communicate how your brand fulfills your B2B customers' emotional needs as well as their functional ones, they are going to be far more likely to stick their neck out for you — and your close rate will go WAY up. #b2b #brandstrategy #buyers #branding #leadership

Often marketers chase messaging templates as though it will unpack a holy grail. As far as I know, most templates out there will do a fine job. However, it is vital to excel at articulating customer pain. Let me explain with an example from my domain: In vulnerability management, it’s easy to confuse operational challenges with true pain points. Let’s break this down. We often hear from our customers say: “𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴.” This feels like a pain point. It seems like they are describing a visceral and recurring challenge. But in reality this is just a surface problem. Teams are overwhelmed, but why does this matter? What’s the deeper impact? The real pain point looks like: “𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴, 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘷𝘶𝘭𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴.” Alternatively: “𝘊𝘐𝘚𝘖𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴.” Often as marketers we are advised to use the same language as our customers but IMO that’s not always correct. First, if you ask what are your pain points, a prospect will never tell you. Second, it is much easier to describe the process than think of words to describe the pain. So as marketers, here are a few questions to ask to uncover pain points (it may be different for you based on your industry). 1/ Explain how you do this today 2/ How do you feel after each cycle 3/ What’s the impact of status quo Through these questions we are simply trying to get to the heart of their pain and understand the consequences. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘵 And so on.. In a nutshell, use any messaging framework, you will be ok but don’t skim on the due diligence to identify and go deeper on the pain because having the right emotions will separate you from the pack.

A few years ago, one of our important clients informed our client success team that they decided to leave for a competitor. They were able to get me a conversation with the main contact to debrief on the decision. After we exchanged pleasantries, I asked him what drove the decision. “We just weren’t seeing the ROI, so we decided it was time to try another solution.” 🤔 Logic.  After acknowledging/thanking him for his answer, I asked: 👉 "One morning, you woke up, got to work, and decided 'That's it! Time to start evaluating alternatives.' What was that trigger?" 👈 After he hesitated, he answered that he felt we acted more like a vendor than a partner. He told a story that represented that opinion. (About a time when he called with a problem, and our client success team member responded by basically suggesting that the problem would have never happened in the first place if they’d taken our advice on purchasing an add-on solution months earlier) 😢 Feeling. Emotion. Amazingly helpful for us to learn from. (I thanked him profusely for sharing) The sales world has known for 100 years that, as Antonio Damasio says, “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think” In other words, we make decisions in the feeling center of our brain, then justify it with logic, not the other way around. This isn’t news. Yet - when a customer or team member makes a decision on something and informs you of that decision, we accept the logical explanation as the reason. Don't stop at the "logic", get to the "feeling".

If there’s a disconnect between what your company says customers care about most …   And what your customers actually say …   The reason can usually be summed up in two words …   Internal Beliefs.   Many business leaders tell me their organizations struggle to bridge this gap.   That’s because they’ve fallen into the Inside/Out Trap.   Companies fall into the Inside/Out Trap when their marketing strategy is based on their own assumptions rather than spending the time listening to their customers.   And that trap almost always explains why companies and their customers are not in sync.   A client who had acquired RV rental parks in Arizona and turned them into luxury RV condominium resorts, was experiencing soft sales despite an influx of motivated empty nesters gravitating to the Southwest.   The developer assumed the #1 customer problem was escaping brutal winters in the Midwest or Northeast. So, their marketing strategy was focused on selling the advantages of Arizona.   The problem was customers weren’t paying attention.   An entire year and lots of money were wasted before, in desperation, the company reached out for help.   We conducted Emotional Trigger Research to uncover the emotions that were driving potential customers’ decisions.   In turned out they were already sold on Arizona.   They had no interest in a marketing campaign better suited for the Arizona Tourist Bureau.   What they wanted help with was finding the right SPECIFIC place to live.   When the marketing strategy pivoted 180º to focusing on the unique lifestyle and tax benefits of this RV condominium resort, there was a dramatic jump in sales.   The disconnect could have been avoided if this company had:   1️⃣𝐀𝐝𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞/𝐈𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 to understanding potential customers   2️⃣𝐀𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 to gain insights into customer priorities   3️⃣𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐯𝐚𝐬 free of internal assumptions   When customers are asked open-ended questions with no pre-existing assumptions…   They’ll literally give you the roadmap for how to win their business.    Infographic: Ogilvy on X     Ring the 🔔 on my profile to follow Linda Goodman for marketing strategy and business development content.   #MarketingStrategy #Sales #BusinessDevelopment #EmotionalTriggerResearch #CEO #Leadership

Sales strategies often focus on logic—features, benefits, ROI. But here’s the truth: buying decisions are emotional before they are rational. Think about the last big decision you made. Did you analyze every single variable first, or did you go with what felt right? Customers do the same. Their emotions shape their choices, and understanding this can transform the way we sell. The Emotional Triggers Behind Every Buying Decision - Trust & Security – Customers don’t buy when they feel uncertain. Confidence in a brand, salesperson, or solution makes all the difference. - Urgency & Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) – Limited-time offers work because they trigger the fear of regret. - Relief & Simplicity – If a product removes stress or complexity, the emotional appeal is immediate. - Excitement & Aspiration – People buy based on who they want to become or the success they envision. How Sales Strategies Can Tap into Emotions 1) Listen to the Emotional Tone Behind Words A prospect saying, “We’re struggling with this issue” isn’t just giving you data—they’re revealing stress, frustration, or even fear. Address that emotion before pitching a solution. 2) Sell the Transformation, Not Just the Product Instead of listing technical features, paint a picture: "Imagine closing deals faster, reducing friction, and watching your team hit targets effortlessly." Help them feel the impact before they analyze the details. 3) Use Stories, Not Just Data Numbers are important, but people remember stories. "One of our clients struggled with low conversion rates. After implementing our system, their team closed 30% more deals in 90 days. More than the numbers, their salespeople felt confident again." Emotion-Driven Sales Drive Long-Term Success When sales strategies connect on an emotional level, customers don’t just buy—they commit. They trust. They stay. And that’s where sustainable revenue growth happens. Are your sales teams leveraging emotional intelligence in their approach? Let’s explore how to refine your sales strategy for deeper customer connections. Book a free consultation and let’s build a more emotionally intelligent sales process together. Link in the first comment

Not all clients are created equal—but they all share one thing in common: fear. Each type of client presents unique challenges rooted in very human concerns: - Fear of the unknown. - Worry about making mistakes. - Anxiety about implementing Google Ads (Google Partner) and Meta changes without sufficient data. - The constant nagging question: “What if this makes things worse?” These fears aren’t just obstacles—they’re opportunities. As advertisers, our job isn’t just to deliver results but to understand these concerns and guide clients through them. For Challengers, it’s about providing clarity and direction when they’re starting from scratch. For Maturing brands, it’s about building confidence by turning guesswork into measurable progress. Opportunists often need help stabilizing after setbacks, showing them there’s a path forward. And Incumbents? They crave innovation and growth—they just need a partner who can unlock it. Great results come from understanding the emotional drivers behind client decisions.

🎯Have you ever invested blood, sweat, tears & time solving the wrong problem? I just did with a client… 🤦🏻♂️ 1.) What was that experience like? 
2.) How did it feel (for you & the client or team you were working with)? 3.) What could you have done to prevent it? 4.) What questions & assumptions did you make that weren’t accurate… I had done multiple strategic planning sessions w/the client leading up to the event. They’re an awesome client w/an awesome mission. Arrowhead Leadership put together an “EQ201” workshop that I thought would “scratch” their “itch”. (based on my understanding of their challenges at that time) It was the 1st day in the 1st workshop of 2-days of 6 total workshops that I was facilitating. I had my “plan” w/some great break out sessions lined up to maximize group discussion & interaction. I happened to throw out a couple questions that I wasn’t totally expecting the answers to. 🙋🏻♂️1.) “How much time do most of you spend on the phone talking to your clients?” 🙋🏻♂️2.) “What % of the time are your clients emotional when you engage them?” Depending on the department, it was between 40% - 100% of the day was spent on the phone talking w/clients. The % of time those clients were emotional was also 40% of the time to some managers spending 100% of their day talking to emotional clients. Wow… I can only imagine how emotionally exhausting it was to go from emotional phone call to emotional phone call, over & over & over, for hours on end, day after day, week after week. Frustrating, exhausting, draining, sad, lonely, depressing, exasperating, unpredictable & discouraging were all things that I probably would’ve experienced had I worked there on a regular basis had I not had some EQ tools to apply. I would immediately “mirror” the emotions of whoever it was I was speaking with b/c I had no self or social-awareness & no self-management skills. I would feel whatever my friend or client was feeling. In my strategic planning sessions I hadn’t discovered those 2 “minor details”. It was a game changer. My initial plan would’ve scratched the vicinity of their itch, but after those 2 details were discovered, we were able to do some very specific EQ exercises to strengthen, equip & empower those that spent so much time on the phone and those what spent so much time w/emotional clients. 👊🏼 The deliverables: ⭐️1.) EQ Tools for the team to increase their emotional agility, resilience, stability & presence. ⭐️2.) Tools the team could use w/their emotional clients to increase empathy & de-escalate in order to serve them more effectively. I’m so grateful we were able to get a greater understanding of their challenges in that 1st of 6 workshops! Providing practical tools & exercises for leaders & team members to better take care of themselves & their clients & families is so rewarding. 🙋🏻♂️What are some tips you’ve found to completely & fully understand the problem being solved?