Page 27 - Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing - PDFDrive.com

Oral surveys more accurately show exactly what the person being interviewed
thinks and feels.

For a dozen reasons, conduct oral surveys, not written ones.

The One Question You Should Never Ask

What don’t you like about the company or the service?”
Don’t ask that.
You’re asking someone to admit they made a bad decision in choosing that

company. People won’t do that; people like to look smart.
Never ask “What don’t you like?”

Focus Groups Don’t

A typical discussion:
“We need some information.”
“OK, let’s do a focus group.”
It’s very tempting to summon focus groups. For one thing, the term “focus

groups” is clever packaging. A “survey” sounds like something that only gives
you the lay of the land. “Focus group,” by contrast, sounds like something that
gets you zeroed in.

Or so you would think.
But you are selling individuals, not groups. Focus groups tell more about
group dynamics than about market dynamics. Control types take over focus
group sessions and try to persuade the others. The wise but shy types sit quietly,
waiting for the hour to end. People’s views get changed and distorted by other
people’s views.
You’re selling individuals.Talk to individuals.