Lead with their problem, not your solution

First of all, shut the God damn laptop. Just don't open it and start with... 'We're here because we've been working with some people in your industry and we understand there's this really serious problem around document management or around Wi-Fi access or whatever it is, and we believe that your company might have it, is that true?'

No one cares about our product... You know what they care about? Them, their needs, their wants, their problems. And categories are about customers and their wants, needs, problems and opportunities.

Don't pitch your customer or your prospective customer as you're trying to figure this out. People don't want to be pitched.

This is the toolkit in behavioral science where we study not what people say they will do, but what they actually do.