Getting to know a client is paramount to any working relationship. By asking the right questions, digital marketers can gain valuable insight into their client’s past experiences, goals and expectations. Here are the top 5 questions that every digital marketer should ask their clients.
1. What are the digital marketing strategies have you used in the past and how would you evaluate them today?
By asking this easy, open-ended question about their past experience, the stage is set for the most important dynamic of this meeting. The client speaks and the agent listens. A great deal can be learned about the scope of the project by listening to what they’ve tried before, their goals and expected outcomes, and some clues as to what they’re looking for going forward. The digital marketer is not trying to present a solution to the client’s problem as this point.
2. What are the greatest challenges that you face?
This question is designed to get the client to talk about the areas that they need help in. Make sure to actively listen and ask additional, deeper questions to fully understand their problems. Again, now is not the time to offer digital marketing solutions but to gather valuable data. The opportunity to sell yourself will come later.
3. If you do nothing, where will you be a year from now?
They’re looking for help, but how badly are they hurting? Are they falling behind their competitors? Are they looking to break away and stay ahead of the pack?
It’s possible that the client may not be ready to take the next step if their market position will only be slightly worse next year.
However, for many clients, this question encourages them to take action and reflect on how much worse things can get.
The point of this question is gauge their urgency, make them reflect on their current practices, and determine how much worse off they’ll be by doing nothing.
4. If we could present a customized marketing strategy to you that would address the challenges you’re facing, and help you to achieve your goals, could we meet in a week’s time to discuss it?
Now we want to switch gears here and flip the conversation from negatives to positives by discussing what the agency can bring to the table. This is an opportunity to present a solution and another opportunity to reinforce the value that the agency can provide.
5. It looks like we’ve addressed your challenges and have reasonable goals in place. How would you like to proceed?
This final question is the infamous “closer”. The reason the question is structured in this manner is to provide the client with a feeling of control while still prompting them to make a decision. If there is hesitation on their part, this provides an opportunity to handle their objections. Often, a client just needs more information or clarity before making their decision. Remember to view any objections as additional opportunities to sell yourself.
As a Digital Marketer, You Need to Know Your Client
These 5 questions will reveal the information that you’ll need in order to understand the client’s pain points, gauge their sense of urgency, and provide an opportunity to sell your digital marketing services in a non-pushy way. Get out there, ask the right questions and don’t forget to close the deal.