Imagine you could get inside the mind of your buyers and find out what they’re looking for and how they make buying decisions. Capitalizing on such insider information would go a long way to creating a successful and relevant brand, website or advertising campaign, wouldn’t it? You can! Just ask them.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Don’t take for granted that the bits of client feedback you have received represent the market, or is even the whole story. You need to ask a lot of people to get a good picture.

You may also be surprised to discover all the reasons you thought the market needed you aren’t why they’re buying. Maybe you set out to sell the world’s best coffee and what they come back for is the good vibe in your café.

How can you know what you don’t know if you don’t ask? Don’t rely on watching what your competition is doing either, you’re NOT them and don’t know if it’s really working for them.

An Eye Opening Experience

There are a couple great ways to find out what your market really thinks and wants: 1) focused phone interviews with key stakeholders and 2) electronic surveys. The key is to figure out what you want to know related to your goals and develop questions that will draw info out of people without leading them.

Interviews

If interviewing key stakeholders, they may include clients, prospects that didn’t buy, employees current and past, suppliers, etc. You may only need a few from each group, but they should represent a cross-section. Don’t be afraid to include people who might not be fans. Your team books the appointment for a realistic amount of time, but let someone outside your company do the interviewing so people feel freer to be candid.

Electronic Survey

If you do this – usually an email linking to a survey tool – the response rate is lower so you need to send it to many people. The benefit is you hear from more people and tools like Survey Gizmo help you sort and interpret the answers.

Make sure the introduction identifies who’s asking and what your aim is. Make it compelling with a reward for participating, but give the option to take it anonymously. Keep the survey itself to two minutes (try it yourself) and thank them a thousand times.

A reward should come with a time limit to encourage fast response. The reward could be for everyone, or say they’ll be entered in a draw for something bigger. Make the last question something like ‘if you’d like the reward, enter your name and email address’ so they can keep their identity private if they want.

Insider Information

You may need help developing the survey and interpreting the results, then deciding what to do with it. But with this insight you can better create marketing tools that are appealing and build rapport or compel prospects to take action.