Who Is My Customer? Find Out With These 10 Pertinent Questions

Who is my customer? 10 customer discovery questions

Who is my customer? This is one of the leading questions asked by smart business owners everywhere. We all want to know how to be of the most value to our customer base and gain insight into why they choose to do business with us. Knowing your customers can pay off in a variety of ways.

Here at BigOrange Marketing, we specialize in helping dozens of companies from managed service providers to financial firms to developers win millions of dollars in business. Part of what enables us to do this is the relationship we nurture and continuously develop with our clients. Every time we begin working with a client, we start by talking to that client’s customers. Then we create personas so we and the client know just who we’re talking to on the client’s website, in blog posts and on social media. 

Don’t Know? Ask!  

Your customers should be the hero in the story your company or organization is telling. To be authentic, you should understand what makes those customers tick. 

Let’s say your company sells personal tax software directly to consumers. One of your personas may be a first-time tax preparer. What are the pain points of first-time tax preparers? They are likely intimidated by the prospect of doing their taxes by themselves for the first time and overwhelmed by a tax code they don’t understand. These pain points differ from those of a seasoned tax preparer, whose only issue may be found in not knowing the proper way to maximize the amount of their return.

As a business owner, you want to make buying from you as painless as possible for your customers. Not all customers are the same. Depending on the type of products and services you offer, it’s possible that some clients will be more difficult to please than others. It’s good to be prepared with the necessary skill set and expertise required to ease any doubts and eliminate hesitancy in your buyer. The 10 questions listed below (excerpted from the questions BigOrange uses in customer discovery) will help you develop customer personas and provide key insight into your buyers. 

Who Is My Customer? 10 Pertinent Questions to Ask

1. What is a brief description in your own words of what your company does?

2. What is your job role? Your title? Who do you report to? Who reports to you? How is your job measured?

3. What does your typical day look like? What percentage is fighting fires?

4. What are your biggest challenges? What are your pain points?

5. Why is it important that you find a solution to these challenges now?

6. What are your goals in your day-to-day job? 

7. What does success look like? What would make you feel really good?

8. How do you learn about new information for your job? Publications? Trade organizations? Blogs? Groups? 

9. How do you prefer to interact with vendors?

10. Why did you hire us/buy from us in the first place?

Insights You Can Use

This list of questions was designed to help you look for clues into what encouraged your customer to buy from you. Ideally, the answers to these 10 questions will also give you insight into a completely different and more personal subset of questions that you have as a business owner. Who is your customer? What resonated with them about your business? Was it your marketing and sales process? Did they feel like they could trust you when they made their decision? Is this their first time purchasing a product or service of your kind? Was your business recommended to them by friends, family or other existing clients? Did they like your consultative sales approach?

It’s important to remember that without the customer, we don’t have a business. Discovering who your customer is and what insight their persona offers is a major step toward achieving success for all parties involved. Familiarizing yourself with your clientele arms you with additional knowledge and creates an environment of trust that helps customers feel as if they made the right decision. It’s also an excellent way to stand out among your competitors and grow your customer base. In the end, it all comes down to just one simple question: Who is your customer?

Looking for Customer Discovery Help?

We’d love to learn more about you and your customers as a first step in developing meaningful marketing. Book a meeting with us today and come away with fresh ideas, no strings attached. 

Margee Moore

Margee Moore

I'm the CEO + Digital Marketing Strategist at BigOrange Marketing. I’m passionate about helping companies to clarify their messaging to get leads and grow.

Share the knowledge

Guide to an Effective AI Marketing Campaign

Leveraging ChatGPT: A 10-Step Guide to Crafting an Effective AI Marketing Campaign (In Just 45 Minutes!)

Creating a compelling AI marketing campaign can be a daunting task, especially when time is limited. BigOrange Marketing is here to help with an engaging…

Explore this Topic
Is Content Marketing Dead - BigOrange Marketing

Is Content Marketing Dead? What Business Owners Need to Know Now 

With search algorithms continuing to get smarter and new AI tools more able to produce volumes of content with ease, does content even matter anymore?…

Explore this Topic
CompTIA Conference ChannelCon Talk

Learn How to Leverage AI to Create Marketing Campaigns at CompTIA 

Gone are the days of marketing campaign planning taking hours upon hours to complete. With our ChatGPT strategy you do not need to spend hours…

Explore this Topic
We’ll See Ya at CompTIA’s ChannelCon 2024 - BigOrange Marketing

We’ll See Ya at CompTIA’s ChannelCon 2024 

The CompTIA ChannelCon 2024 will be here before we know it. BigOrange Marketing’s CEO, Margee Moore, will be meeting attendees at our booth and giving…

Explore this Topic
What Are the Seven Steps of StoryBrand

What Are the 7 Steps of StoryBrand?

The 7 steps of StoryBrand are designed to create a clear and attention-grabbing narrative that positions the customer as the hero and your brand as…

Explore this Topic
Elevate Your Marketing With StoryBrand BrandScript Examples

What Are Examples of StoryBrand BrandScript?

If you’re up to date with the digital marketing world, chances are you’ve heard about the StoryBrand BrandScript. As a StoryBrand certified guide, we offer…

Explore this Topic
Effective Vendor Management MSP

Mastering Vendor Partnerships: Tips for Effective Vendor Management Webinar

Effective vendor management is crucial to ensuring your business’s success and future growth, especially for managed service providers (MSPs). In such a competitive industry, mastering…

Explore this Topic
How to Tell the Tale -What Is A StoryBrand BrandScript

How to Tell the Tale: What Is a StoryBrand BrandScript?

What Is a StoryBrand BrandScript? A StoryBrand BrandScript is a script that summarizes your key message as an exciting and easily readable story. It’s based…

Explore this Topic

The 22 Best Digital Marketing Ideas to Drive Sustainable Lead Generation in 2024


Ready to grow in 2024? A good plan has to be comprehensive and filled with the best ingredients--from SEO to content, social media to paid boosting. 

Here’s what you’ll learn:

  • How to target efficiently with personas
  • How to assess if your website is hurting or helping you
  • How a content marketing plan will help you rank with Google through SEO
  • The social media tactics you need and the ones you can skip