Understanding the Importance of Your Client’s "Why"
Understanding why clients make decisions allows professionals to deliver more relevant solutions and stronger client experiences. Learn how to uncover client motivations.
Clients don’t just purchase products or services—they seek solutions to their problems from trusted providers. To stand out from competitors and build long-term relationships, it's crucial to fully understand your client’s “Why”—the core reason they need your service in the first place.
In this BD Tips Wednesday post, we’ll explore proven strategies to uncover your client’s "Why" and leverage this insight to drive business growth, customer loyalty, and conversions.
How to Discover Your Client’s "Why"
Uncovering client insights takes time, strategic effort, and active listening. By understanding your clients' motivations, you can offer tailored solutions that enhance customer satisfaction and increase instructions. Here are some effective strategies:
1. Engage in Meaningful Conversations
Customer engagement is key to discovering their needs. Use multiple touchpoints like:
✅ Social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) – Engage in industry discussions and polls.
✅ Emails & surveys – Ask open-ended questions like:
“What problem are you trying to solve?”
“Why do you choose us over competitors?”
✅ Face-to-face meetings & calls – Build a direct rapport for deeper insights.
2. Analyse Behavioral Data
Track customer interactions to identify patterns in:
🔍 Website analytics – Pages visited, time spent, and bounce rates.
📩 Email engagement – Open and click-through rates.
🛒 Purchasing trends – Preferred services, pricing sensitivity and decision factors.
Using data-driven insights allows you to refine your marketing strategy effectively.
3. Map the Customer Journey
A customer journey map helps you visualize how clients:
🛍 Discover your brand → 🔎 Research options → 🏆 Make a purchase decision → 💬 Engage post-sale
Identify pain points, motivations, and decision drivers to optimize the customer experience.
4. Leverage Reviews and Feedback
Customer reviews and testimonials offer powerful social proof. To maximise their value:
⭐ Monitor review platforms (Google Reviews, Trustpilot, Yelp).
📊 Analyse common themes in feedback to identify trends.
🗣 Respond to feedback to build trust and credibility.
Implementing this feedback strengthens brand reputation and boosts conversions.
Using Your Client's "Why" to Your Advantage
Once you understand your client’s “Why,” use it strategically to enhance marketing, customer experience, and brand positioning.
1. Craft Tailored Messaging
Develop high-converting marketing campaigns that:
🎯 Address client pain points directly.
📣 Use emotional and practical triggers to connect with audiences.
💡 Incorporate SEO-driven keywords to enhance visibility.
2. Enhance Client Support
Optimise customer service based on their "Why":
⏳ If they value efficiency: Offer fast, automated solutions.
👥 If they prefer personalisation: Provide one-on-one interactions and custom recommendations.
3. Foster Long-Term Loyalty
Loyal customers drive repeat business. Strengthen brand loyalty through:
🎁 Exclusive rewards & VIP training programs.
📩 Personalized content.
🔁 Proactive engagement.
Bringing It All Together
Understanding your client’s "Why" is an ongoing process of listening, analysing, and adapting. Consumer behaviors evolve—so should your business strategies.
By consistently refining your marketing, customer experience, and value proposition, you can:
✔ Increase conversions & sales
✔ Build long-lasting relationships
✔ Establish yourself as an industry leader
Final Takeaway: The secret to a firm's success isn’t just selling services—it’s about deeply connecting with your customers and providing real value that keeps them coming back.
Further Reading
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
"Who is it for?"
Understanding your audience is critical to winning new work. Explore the D.N.A. model and learn how to communicate effectively with decision makers, advocates and naysayers.
Seth Godin wrote in 'This is Marketing':
"Who's it for?" It has a subtle but magic power, the ability to shift the product you make, the story you tell, and where you tell it. Once you're clear on "who's it for", then the doors begin to open for you.
The same is true here regardless of whether you are selling a product or a service. Only in the case of selling a service, the answer may not be straight forward. Because, in most cases involving complex/mature buyers of services, there are typically multiple layers of "Who's it for?".
In this BD Tips Wednesday post we take a very high-level look at what those layers might look like.
The D.N.A of a client acquisition
If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you'll know by now that I LOVE a good acronym (I'm also partial to the odd emoji 😁).
This is no different in the case, so let me quickly walk you through the D.N.A aspects of a client acquisition so that you can implement this in your next client pursuit.
D stands for...
"D" stands for the "Decision Makers". These are also known as the "economic buyers" of your services. Bluntly, they pay the bills. The information you give to a Decision Maker needs to be concise, to the point and value driven.
N stands for...
"N" stands for the "Naysayers". These are also known as "procurement" 😁. Two things drive procurement: (1) compliance issues, and (2) cost savings. The Naysayers are not interested in the same message you are giving to the Decision Makers. In fact, if you do feed them the same message as you are giving to the Decision Makers, you'll likely not going to win the work. So make sure to tailor your messaging so that the Naysayers hear what they need to hear (i.e., you are happy to provide monthly reporting and volume discounts!).
A stands for...
"A" stands for "Advocates". Advocates are your client champions. They are the people on the inside trying to help you win the work. They don't need to be told why you are the best in town at what you do, they already know. What they need to hear is how they can convivence people within their organization to support your case. You need to be providing your Advocates with this messaging if you are going to stand any chance of winning the work!
Bringing it all together
Problems start to occur in client acquisition pursuits when the message you tailor is not focused on who the audience is ("Who's it for?"). This can become worse when you think there is only one buyer of your service - whether that be the Advocate or the Naysayer (the Decision Maker is very often left out of this messaging by professional services firms, which is a big mistake).
So the next time you set out on a client acquisition strategy, take a few minutes to write down on a piece of paper: "Who's it for?" and then apply this through the D.N.A lens.
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.
Answer These 3 Questions And You'll Super Charge Your Business Development Efforts
Business development becomes easier when you understand who makes decisions, what matters to them and how they buy. These three questions underpin every successful growth strategy.
Business development is really easy. All you need to be able to do is answer 3 simple questions:
Who makes the decision to buy?
What are their priorities?
How do they buy?
But, getting the answer(s) to those 3 simple questions isn't so easy. It takes time, planning, insight and an awful lot of legwork.
For this week's BD Tips Wednesday post I'll take a very high-level look at what this means...
Who makes the decision to buy?
More than 50% of General Counsel report directly to the...?
... Chief Financial Officer.
When you look at who makes the decision to buy, it is rarely the person giving you the instruction.
What are their priorities?
The priorities of the 'economic' buyer are rarely the same priorities as the person giving you the instruction. Make sure to canvas both if you want your fee paid!
How do they buy?
Hopefully you are lucky enough to have a client that doesn't use Request for Proposals and Tenders to buy your services.
Hopefully you have a client that still relies on relationships to buy your services.
But, don't depend on 'hope' - know. Ask the question.
Further Reading
Need Help With Your Business Development?
Get in touch if you want to talk about any of this. We also offer a very affordable BD Audit and Training package.