Two types of hows

customer behaviour how questions performance procedural Jun 18, 2024

What is your customer really asking for?

Customers often use “how” questions to find you, like “how to increase sales” or “How to improve conversion?”

But not all “how” questions are alike.

In fact, there are two types of “hows”.

👉 If you’re answering the wrong type of how, you won’t capture their attention.

The first type of “how” question is procedural.

Questions like “how to change a tyre” or “How to cook salmon”

Or in business, “how to create a TikTok” or “How to calculate tax”.

For these, your answer can straight-forward. Step-by-step.

Once they’ve ingested your answer, that’s all they need.

The second type of “how” question is about performance, and these are the most important ones.

It’s questions like I mentioned earlier - how to increase sales or improve conversion.

The difference with performance “how’s” is they are not really looking for a step-by-step answer, even if they think they are.

👉👉 Because the “how” is actually masking their real question.

And their real question is “why?”

If you answer a “how” performance question with a process, no one wins.

They get generic, superficial pointers.

You miss the opportunity to connect with them, because you haven’t heard what they are really saying.

And what they are really saying is: I’m at a loss here. I’m not sure what to do differently, because I’ve tried my best.

See how more personal the question is once we realise it’s “why” not “how”?

Do you feel the frustration and pain they’re feeling?

That’s what they want to resolve.

👉👉👉 That’s what you need to answer.