The Simple Trick to Supercharge Your Startup’s Growth

Growing a business is a *cue Professor Snape voice* subtle art and exact science. There are plenty of technical tips you can deploy. Luckily, there also are a few simple secrets that will unlock your growth.

Keep reading to learn one simple trick that will fuel your company’s growth.

You’d be shocked to know how many companies don’t do this. This is good news for you: it means you’ll be ahead of the pack. 

Before I share this simple trick, I want you to commit to yourself that you’re going to do it. It’s not hard - I promise - but it’s probably a little outside of your comfort zone. 

If you needed even more motivation: every profitable, positive company I’ve ever encountered or consulted is consistently taking this action, and incorporating the results in their strategy. 

I’ll even go out on a limb and say that, in my opinion, this simple trick is the secret to the difference between good and great businesses.

Are you ready to learn the simple secret? Are you committed to taking action?

Here goes:

The simple trick that will fuel your company’s growth is conducting interviews with your leads and customers.

That’s right. 

Engaging in thoughtful, active, in-depth conversations with your customers about their experiences with your brand is the secret to supercharging your company’s growth.

Here’s why:

• You learn what your customers *really* think, in their own words.

• You’ll uncover problems lurking in your offerings and sales processes.

• You’ll cultivate an ongoing conversation that will open the doors to a richer relationship with your customers.

• You’ll identify new products and service opportunities based on your customers’ real wishes, wants, and needs.

• You’ll stay top-of-mind for your customers, which builds awareness and buzz.

• You’ll show your customers that you truly care about them, leading to lifetime brand loyalty. 

With these insights, you’ll be able to build a business that is tailored to your customers’ needs. Your strategy will become authentic, and deeply rooted in your commitment to your customers.

And honestly, that’s just scratching the surface.

Interviewing your customers will allow you to grow and evolve in a way that is strategic, scalable, and human.

This is the holy grail of business growth. (If you don’t have customers yet, keep reading to learn how to tailor this trick to your situation.)

Now that you know why customer interviews matter, here is the simple 5-step strategy for running successful customer interviews.

The 5-Step Strategy for Successful Customer Interviews 

Full disclosure: I studied journalism, and truly love conducting interviews. I’ve built this 5-step strategy based on my experience reporting and marketing, so you know it works:

1. Identify one or two top customers. 

   • These are customers who purchase from you regularly, tell other people about your business, or are easy to work with. Your best customers are probably all three.

   • Don’t burn a lot of time on this step; you don’t need to conduct a deep customer analysis at this point. When you have someone in mind, write their name down.

2. Draft a quick note to this customer. 

   • I recommend keeping it short and sweet.

   • Here’s an example: “Hi Audrey, do you have a few minutes to chat later this week? Since you’re one of my favorite customers, I’m hoping to pick your brain and learn what you like, what you love, and what you think my company could improve. If you’re open to it, I’ll send over a few times to see if we can get something on the calendar. Thank you!”

3. Research your customer before the interview. 

   • Any reporter will tell you that they spend at least as much time researching their interview subject as they do actually talking to them. This is because all of your research allows you to dive deeper in your conversation. Look for social media profiles, press mentions, and more.

   • Imagine that you run a yoga studio, and one of your best customers is a woman named Elise. You Google her only to discover that she runs a mail-order matcha company. Now, you have the chance to connect with her in a different and deeper way, because you’re both business owners! 

4. Draft a few questions. 

   • I recommend starting with a 30-minute conversation, if it’s your first time interviewing a customer. This is an easy commitment for both you and your customer; it’s long enough to get good insights, and short enough to keep the pressure low.

   • This means you should have 5-10 questions planned, with detailed prompts for each. Here are five categories to consider as you’re writing your questions: how the customer heard about you, their first impression of your company, whether their friends are also using your company, why they chose to purchase from you versus another company, what they think about your website and/or physical space, and whether they’d recommend your business to other people.

   • If your customer says something really interesting, feel free to go off-script and explore areas that you didn’t plan.

5. Incorporate their language, thoughts, and dreams into your strategy.

   • Did your customer use a specific turn-of-phrase to describe the benefit of your product or service? Consider including that in your sales material. Did they express a desire for more or different services? Explore whether you can deliver it.

Curveball: you should also interview unhappy customers. It will provide a different kind of insight, but still essential for growing your business, too! 

Don’t Have Customers Yet? Here’s What You Can Do.

If you don’t have customers yet, that’s okay. There is a modification to this exercise:

Do interviews with potential future customers. However, these interviews will be used to build your ideal customer profile. You can learn more about ideal customer personas here.

 An ideal customer persona will help you create the first draft of your marketing strategy. In the future, additional customer interviews will provide the insights you need to grow and evolve.

A Final Note…

If you think you already know your customers really well, I’d like to challenge you to do these interviews anyway. You will learn something new - I promise. Keep an open mind, and allow yourself to be surprised by what you don’t know. 

This strategy will deliver insights, it will deliver opportunities, and it will deliver clarity if you let it.