Exploring the Customer Pain Pyramid
When we’re thinking about the pain points that we’re solving for our customers, we need to understand how aware our target customers are they even have a problem. We also need to understand how much effort our target customers are actively making to solve their problem and what they’ve already done to solve it.
One of the easiest ways to visualize this is by using the Customer Pain Pyramid.
What is the Customer Pain Pyramid?
The Customer Pain Pyramid is a framework we use to understand how aware people are of a specific problem we are trying to solve and how they’re actively addressing the problem (if at all). We can use this framework to easily identify which customers we should initially target.
The 5 levels of the Customer Pain Pyramid
Level 1: The base of the pyramid consists of customers that are not aware they have a problem. Even though they may have a problem, they do not actually feel its pain or know it exists. For example, these customers could be walking through the rain and don’t even realize it’s raining at all.
Level 2: The next level consists of customers who know they have a problem but don’t feel enough pain to do anything about it. For example, these customers might feel the rain they’re walking through but aren’t bothered by it enough to do anything differently.
Level 3: The middle level consists of customers who have experienced so much pain they have started to hack together their own solutions. Customers in this level are repurposing what’s available to solve a need. For example, these customers might be bothered by the rain, so they may use their backpacks to shield themselves from it.
Level 4: The next to top level consists of customers who know they have a problem and they have found a solution that kind of works for them. They’re using a competitor’s product but aren’t necessarily satisfied with the end result. For example, these customers might have purchased a hat with a very large brim to shield themselves from the rain. Or perhaps they have purchased an umbrella with holes in it.
Level 5: At the very top of the pyramid are customers who know they have a problem, and they have found a solution with which they are satisfied. For example, they might have purchased a fully functional umbrella or a raincoat with a hood.
Practical application
With limited resources, it usually doesn’t make sense to spend a lot of time trying to convert Level 1, 2, and 5 customers because of the amount of education and convincing you need to do. The first two levels of the Customer Pain Pyramid consist of customers who either don’t know they have a problem or don’t care enough to solve it. It typically takes a lot of education and communication to get them to understand they have a problem and even more convincing to get them to do something about it. It’s just as hard to convince a Level 5 customer to switch away from their current solution when they are satisfied with it. You will need to convince them your solution is worth significantly more than the cost to switch to you. Later on, you may want to address these customers to grow your market, or maybe it’s your business model to target an untapped market. Just be cognizant of the time and resources you will need to sell these customers on your solution.
Instead, we should focus on Level 3 and 4 customers who have a problem, are actively trying to solve it, and haven’t found a satisfactory solution.
💡TLDR: The Customer Pain Pyramid is an easy way to visualize the different levels of people who experience the problem you are trying to solve, how aware they are of their problem, and where they are in their journey to solve it. You should initially focus your efforts on people who are aware they have a problem and have not found a satisfactory solution, whether it is something they hacked together themselves or a competitor who doesn’t meet their needs.
📖 Exercise: Complete a Customer Pain Pyramid for the problem you are trying to solve. Identify who your initial target customer should be.
📎 Download: Customer Pain Pyramid Template.
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