3 Ways to Improve Your Market Research

How well do you know your customer?

If you don’t know your customer…stop being an entrepreneur.

When you know your customer you know what they want and what they need.

When you know what your customer needs you know what to give them.

That is the secret sauce of every entrepreneurial endeavor.

It’s great to have a passion. And it’s a true talent to translate that passion into a viable product, but if no one needs or knows about your product…who cares?

Like you’ve heard me say before, don’t tell me about your great product. Tell about the person you’re going to sell it to.

Successful entrepreneurialism is about intimately knowing your ideal customer, the person you sell to the most.

There are billions of products out in the world’s marketplace now.

How do you rise above them all?

Not by screaming the loudest about your amazing product. Being the loudest has never been what successful, small business marketing has been about.

In To Me See

Intimacy. It’s a powerful word. You gotta get intimate with your buying partner. Getting seen is about knowing your customer and what they need, what they’re looking for.

And remember, for as many products as there are on the market these days, there are people looking for something. Trust that while you’re looking for them, they’re looking for you.

The first two posts this month were about how to get to know your customer. But how do you get to know your customer? What questions do you ask? 

Let me tell you a story.

Back in 2016 I had the good fortune of interviewing my friend, Ryan Levesque. He’s the author of the book, Ask. and owner of The Ask Method Company.

In the interview he told me how he and his wife had a jewelry making business online and were getting nowhere. No one was buying these products that Ryan and Tylene had put their heart and soul into making.

He didn’t know what they were doing wrong. So “out of desperation” he started emailing people on his list and asking them why they weren’t buying his jewelry.

Now let’s just break this part down. He ran into a problem. So he asked his market why they weren’t buying! And guess what? They answered. Mind. Blown.

It sounds so simple. But can I tell you how many marketers and entrepreneurs come to me right at this point? Right at this very point when Ryan decided to reach out and ask his market, other entrepreneurs freak out, tuck tail and run. Or get in bed and stay there for a week.

When they run out of breath or get bored in bed they come to me ask me! They ask me, “why isn’t my business working???” “What am I doing wrong?” “Why aren’t they buying from me?”

So that’s lesson #1. Just f**ing ask the question. But, if you want to put me out of business, don’t ask me. Ask your market.

That’s not even why I’m telling you this story…

So what Ryan found out when he asked, “Why didn’t you guys buy from us?” is really why I’m telling you this story.

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What he found out is this.

He thought he and his wife were marketing their jewelry to one market. In fact, they were marketing to four different markets.

He goes onto to say, “Each had completely different wants, needs and desires, and it set me off on this path to realize that trying to be a one-size-fits-all solution to everything was not the answer.”

The moral of this story is this. You gotta have a great product. But that’s not enough.

You gotta have a great funnel. But that’s not enough.

You gotta have a great marketing strategy. But that’s not enough.

You gotta build your list. But that’s not enough.

You gotta know your ideal customer. But even that’s not enough.

You have to organize and synthesize all the information you gather about your ideal customer.

Then you have to ask them questions again and again and again.

Finally you’re getting close to figuring out how to sell your product successfully.

When you start your market research you have to start asking the right questions in the right way and you have to keep doing it over and over again.

What’s on Your Bucket List?

In that interview Ryan went on to describe how he divided his list into different segments or buckets and started marketing differently to each segment.

He realized that it wasn’t enough to study and know your ideal customer. You need to then study your whole list and figure out how to segment it in order to market effectively to each ideal customer.

But first you have to ask questions. So how do you ask?

Do you straight up ask people, “hey, what do you want?”

Nope.

“If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have told me ‘faster horses.’ ”

 —Henry Ford

“Focus groups are worthless. People don’t know what they want until we show it to them.” 

—Steve Jobs

These quotes ring true don’t they? Because they are true. If Steve Jobs came up to you in 1996 and asked, “Hey, what do you want?”

I guarantee you would not have said, “I’d love a product with a sleek design that plays music, allows me to access this thing called the internet anywhere I am and that lets me make phone calls and text messages. Can you whip that up, Steve?”

But there is a way to ask that allows you to create an intimate relationship with your list. In a word, surveys. Surveys are a great way to collect the data you are looking for from your list. And surveys allow you to focus and narrow your questions so you get the exact info you’re looking for.

Surveys let you get intimate with your ideal customer and let you figure out how to segment your list.

How to Structure Your Surveys

Say you’re starting with a sizable list already. You can’t email your list questions like, “Hey, what do you want?” That’s too vague. People will get frustrated and trash your email. Or they may endeavor to answer you only to make you more confused.

You need to structure your questions properly and you need to time them appropriately. Here are three examples that Ryan gave from that same interview that narrow your search for relevant knowledge.

These are great ways to structure your questions to get maximum and targeted information.

The Deep Dive

The first type of survey is the Deep Dive. This survey is dedicated to getting to know your ideal customer. This is usually done at the launch of your business or a new product. And you only do it once, say, when someone new enters your list.

If you don’t have a list you can still do this survey by targeting buyers with product sampling that includes a questionnaire. This way you find out who who’s interested in your product and start getting info from them immediately.

The Deep Dive is a great way to gather a lot of general information you can use later.

The Micro-Commitment

This is a permanent part of your customer acquisition process. You’ll use this process over and over again. It’s efficient and effective. The micro-commitment is a short, multiple-choice question you use to categorize new customers.

The main characteristic of a micro-commitment is that it’s just that: one, small commitment at a time in the form of a question.

The micro commitment is a non-threatening way to gather information over time. You ask small, innocuous questions that don’t trigger a fight or flight response in people’s brains. In other words, it’s not overwhelming.

You’ll use the one-question surveys over and over again in your business to stay knowledgeable about your market and stay ahead of the curve, anticipating what it wants.

The “Do You Hate Me”

When people aren’t buying from you, you need to find out why. Don’t ask me. Ask your market. Go directly to your customers. And the “Do you hate me” question is a great way to do that. It sort of breaks the ice for someone who haven’t had much contact with.

There will always be one segment of your list who isn’t buying. Find out why? You especially want this information after a big product launch.

It doesn’t have to be “Do you hate me?” It could be “Was it something I said?” or “Did I say something wrong?” A provocative question that gets their attention.

This question allows you to stay in touch with your list as well as gather more info about what didn’t work with your last launch or product.

Related Post: What People Find Most Challenging About Selling Their Product
Related Post: Give Me As Long As It Takes to Read This Post…
Related Post:  Take The Guesswork Out of Sales Funnels

The Wrap Up

These templates help you structure your questions so they’re a little bit counterintuitive. You sort of enter from the side door. I’m not talking about being sneaky.

I’m talking about not being aggressive or pushy.

Questions like, “Are you a man or a woman?” or “What’s the one thing that was missing from my product that you wanted to see?”

These are simple, specific questions that get you the exact information you need to grow your business and create your next quality product.

Do you want to know exactly what questions to ask???

Are you finding this ideal customer nonsense confusing? Do you need some targeted assistance with who your market is and how to reach them?

I have a 4 Part video series I will give you that dives deep into how to translate your message to your market —  click here to get it for no-charge, and transform your message into high paying clients.  You will learn how to dial in your market research and get to know your ideal customer so you can find even even more of them… and a whole lot more.  

What kind of questions have you asked your market?
What kinds of surveys have you conducted? 
What’s worked and what hasn’t?
What do you need help with?

Click here and start the conversation >>