Do you have this problem?

The 1 question qualification refers to the single question that you can ask your customer to find out if they're a potential customer. If they answer, "yes, I have that problem" then once the person tries your product they should purchase it.

This diagram is referenced in an earlier slide to show how important a referral and the next customer button are on the same plan as the product itself. The "One Question Qualification" sits atop of these components in terms of importance.

When a "pivot" happens at a company it's because this question has changed. In other words when the founders look at each other and say, "oh shit we're not as smart as we though we were" it's because they didn't understand their Customer. Period. Don't let this happen to you. This is critical and you don't need to spend a $1 to start testing your 1QQ.

The more specific to the visceral pain point you are trying to solve the better:

e.g this is how we evolved our 1QQ at Ecquire:

"Do you have to do data entry at work?" - Bad

"Do you hate entering data into a CRM?" - ok

"Do you hate entering data from gmail or LinkedIn into your CRM?" - BEST. <- Our one question qualification.

We still test this with others even though we're confident in the aforementioned one. "What CRM do you use at Work" for example is another one.

If you say "No"or "What's a CRM" to this question, I spend zero time and more importantly, zero cents on trying to acquire you as a customer. I also know that my customer acquisition efforts are centered around people complaining about this problem.

Here's how to think about your 1QQ for finding ideal customers:

1. What do we want our customers to feel after they use our product?

*Note: Don't think technology constraints. Imagine that if your customer could wave a magic wand, what would they ask for and should find in your solution? Your potential customers are saying, "I wish I could...."

2. What is stopping them from feeling that now?

*Note: This is the pain point. You either focus on the dream or the pain point to make the emotional connection with your potential customer. If it's the pain point, your customers are saying things like, "I hate...."

3. Fill in the blanks to the following as if your customer was saying it: "I hate ___________ because ___________ and I wish I could just _______________"

4. Your One Question Qualification is asking your potential customer about their pain points in question 3.

Try it out and email me to see if I'd be a potential customer of yours: paul@ecquire.com