My New Favorite Prospecting Tool

November 27, 2006 3:19 pm by Jarom Adair

How to Find New Clients While Learning about Your Target Market

I’ve recently rediscovered a time-honored technique for finding new clients. It not only allows me to find those who are interested in what I offer, but it also lets me learn about the concerns and problems of my target market. I can find new clients and simultaneously get information that will help me sell to future clients even better. After all, if I know what my target market has problems with and I come up with a solution to those problems, that will make my offering that much more desirable to those I sell to.

Did I mention that it’s given me better results, for less money, in a shorter amount of time, than any other form of marketing I’ve tried? I’m not talking about getting referrals from your current clients and warm market (though that comes in a close second). My new favorite prospecting tool is surveys.

Surveys as a Marketing Tool

Often companies use surveys to gather information from their current list of clients or customers. I’ve helped several businesses conduct surveys to gather market data from customers. This data is used to find out what customers like about the company and what they don’t like. We use the positive things to market the company better, and we improve or fix the negative things for higher customer retention. Surveys are great for this reason alone.

But surveys can be given to those who don’t currently own your product or service. One of my surveys looks like this:

You can deliver these by hand or put them online for people to fill out. Online surveys are generally a lot longer than this, but a 30-second survey on a small piece of paper is best if you are talking to people directly.

What Makes this Work

The survey above works well for many reasons. When I take it to business networking meetings there are a couple things built in to break the ice. I’ll enter anyone who takes the survey into a drawing for something free. The prize it tailored to the group taking the survey (for business owners it might be free web or marketing consultation). In addition, as they start the survey, the first couple questions get people thinking about real estate.

I am indeed gathering information on my target market so I can better serve them, but at the same time I’m offering them a service. For example: I’ll ask a business owner what their main concerns about investing in real estate are and go so far as to list a couple of those big concerns right there on the survey, but the next thing I ask is if they are interested in learning more about investing. The person taking the survey would have to assume that I am aware of those concerns already and have a solution for them if they are indeed interested.

By the time they get to the part where I make my offering, they are either interested or they aren’t. Those who don’t want to know more about real estate for business owners don’t put down their information. Those who do will leave me a name and phone number.

The Result

If I go someplace where my target market gathers I can pass out 10 of these in a minute, and a few minutes later I’ll know who out of those 10 are my interested prospects. Talking to them is easy after that.

But it doesn’t end there. The prize drawing is also another point of contact. Even those not interested in what you offer will give you their email address to be entered into the drawing. They’d even be interested in the results of the survey. When you have the results and the winner, email that information to everybody who took the survey. Feel free to include a few of the main selling points of what you offer in that email with some contact information in case they’ve grown more interested.

Do be sure to delete their email addresses after the initial emailing. Surveys are not a method to gather email addresses to send spam to.

The result is you’ll find prospective clients quickly, learn more about your target market, and have a couple chances to invite people to become your client.

Good Prospecting Surveys:

• Are tailored to your target market

  Don’t use a generic survey. Whether you’re marketing to business owners, baby boomers, or working mothers, people are much more interested in a survey that address them specifically.

• Have a reward attached

  Approaching someone by saying “I’m conducting a survey. You can enter to win (grand prize)” seems to have the best results for me. And it sounds better than just saying “Will you take my survey?”

• Gathers helpful data for you

  This isn’t just about finding new clients. Ask a few questions that will actually help you better understand your target market. This will help you market your product/service to them more effectively.

• Finds your prospects quickly

  Surveys don’t have to be very long. Get to the point as quickly as you can. Look at each survey you get back and feel free to introduce yourself to anyone who has expressed interest. You can tell them you’d probably be the one calling them with more information, and ask them if they have any questions for you right now.

• Is completely voluntary

  I get plenty of surveys where people didn’t leave any contact info–not even their email address. That’s perfectly okay. People can opt-in or opt-out without any pressure. I prefer to pass these surveys out to many people at a time so I’m not standing over them while they fill it out.

My Own Pitch

In addition to helping business owners find new clients, I’ve written this article to let my readers know that I’ve made the transition from full-time web guy to part-time web guy part-time real estate investor. My investment group has resources to help any interested business owner do what I’ve done. Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information.