Answering the questions buyers ask before contacting anyone

6 days ago
3 min read

Introduction

Every business already knows what buyers want to know, because they are asked the same fifteen things on every call. Almost none of those answers appear anywhere a buyer can find before contacting, which means each question is either asked again on the phone or, more often, resolved by assumption in favour of a competitor who did answer it.

This is one of the few pieces of marketing work with no creative element and a reliable return. The material already exists in your enquiry history; the task is to write down the answers and put them where somebody deciding whether to contact you will see them.

1. Answering the questions buyers ask before contacting starts with listing them

The source material is your own inbox.

Read thirty recent enquiries and the calls you remember, and write down every question asked. The list is shorter and more repetitive than expected, and it is your content plan. Ask whoever answers the phone to keep a tally for a fortnight; their list will be more accurate than yours.

2. Include the awkward ones

Where the value concentrates.

How much it costs, how long it takes, what happens if it goes wrong, whether you are insured, why you are more expensive. These are the questions buyers most want answered and businesses most avoid publishing. Avoiding them does not make them go away; it moves the answer to a competitor's page.

3. Answer them in the buyer's words

The phrasing that gets found.

Use their question as the heading, verbatim. This makes it findable by people searching the same phrase and recognisable to anybody scanning.

4. Give a real answer, not a reason to call

The mistake that undoes the exercise.

"Contact us to discuss pricing" is not an answer and is read as evasion. A range with an explanation of what moves it answers the question and produces better enquiries. Every non-answer trains the reader to expect non-answers from the rest of the page.

5. Cover what disqualifies people

The counter-intuitive inclusion.

Minimum job size, areas you do not cover, work you do not take on. This loses enquiries you did not want and earns credibility with the ones you did, which is a good trade in both directions.

6. Put the answers where they will be seen

Placement over completeness.

On the relevant page rather than only on a separate list. A question about lead times belongs beside the service, not three clicks away under a general heading.

7. Keep the answers current

The maintenance requirement.

Prices, lead times, coverage and processes change. Out-of-date answers are worse than none, because a buyer who acts on one arrives with expectations you have to correct.

8. Use them in your replies too

The efficiency benefit.

The same written answers make your enquiry responses faster and more consistent, and they mean a new person can answer the phone competently. This is frequently the larger internal saving.

9. Add every new question that comes up

The habit that keeps it useful.

When somebody asks something not on the list, the answer goes on the list. Over a year this produces the most useful page on most small business websites almost without effort.

Be careful about answering so thoroughly that there is no reason to call. That worry is largely misplaced for service businesses — buyers who have their questions answered contact you better informed rather than not at all — but it does mean the contact route should be obvious beside every answer.

Conclusion

Write down the questions you are already asked and answer them where buyers can see them.

Take the list from thirty recent enquiries, include the awkward questions about price, timescale and what happens when things go wrong, use the buyer's own phrasing as the heading, give a real answer rather than an invitation to call, state plainly what you do not do, put each answer beside the relevant service, keep them current, reuse them in your own replies, and add every new question as it arises.