Use Customer Feedback Surveys as Valuable Sales Tools

Have you ever noticed that whenever it's time for budget cuts, marketing programs, and market research are always at the top of the list?  That's because these activities tend to fall into the "nice to have or nice to do" category of expenses rather than the "must do" category.  I mean, when have you ever seen a company cut down on production or sales when times are tough and they need to get orders in and push orders out?

Exactly.

Well, today is the day I'm going to give you a much-needed contextual whack on the side of the head.  Today I'm going to show you how you can use your survey tool as a valuable "trigger event" predictor that will help you bring sales through the door -- and look like a hero.

Trigger events are all around you and they are sales just waiting for you to close them-- you just have to see them

Craig Elias is the man behind the "Trigger Event" -- or perhaps he calls it "Event Trigger", any way you slice it, he has made a profitable living paying attention to those small actions potential buyers take that signal a big purchase.  If you want more details than I'm going to cover here, check out his blog or better yet, pick up a copy of his book, Shift .

Here's how trigger events work.  There are incidents or events that occur that prompt or trigger us to go looking for a product, service -- solution.  For example, pregnancy is a trigger event, as is buying a house or getting married.  You get the idea; an event happens and suddenly you're in the market for a whole lot of things.

This is where your surveys can come in really handy.

1. Segment your customer list.  This is critical to the art of customer success. Your customers will be frustrated and unsubscribe if you send them unrelated messages and surveys.
2. Design several surveys designed to tag and measure your customers' progress along an event cycle.  For each segment, you'll want to design a survey (or surveys) that pinpoint your customers "location" on a purchasing event timeline.  For example; have you had a baby in the last 6 months?
3. Send surveys regularly to catch an event trigger and market to it.

The real business benefit to your organization will be not only having a closer connection to what's happening in your customers' lives, but actually being able to track and predict where they are in your selling cycle.