Only 8.1% of B2B leaders say their messaging is “very effective.”
That means the vast majority believe they haven’t cracked the code on what captures a buyer’s attention or persuades them to close.
The issue isn’t a lack of effort or creativity – it’s a fundamental misalignment between how prospects experience their problems and how companies talk to them.
Even though marketing teams think they’re speaking to buyer challenges, most messaging touches on surface-level problems, then jumps to solutions. That means leads have the difficult job of connecting the dots between their lived pain points and product benefits. This disconnect prevents buyers from feeling urgency, and without urgency, deals stall.
The Problem:
Most “Pain Points” Aren’t Pain Points
Even though B2B companies like to say they’re “customer obsessed,” most of the messaging in their copy, content and sales decks is focused on what they bring to the table. You can tell, because there’s a silent “we” at the beginning of most marketing statements:
- “[We help you] Visualize your data”
- “[We give you] AI-powered sales workflows”
- “[We enable you to] Deliver faster customer service resolutions”
This “me, me, me” (or “we, we, we”) approach seems challenge-oriented at first, but in reality it emphasizes the solution to a problem that’s only been implied. If organizations want to resonate, they need to prove how well they understand their audience by showing it in their messaging.
What a Real Pain Point Looks Like
To move toward stronger pain point statements, try this formula:
Buyer Challenge + Negative Business Impact = Pain Point
The challenge should describe what is happening inside the prospect’s business, while the negative business impact explains why it matters. When both elements are present, the problem becomes tangible and urgent.
Without identifying the “cause and effect” that’s happening within the buyer’s business, it’s difficult to get to the heart of what is motivating them to change or convince them your solution is needed.
Evolving Your Messaging
When you refocus your messaging on pain points, you’ll notice how often there’s a temptation to stop short of actually putting yourself in the buyer’s shoes. Most teams start with:
- Desire: “The buyer wants better data visualization”
- Solution: “The buyer needs a dashboard to integrate datasets”
Luckily, you can use these first insights to start asking the right questions about the buyer’s context.
- Why do they need better data visualization?
- What datasets are essential to the way they do business?
- How does a lack of integration impact them?
- Who is being impacted most in the organization?
When you do that, you’ll get something that sounds more like:
- Pain point: “Customer data is fragmented, which slows decision-making across revenue-driving teams”
The difference is significance and clarity. The final example describes both a real condition and a meaningful business consequence, which makes the problem easier to recognize and harder to ignore.
How to Identify Pain Points That Drive Action
1. Begin with What’s Breaking
Begin by describing what is actually happening inside the business:
- What is breaking?
- Where are teams struggling?
- What is slowing things down?
It’s important to avoid wishful language like “IT leaders need…” or “marketing specialists want…” and instead focus on observable conditions that reflect the buyer’s day-to-day reality.
A useful way to think about this is to focus on what is causing friction inside the organization. Challenges often show up as delays, inconsistencies, manual workarounds, or breakdowns between teams. When you can clearly describe what is happening and where it is happening, the problem becomes easier for buyers to recognize as their own.
2. Show the Cost of the Problem
This is where most messaging falls short. A challenge on its own may be accurate, but without a clear consequence, it lacks weight. For example, vague statements like “not enough visibility” or “inefficient processes” may sound relevant, but they don’t get to the heart of what is happening inside the business and for whom. Without specificity, the problem feels abstract and easy to ignore.
To define the impact, consider how the challenge affects decisions, timelines, or performance:
- “Customer data is fragmented, limiting leadership’s ability to make timely decisions”
- “Manual reporting processes delay forecasting and increase the risk of missed targets”
By connecting the issue to a business outcome, the problem becomes more immediate and relevant.
3. Don’t Lose Buyer Focus
If the statements you create consistently include your product or prescribe a specific type of solution, your buyer understanding may be too narrow.
Companies often focus on the pain points that relate to technical gaps because that’s what their product or service directly affects, but buyers are also dealing with operational complexity, internal alignment issues, and process breakdowns. When messaging isolates the issue to technology alone, it misses the broader context that drives urgency.
By separating the problem from the solution, you create space to explore the full scope of the challenges affecting a business, which often reveals deeper issues that are more meaningful and more compelling in a sales conversation.
Why Getting This Right Changes Everything
When messaging clearly defines both the challenge and its impact, buyers are more likely to recognize their own situation in what they’re reading.
This shift has a ripple effect. Marketing becomes more relevant, sales conversations gain traction more quickly, and buyers engage with a stronger sense of urgency. Instead of evaluating features, they focus on resolving a problem that is deeply affecting their business.
Strong pain points don’t just describe issues, they make the cost of inaction visible and impossible to ignore.
