Industry News
How to Use a Marketing Survey to Help Close Corporate Accounts
Posted on April 11, 2011
When closing a deal, you want all the help you can get. One of the best aides you can have is data to back-up your argument. And one of the most convincing forms of data is a marketing survey. Done properly, a marketing survey can seal the deal for you; done wrong it can do you in. How do you get it right?
First, make sure you conduct the marketing survey right to begin with. When constructing the survey, have a clear objective. Without a clear objective, your questions may be irrelevant to the information you need. You may also end up with too many questions, annoying those taking the survey and making analysis of the results difficult. Testing your questions on a small focus group first ensures your target population understands what you are asking and that you are asking the right questions.
Choosing the right instrument for conducting the marketing survey is also important. Mail and phone surveys are traditional methods, as are in-person surveys. More and more surveys are conducted through websites and social networking. These can be particularly useful for surveying existing customers and getting quick responses.
Second, present the results effectively. You are conducting the marketing survey to convince decision makers. Don't bury the results in a long series of slides filled with charts and graphs. Give them the bottom line first and add supporting information if necessary.
If you can get by with one slide which sums up the survey in your favor, go with it. Have additional information ready if you need it to back-up your opening slide, but use only as much as you need to convince your audience.
Remember, the goal is not to show all the work you did in creating, conducting, and analyzing a marketing survey, the goal is to close the account. You could easily turn a winning presentation into a loser by not being attuned to the needs and response of your audience.
When using a marketing survey to close corporate accounts, use a two step process. Step one is to conduct the survey the right way. Step two is to present the results effectively. Now, get out there and put it to work.
