{"id":7518,"date":"2024-05-09T17:20:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tup.kxe.temporary.site\/how-to-turn-your-ideal-customers-pain-points-into-entry-points\/"},"modified":"2024-05-09T17:20:28","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T17:20:28","slug":"how-to-turn-your-ideal-customers-pain-points-into-entry-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/okdesign.ca\/en\/how-to-turn-your-ideal-customers-pain-points-into-entry-points\/","title":{"rendered":"How to turn your ideal customer’s pain points into entry points"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Understanding the \u201centry points\u201d where your ideal customers first experience the acute pains your product or service can solve is critical for marketing success. An entry point is that pivotal moment when a prospective customer feels intense pain from a problem that your solution could instantly alleviate \u2014 if only they were aware it existed.<\/p>\n

Understanding ICP entry points<\/h2>\n

The ideal customer profile (ICP) entry point occurs when your potential customer is experiencing a problem, not when engaging with your sales or marketing efforts. They\u2019re not actively considering your product or seeking to make a purchase; instead, they\u2019re feeling the pain of their current situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Your customer likely experiences this pain frequently, perhaps continuously. For example, they might rely on spreadsheets for dynamic tasks, while you offer tools to automate and add intelligence to these processes. At this moment, when they\u2019re updating the tedious spreadsheet by gathering information from emails and team members to manually produce revised plans and graphs, your solution needs to come to mind. So, why don\u2019t you come to mind?<\/p>\n

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The workshop format for defining entry points<\/h2>\n

Creating your entry point map can be an enjoyable team-building activity that yields impactful results. Start by gathering key stakeholders internally. This group should encompass members from various departments, including marketing, particularly product marketing, product management, customer success, implementation services, sales management and enablement, sales engineering and a few top-performing sales representatives. Each person should possess both an instinctive and organized grasp of your ideal customers.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Define your ICP and buyer persona\u00a0<\/h3>\n

This is its own detailed process and must be completed before entry points. Here are some MarTech articles to help you with the process:<\/p>\n

Step 2: Articulate triggers<\/h3>\n

Bring the whole group together and ask each individual to write down exactly seven triggers and why these cause pain to the customer.\u00a0Triggers can be big events (i.e., regulations, competitive pressures, restructures, new processes, etc.) or smaller, personal activities (i.e., updating spreadsheets, tracking processes or data, manual reporting, calling customers, etc.). These triggers should be the source of pain that your customer is feeling and that your solution can help remedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the end, each person has two minutes to present their seven triggers. It\u2019s a great time to put sticky notes on the whiteboard. Interrogate each response and ask, \u201cIs this really a thing?\u201d Be direct and swift, and keep the conversation honest.\u00a0By the fourth person, these should begin to be redundant. Prioritize the list to the top three. Divide everyone into three groups \u2014 one for each of the selected triggers.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Journey mapping<\/h3>\n

For the next 90 minutes, each group focuses on their assigned trigger and articulates the customer journey in great detail. This is a great time to \u201ccall a friend\u201d \u2014 perhaps a customer or a customer success rep to get a more detailed view of the customer\u2019s real-life experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this step, account for every bit of the entry point journey and all the meta information about the journey. For example:<\/p>\n