Ask customers what they compared before choosing you

You may describe your difference against three similar consultancies while a buyer is deciding whether to hire anyone at all. They might be weighing your work against an internal attempt, a cheaper tool or another quarter of tolerating the problem. A comparison page about your competitors can miss the choice they are making.

Before rewriting your positioning, investigate a recent buying decision. Ask a suitable customer what prompted action, what they considered and what they needed to understand before committing. Their account can expose an assumption worth examining. It still needs to be treated as one person’s account, with the gaps that memory and hindsight bring.

The purpose is to learn which decision your business helps someone make. Keep the conversation open enough to discover an answer that changes your plan.

Choose a decision you want to understand

Start with a specific uncertainty. Perhaps enquiries arrive from relevant businesses, but they cannot tell which service to choose. Perhaps customers describe your value differently from your homepage. Or you suspect that your most visible competitors are irrelevant to the buyer’s shortlist.

Choose people whose situations relate to that uncertainty. Someone who bought a small implementation task may tell you little about the decision behind a broader advisory engagement. Include the timing and assignment in your notes so unlike purchases do not become one supposed pattern.

Successful customers can explain why they proceeded, but they cannot fully explain why others declined. Where appropriate and with their agreement, speak to people who chose a different route as well. Be clear that participation is optional and that you are trying to understand their experience. Separate research from asking for a testimonial or reopening a sale.

The GOV.UK guidance on in-depth interviews recommends planning around research questions, using open and neutral prompts, and exploring concrete experiences. Its public-service setting differs from a commercial buying interview. Those principles help keep a business conversation focused without supplying the answer in the question.

Reconstruct the situation before asking for a reason

“Why did you choose us?” can produce a kind, brief answer. Give the person room to describe what happened before they had a supplier to praise.

You could begin: “What was happening when you first decided to look for help?” Follow their account with questions about what they tried, who else was involved and when the decision became important. Ask what they considered doing before contacting you. Allow the answer to include doing nothing.

Then explore the choice itself. What options did they seriously consider? What made an option unsuitable? What did they still need to know before agreeing? Which material or conversation helped them understand the assignment? Ask for detail when a broad word such as “trust” appears, rather than deciding what it means on their behalf.

Avoid prompts that advertise your preferred conclusion. “Was our specialist expertise the reason you bought?” gives the person an explanation to accept. “What did you look for when comparing the options?” leaves them room to tell you something else.

Use these prompts flexibly. A discussion guide helps cover the subject; it should not prevent a useful follow-up when the person mentions a surprise.

Let an unexpected alternative change the question

Consider an illustrative design practice helping established professional firms explain a changed offer. This is a hypothetical exercise, with no actual interview, client quote or result implied.

The founder assumes buyers compare design portfolios. During the exercise, imagine a buyer describing a choice between hiring the practice and asking an employee to update an existing slide deck. The concern is whether anyone can agree on what the firm now sells before materials are redesigned.

That possible account suggests a question to investigate: does the buyer need help resolving the offer before evaluating visual execution? It does not establish that every prospect has this problem. The founder could compare it with other accounts, the original enquiry and the scope eventually agreed.

If the interpretation holds up, the practice might explain how an initial assignment clarifies the offer and what input it requires. It might also make the distinction between clarification and implementation easier to see in its service menu. A stronger claim about being the most creative studio would leave the reported uncertainty unanswered.

Keep the strategic choice with the people responsible for delivery. Research can reveal a useful problem without obliging you to serve it. Check whether the suggested direction fits what customers are paying you to help them do and the business you intend to build.

Keep the account separate from your interpretation

Record what the person said, what you infer and what remains uncertain as distinct notes. A statement that the proposal helped them decide is different from your inference that a particular paragraph caused the purchase.

Nielsen Norman Group’s discussion of interviewing users explains limitations of remembered and hypothetical accounts, including the gap between reported and observed behaviour. Use an interview to explore a decision, then check details against evidence you legitimately hold or the participant is willing to share. A dated enquiry or agreed proposal may clarify the sequence. Neither reveals every influence on the purchase.

If you record the conversation, agree that with the participant first and handle the material appropriately. Public quotation is a separate use to agree. Keep identifying and sensitive details out of public copy unless their use is properly authorised.

AI can help organise permitted notes or suggest competing interpretations. Require references back to the supplied material and check them. A generated buyer persona, invented quotation or confident summary of several unlike situations would replace the evidence you are trying to understand.

Test one change in the explanation

Choose a finding with enough relevant support to justify a small revision. You might clarify who a service fits, explain a misunderstood deliverable or address an alternative the buyer actually considers. Keep the previous version and write down why you changed it.

Ask suitable readers what the revised page leads them to expect. Review later enquiries for the specific misunderstanding you intended to resolve. Separate a clearer explanation from a proven increase in sales: a small number of conversations cannot establish a reliable conversion effect.

Customer language gives you material to evaluate. Your job is to turn what you learn into an honest offer, a recognisable customer problem and commitments the practice can keep. The interview earns its time when it helps you make that decision more carefully.