A founder decides the website no longer works. The team books a positioning session. Everyone arrives with opinions about what the company stands for, which services matter and which words sound strongest.
The people missing from the room are the customers who already experienced the value.
Internal knowledge matters, but it is shaped by years of product decisions, operational compromises and industry language. Customers remember something simpler: what they needed, why they trusted you, what changed and what they now tell other people.
Before paying for a new website, campaign or brand story, call three of your most ideal customers.
Why only three?
Three conversations are not a statistically representative study. They are a fast evidence-gathering exercise.
The goal is not to prove that every customer thinks the same. The goal is to discover language, outcomes and tensions that nobody inside the business is currently discussing.
One conversation may produce an interesting opinion. Three allow you to notice repetition. If all three describe the same unexpected benefit, buying anxiety or reason for trusting you, that signal deserves investigation.
Choose ideal customers, not merely friendly ones
The most enthusiastic customer is not automatically the most useful interview. Select customers who represent the future work you want more of.
- They received a meaningful result.
- You enjoyed the collaboration.
- The work was commercially healthy.
- Their situation resembles the customers you want next.
- They can speak honestly about both value and friction.
If your three customers only represent work you want to leave behind, their answers may optimise yesterday's business.
The five questions
1. What was happening before you contacted us?
This reveals the real starting situation. Listen for pressure, frustration, missed opportunity and the moment that made waiting more expensive than acting.
2. Why did you choose us?
Do not accept “good feeling” as the complete answer. Ask what created that feeling. Was it specialist understanding, speed, honesty, a recommendation, a demonstration or evidence from similar work?
3. What became better because of the work?
Customers may mention a result you track, but they may also describe confidence, internal alignment, saved time, lower risk or access to opportunities. These are real forms of value.
4. What did you value that we rarely talk about?
This question is designed to reveal overlooked value. A founder may think customers pay for strategic advice while customers value the speed at which difficult decisions become practical.
5. What would you ask us to help solve next?
This is not a sales question. It reveals adjacent demand. Repeated answers may point toward a valuable proposition the company has not yet made visible.
“Do you like our new positioning?” “What should our slogan be?” and “Would you recommend us?” invite polite evaluation. Ask for concrete memories, choices and changes instead.
Turn conversations into evidence
Create a simple document with five columns:
- Starting problem
- Words the customer used
- Most valuable outcome
- Proof they trusted
- Future demand
Write down the customer's actual language. Do not immediately translate it into corporate wording. The phrases that feel almost too ordinary may be powerful precisely because ideal customers recognise them instantly.
After three calls, highlight repeated signals. Separate what customers consistently value from what only one person happened to mention.
The same evidence is already hiding in reviews
I used customer reviews as an Outside-In mirror during two in-company marketing inspiration sessions for Schrobbelèr, a family-owned business with a huge following.
The reviews were not just praise. They contained language about loyalty, experience and what people considered distinctive. Read strategically, they helped reveal substantial untapped marketing potential.
Schrobbelèr: two in-company marketing inspiration sessions used customer reviews to reveal overlooked opportunities inside an already loved family business.
What to change after the calls
Do not rebuild everything because three customers used one new phrase. Use the findings to form sharper hypotheses.
- Move a repeatedly valued outcome higher on the homepage.
- Add proof where customers described doubt or risk.
- Turn an unexpected benefit into a small offer test.
- Remove language none of the customers understood or used.
- Call three more customers if an important signal remains uncertain.
This approach makes positioning less theatrical and more useful. The team still makes the strategic choices. Customers provide the evidence those choices should respond to.
Your 72-hour version
Choose three ideal customers today. Ask for 30 minutes. Complete the calls within one week. Spend one hour comparing the answers.
If those conversations do not change a single sentence, proof point or priority, your positioning may already be unusually strong.
More often, they reveal that the value customers buy is clearer than the language the business has been using to sell it.
Make your real value easier to buy
An Outside-In conversation identifies what ideal customers already value, where the proposition loses that value and which proof or offer deserves attention first.
Plan an Outside-In conversation