5 Questions to Ask to Discover Your Ideal Customers Problem

Patrick McFadden • June 1, 2023

Today simply relying on generic messaging like "great service," "knowledgeable staff," or "quality product" is no longer enough to capture the attention of your ideal customers. This type of messaging, which I like to call "expectation messaging," is what customers expect as a baseline when paying for a service.


To truly stand out and connect with your target audience, you need to go beyond these generic claims and focus on clearly guiding your customers through how you solve their specific problems. In this post, we'll explore a powerful strategy to gain insight into your customers' problems and learn how to effectively address them.


The Power of Customer Interviews:

If you haven't already done so, conducting interviews with your ideal customers is one of the most effective strategies you can employ to understand their needs, concerns, and motivations. By engaging in meaningful conversations with your customers, you gain valuable insights into the real problems you solve for them. These insights serve as a foundation for crafting compelling messaging that resonates with your audience and positions your business as the solution they've been searching for.


Essential Questions to Ask:

To extract meaningful information from your customer interviews, it's important to ask the right questions. Here are five key questions that will provide valuable insights:


#1: What problem triggered you to look for a business like ours?

Understanding the specific pain points that led customers to seek out a business like yours will give you valuable insights into the problems you solve. By knowing the triggers, you can tailor your messaging to address these specific pain points and position your business as the go-to solution.


#2: What were your main concerns? Top priorities?

Learning about your customers' concerns and priorities helps you understand their decision-making process. By addressing these concerns directly and aligning your messaging with their priorities, you can build trust and credibility, making it easier for customers to choose your business over competitors.


#3: What type of online content were you looking for?

Knowing what type of content your customers sought during their research phase provides valuable guidance for your marketing efforts. Understanding their information needs allows you to create relevant and engaging content that educates and informs, positioning your business as a trusted authority in your industry.


#4: What made us stand out? If we didn't, how could we stand out?

This question helps you identify the unique aspects of your business that resonated with customers. If you received positive feedback, you can leverage those strengths in your messaging. Alternatively, if you didn't stand out, their suggestions for improvement can guide your efforts to differentiate yourself from competitors.


#5: What, exactly, made you decide to buy?

Understanding the specific factors that influenced customers to make a purchase decision provides invaluable insights into the strengths of your offering. By highlighting these key factors in your messaging, you can create a sense of urgency and compel potential customers to take action.


Crafting Compelling Messaging

Armed with the insights gained from customer interviews, you can now craft compelling messaging that speaks directly to your ideal customers. Instead of relying on generic claims, you can address their specific pain points, alleviate concerns, and emphasize the unique aspects that differentiate your business from competitors.


Small Business Marketing Massaging Examples:

  • We’ll Protect Your Yard and We’ll Clean-Up Before We Leave.
  • Small Business Lawyers You Can Reach & Who Will Make You a Priority
  • Our Trainers and Staff Ensure Your Success
  • You’ll Be Happy With Your Home Improvement Experience Just As Much As Your Completed Project
  • Our Team Makes Your Renovation Experience Exceptional
  • Get A Kitchen Remodel You'll Love From Kitchen Remodel Contractors You Enjoy
  • We Respect Your Belongings, Carefully Handle Your Items, and Move Efficiently
  • Knowledge and Experience that Empowers You
  • We Respond Quickly to Requests, Explain the Equitable Distribution of Assets in Plain English, and Patiently Educate You on Our Processes and the Information We Gather in a Clear, Understandable Way


Move Beyond Expectation Messaging

To truly connect with your ideal customers and differentiate your business in a crowded marketplace, it's essential to move beyond expectation messaging. By conducting customer interviews and gaining deep insights into their problems, concerns, and motivations, you can develop messaging that resonates with your audience on a deeper level. By addressing their specific needs and positioning your business as the solution they've been searching for, you'll stand out from the competition and build stronger connections with your customers.


Remember, tomorrow is the perfect time to start interviewing your customers and uncovering the insights that will transform your messaging and drive business growth.


Are you ready to guide your customers to solutions and leave generic messaging behind? Start today and watch your business thrive.


Contact Your Marketing Consultant at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small business company that needs help with creating a message development or your company’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO services. Contact us for more information.

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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