Do you know what makes you different or how you stand out from other businesses?  Get the information you need to improve your marketing. Ask your clients!

Here are two questions that you can use for easy market research.

As part of your initial conversation when you talk with a potential client, ask these two questions at the start of the conversation:

1. How did they find you?
2. What made them call you?

The responses will be rich with information. Here’s what you can potentially learn by asking:

• Where your leads are really coming from
  • Is it referrals from colleagues or other professionals, your website, an article you wrote or somebody you didn’t realize is championing your cause?
• The trigger that gets people to call you
  • Is it something in particular they read on your website, something they learned about your work, a chance comment they heard someone make, or a tipping point in their personal situation that compelled them to call. Get very specific with this question.
• How fast someone is acting when they hear about you
  • Are they calling right away or holding on to your number for weeks?
• Why they chose you
  • Ask this specifically. You may learn of a powerful reason you had not realized made any difference.
  • You may also find out that you don’t particularly stand out, it was just “the right time”.
  • Either way, you’ll know exactly where you stand and what you need to do to beef things up.

Asking these questions will give you the information you need to improve your marketing so that your message can both reach and resonate with your ideal clients.

It’s the best form of market research because you are not guessing or asking friends and colleagues to speculate. You are asking the person who is considering using your services at the point they are making a decision.

Don’t be shy and don’t think you can wait until later. Ask at the moment they are having the very same conversation in their mind.

Asking not only helps you understand your market better, it’s also a golden opportunity to reinforce the message that they are making the right choice. And, if the only reason they called is because yours is the first number they saw when their pain escalated enough to make them pick up the phone, you can enhance that by confirming their decision and telling them the reason they made a good choice.

Added Bonus:  If you are getting a lot of inquiries from people who are not a good fit for your business or for working with you, pay close attention to how they answer these questions. Something is attracting them to you. It could be in your marketing message. Market research can help you to revamp your message so that it doesn’t attract the wrong person to your business.

Why not create a list of these questions so you can write down the responses from each caller? It will help you spot trends, track consistencies and identify weak points in your marketing. In fact, you can download the one I use below.

Start doing this today and you’ll know what you need to tweak in your marketing to get more calls from the people with whom you most want to work.

Want a copy of the form I use? Just tell me where to send it: