Richard Dawson on Family Feud
Over the years I’ve had great conversations with clients and colleagues on the neverending question: “How do I get people to buy from me?”
It’s heartbreaking when you take the time to create an incredible program, product, event, or service then no one buys it. I’ve experienced it plenty of times as have some of the biggest and brightest stars in business.
It all sounds good on paper, it looks really groovy on your vision board, and your friends keep telling you it’s amazing… but no one responds.
It sucks, plain and simple. What happened, you ask yourself as you reflect back on where the breakdown occurred.
Maybe you didn’t ask if this was what people wanted.
A few years ago I interviewed Sylvia Mendoza, the creator of a product called The Communicard. Sylvia was charged with solving the problem of language barriers in a bilingual workplace. Immediately she went to work surveying the people in the workplace about how to bridge the language gap.
Rather than suggesting the company offer English and Spanish classes, she learned from surveying people that they wanted something less time consuming and more immediate. As a result of her asking questions, Sylvia created a system of bilingual cards that showed workplace situations followed by English and Spanish translations.
She tested the cards thoroughly with focus groups and extensive research. By asking the users, she found out how to design a product they could not resist.
Today, Sylvia’s company has huge contracts with hospitals, city governments, police departments, and industrial clients who use her products to facilitate communication and productivity.
So let’s talk about you and your business.
Do you know what your target market wants/needs?
Do you know what questions you need to ask to find out?
There are many ways you can start collecting information both from social media and from your list. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
1. Ask current clients
It’s always good to start close to home with people who already have proven themselves to believe in you and your business. Find out what people need as a next step and their feedback could possibly be the framework for your next big offer.
2. Survey Your List
Put together a short survey to ask your list of contacts what they’re currently lacking that they’d like to see. You can offer an incentive like a cool download or a special report for everyone who completes the survey. I’ve used Survey Monkey in the past, but if you want more than 100 responses, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee. Lately I’ve been using Google Forms to create a survey and I like it because it’s free and downloads into a spreadsheet.
3. Ask Your Social Media Peeps
Sometimes I just throw a question out on Facebook or Twitter and it’s amazing how people are willing to respond with their feedback. What’s great about this is that you know who responded so you can follow up. Online surveys can’t always tell you who gave what response. Linked In has a poll feature that is extremely helpful in gathering data.
On Sesame Street, Big Bird says “Asking questions is a good way to find things out.” That’s true in your business too. Rather than guess what will sell, how about asking your followers? If you’re sincere and open, people are usually happy to oblige.
How about you? Do you use surveys? What additional tips would you give the Viva Visibility Blog readers? Drop a comment below.
About Nancy Marmolejo
