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How To Develop And Use A Questionaire That Gets Your Prospects To Tell
You What They Want... So You Can Sell It To Them!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

"If I knew what my prospects wanted," my service seller friend wailed, "I
could give it to them. But I just can't find out." Does this sound familiar? It
ought to, given the fact that most people selling products and services don't
have more than a vague idea what their prospects want and, it seems, no
idea how to find out.

Problem is, if you don't know what your prospects want... you're reduced to
trying to sell them what you have, namely products and services. And I'll
tell you this: nobody but you is interested in what you're selling. Prospects,
as every marketing book under the sun stresses, buy benefits.

This is why your real job as a product or service seller is very different from
what you may think your job is. You see, you're really in the business of
discovering what your prospect wants to achieve... the problem he wants to
solve... and then positioning your product or service as the way to get that
achievement, solve that problem. To do this, you need your prospect to give
you information. And this is precisely what a Prospect Questionnaire is
designed to do. It's a crucial tool for sellers wanting to go beyond their
products and services to the satisfaction of prospect wants... which is the real
way to become successful.

What Is A Prospect Questionnaire?

A Prospect Qestionnaire is a one-page document that essentially asks your
prospect to tell you what he wants to achieve. The questionnaire has only
one purpose: getting the prospect to tell you what he wants... so you can give
it to him through your product or service.

This is different from traditional sales literature. Such literature enables you
to tell your prospect about what you're selling... your product or service. It's
"me" centered. A questionnaire, on the other hand, enables your prospect to
tell you what he wants. It is "you" (the prospect) centered... focusing on the
only person in the sales sequence who matters: your prospect.

To give you a vivid ilustration of what I mean, consider a piece of unsolicited
sales literature which arrived this morning. It comes from a company called
Herkimer's Crystals, Vail, CO. I quote from the top:

"One of the most important discoveries in life is realizing 'you can do it.'

When I started my successful business in the exciting world of crystals and
minerals, I didn't know if I could do it. My bankers were skeptical. My
husband was skeptical. The community was skeptical. I had second
thoughts."

Much more of the same follows this opening to what ultimately becomes a
solicitation for you to open a franchise for a crystals and minerals store.

Let me first say that this is textbook perfect marketing drivel. Presumably
the sender, a poor woman once surrounded by skeptics, wants me to be a
live franchising prospect... someone interested in developing a lucrative
business. She doesn't know if I'm such a person or not and doesn't have the
foggiest idea how to elicit my interest. So, instead of focusing on me and
getting me to do something that will demonstrate my potential interest, she
does what the easy (but stupid) thing: focusing on herself and her own
(rather pathetic) story.

The opening line of her sales piece, of course, just makes you scratch your
head; you wonder what it has to do with you. And as for the second
paragraph, the correct response is, "So what?"... what does this have to do
with me? In other words well into the letter from a marketing standpoint we
are nowhere.

For this poor creature -- as for millions of other product and service sellers
attempting to discern prospect wants and possible prospect interest in what
they're selling, the Prospect Questionnaire makes a whole lot more sense.

Developing Your Prospect Questionnaire

A Prospect Questionnaire asks your prospect to tell you about himself...
about what he wants and needs. It about marketing: knowing who you
should be selling to and what he wants. On the other hand, if you don't know
what your prospect wants, selling is nothing more than a random exercise,
the mercantile equivalent of the monkeys and typewriters who, given world
enough and time, produce the works of Shakespeare. But, you see, you don't
have world enough and time...

In the illustration above, what our world-be franchise seller needs to
discover about her prospect (me!) is this:

. Is my prospect interested in being independent, being his own boss?
. Does he like dealing with people?
. Is he interested in beautiful things, like jewelry? (Remember, this business
deals with crystals and minerals)?
. Is he interested in being a front runner, a trend setter?
. Is he interested in making an investment that not only gives him tax
advantages but a return far greater than either bank certificates of deposit
or the Dow Jones?
. Is he a self starter, someone who has drive, self-discipline and a keen
desire to succeed?

You get the idea.

If our now "me-centered" franchise seller found someone who answered
"yes" to most of these questions, don't you think she'd have a prospect who
was at least preliminarily qualified and was worth following up?

Which do you think is better? Sending out hundreds of letters with an
aenemic opening like the one I cited -- and which, I remind you, a real
person spent real money to send? Or, sending a prospect questionnaire to a
select group of people and motivating them to return it with the information
she needs to see who really is a prospect, and who isn't? Obvious, isn't it!

The Form Of Your Prospect Questionnaire

The form of your Prospect Questionnaire will vary slightly depending on
whether you've designed it to stand on its own... or whether it will be
accompanied by a punchy, client-centered cover letter emphasising the
benefits of filling out the questionnaire and returning it promptly.

With A Cover Letter...

If your Prospect Questionnaire is part of a package including a cover letter:

. Write down all your products and services in order of either what most of
your prospects buy or which is the most lucrative for you, (hopefully this is
the same product or service!);
. List two or three benefits the prospect will get when he uses each product
or service. Thus, when my prospects use my book CASH COPY, they learn
how to sell more of their products and services faster.
. When you've finished this list of benefits, select no more than the top 15
benefits which your products or services can deliver. Arrange them in
priority order.
. Now return to the top of the page of your questionnaire. Use a line like this:
"Please tell me which of the following items are of especial intersst to you (or
describe you or you want to know more about)."
. Put a box in front of each item where the prospect can indicate interest.
. Leave space at the bottom of the page for the prospect's name and address
and business and residential telephone numbers.
. Invite the prospect to return the completed questionnaire to you at your
address... or call for faster service. If your item is sufficiently highly priced
to justify the expense, by all means use business reply mail or a stamped,
self-addressed envelope.

Here's an illustration of what a piece of our crystal franchisor's questionnaire
might look like:

Check all those areas that apply to you:

/ / I'm interested in setting my own hours... and not having to work 9 to 5
for someone else.

/ / I want to be on the cutting edge of a new trend... and be responsible for
bringing an exciting new concept to my area.

/ / I love jewelry and beautiful things.

Get the idea? I hope so. I also hope you've noticed that what you're asking
the prospect to do is tell you which benefits he's interested in... not which
features. Benefits motivate people to give you the information you desire;
features don't.

Motivating Immediate Prospect Response

If you want people to give you the information you need so you can sell your
product or service to them, you've got to motivate them to both give you the
data and return it to you... and you've got to do this every chance you get.
The way you phrase your categories is enormously helpful, of course. Which
do you think is more motivational:

/ / I love minerals. Or, / / I love being around and having expensive
jewelry... especially when I can get it at dealer prices!

The second way to motivate people is through your cover letter. Your cover
letter should motivate people to do one of two things: either fill out your
Prospect Questionnaire and return it immediately... or pick up the telephone
to give you the information you want. Your entire selling argument must be
so designed that one of these two crucial things occurs.

Here are some ways to get this response using a cover letter:

. Provide a (small) gift. Consider making this gift available to the first few
respondents only. Thus, in this case, our marketer could provide an
attractive, albeit inexpensive, mineral to the first 10 people returning her
completed questionnaire. In this case, given the size of an investment in a
franchise, the present should be of quality, even if low priced.
. Stress exclusivity and a limited offer. If because of your own limited
resources, you're only going to be able to help three people, then say this
offer is limited to the first three people who return a completed
questionnaire.
. Hammer home the benefits. A one-page cover-letter accompanying a
questionnaire should emphasize at least four major benefits of taking
immediate action to complete and return the questionnaire. It's your
responsibility to sell these benefits to the prospect. Never expect them to
deduce them for themselves.

Without A Cover Letter...

Frankly, it's not always necesssary to use a cover letter with your
questionnaire. Indeed, it's quite easy to make your questionnaire totally
self-contained. Here's an opening you could use if you were selling
marketing products and services:

"You know how much money you're spending on your marketing... and how
much of it is wasted because it doesn't get you new business. Take just three
minutes right now to tell me what you want to accomplish, and I'll get back
to you promptly and help you stop wasting your money and start doing the
things that will get you the new business you really want." The categories
you want your prospect to check come next. (Remember, these must be
benefits and they must relate to your product or service!)

A Few Words About Producing Your Prospect Questionnaire

Your questionnaire should fit neatly onto one side of a single 8 1/2" x 11"
paper. Printing your questionnaires on colored paper (canary is a good
choice) makes sense. And how many should you print? That depends.
Consider all the ways you'll come in contact with prospects in the next
quarter. Will you do:

. workshops and seminars
. prospect mailings
. shipping products
. sending invoices
. responding to requests for information?

Add up the number of people you expect to come in contact with one way
and another in the next 90 days. That's how many prospect questionnaires
you want.

Note: don't print lots of extras. As you get more proficient about phrasing
your questions/categories for prospects, you'll want to rewrite your intial
effort. What's important is that even with an imperfect understanding of this
art form, you start using it, while recognizing that over time you'll get better
at using it. So don't produce lots of copies that may never be used because
you're unhappy with them.

Now Use Them!

What astonishes me is just how many times product and service marketers
could use prospect questionnaires, but don't. Recently, for instance, I spoke
at a major national conference. There were dozens of speakers in
attendance... but to my certain knowledge, I was the only one who
disseminated a Prospect Questionnaire to my audience of 1500 people. And,
because I asked for them to be completed and handed back by the end of
my session (which is the only way to do this), I got back questionnaires from
over 80% of them! All qualified prospects!!!

Thus, here's what you should do:

. Take your prospect questionnaires with you everywhere. Never leave your
office without taking them... and distributing them... wherever you are.
. when your prospects are in the room with you... ask them to take a minute
or two... right then!... and complete the questionnaire. Whether you're
addressing a local service organization... or a major national association, get
people to tell you... immediately... what they're interested in!
. send them out in all your mail; never send another product out without
including one as a package stuffer, and, yes, do what I do: when you're
sitting in yet another late-to-take-off airplane sitting on yet another runway,
stuff them into as many seat pockets and magazines as you can. You just
never know!

Following Up

If you design a client-centered Prospect Questionnaire and constantly
disseminate it, I guarantee you will get prospects... more of them than you've
ever had before. But when you get them, please follow them up. Oh, I know
this sounds obvious, doesn't it? But I'm giving you this advice because of the
man who came to me for assistance designing such a questionnaire. He used
it and  got back heaps of responses... too many he said to respond to! Or the
woman who got me to design a questionnaire for her so she could distribute
it at a local Rotary Club meeting. One of the members indicated that he was
interested in her best (read, most lucrative) service. But it took her over a
month to get back to him. DON'T LET THIS BE YOU.

Now that you know how to create the tool that's going to get your prospects
to tell you what they want, thereby solving one of the major problems of
marketing, don't blow it by failing to respond immediately. After all, since
you're focusing on the benefits your client wants, that's what he expects!
____________________________________________________________________
________

Marketing consultant Dr. Jeffrey Lant can help you sell more of your
products and services... and sell them faster. Use his book CASH COPY: HOW
TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR PROSPECTS BUY THEM...
NOW! ($27.95 postpaid) and MONEY MAKING MARKETING: FINDING THE
PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE THEY BUY IT
($34 postpaid). Get both from The Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog, 50
Follen St., Ste 507, Cambridge, MA 02138 or by calling [phone] with
MC/VISA. Don't forget to ask for your FREE year's subscription to this
quarterly business resource guide featuring 130 ways to make your business
more profitable!