Ghostwriting – 10 Questions You Must Ask To Do The Job Right

In order to do your job as a ghost writer, you must learn the art of asking the right questions. Developing a strong client questionnaire is vital to doing the job right. Your questionnaire will give your client the opportunity to help you get to know their service or product.
The questions you include on your questionnaire should answer journalism’s WWWWH formula. Who. What. Where. Why. How. (Not necessarily in that order.)The following questions have worked well with my clients.
Ghostwriting question #1: What are you offering?
This question tells you what the product or service is. Obvious, basic information.
Ghostwriting question #2: Consider your customers fears, frustrations and anger triggers. What three things would you list for each of these things?
This question gets to why customers need the product or service and potential frustrations that product may either solve or cause. You don’t need to be too concerned about which angle your client takes in his/her answers. The angle will give you insights into how best to reflect the personality of your client.
Your goal is to get enough information to create word pictures that help potential customers envision the positive changes your client’s product or service will bring into their lives.
Ghostwriting question #3: How does what you offer meet your customer’s needs? Please give at least three examples.
Other questions may be asked in addition to this to elicit more information such as “Will your product or service save the customer valuable time?” “Does your product meet an unidentified need?” These questions help you identify why the product or service is needed and what it can do for the potential customer.
Ghostwriting question #4: Will your product or service improve your customer’s sales or profits? How?
Make sure you include the how! You won’t believe how many clients will answer yes and say no more. It isn’t a given that a person who works B2B knows how to market their product or service.
Ghostwriting question #5: Does your product or service solve a customer’s problems? How?
Once again, you are trying to learn more about the factors that will motivate interest in the product or service. This can prove useful as you consider marketing angles.
Ghostwriting question #6: Why is your price for your product or service a good value?
This question asks for a comparison with the competition. You can ask other questions as well such as “Is your product or service more expensive than the competitions? If so, are there things you provide that justify that higher cost?” Giving an example of what you are looking for can be helpful in this instance. If the client is a contractor, examples of things that could justify higher costs could be the use of genuine wood, custom work, etc. For a computer software solution, the example could be lifetime support and upgrades, etc.
Ghostwriting question #7: What prompted you to develop your product or to provide your service?
This type of question elicits great information for the About Us page.Were there problems you faced? Were you looking for a solution and found one? Did you have an “ah-ha” moment? What is motivating you to sell this product or service.
In addition to these questions, you may want to add a set of similar related questions.
Ghostwriting question #8: What proof do you have to back your claims?
This question is all about getting testimonials. Without proof to back up claims, a website loses most of its ability to make potential customers feel comfortable enough to make contact.
Ghostwriting question #9: What guarantees are you prepared to make?
Knowing what your client is willing to guarantee ensures that you are presenting your client’s product honestly.
Ghostwriting question #10: Who are your competitors?
Encourage your client to provide a list of competing websites. Have your client tell you what he/she likes about each website, or what he/she dislikes about each site. You may ask additional questions such as “How does your product differ from your competitors?” and “How is your product similar to your competitors?”
Make sure your client realizes that they don’t have to answer every question, but remind your client that your output will never exceed their input. You need excess information to do the job right, so encourage your client to share as much information as possible.