2.3 The Survey Deployment Process

At the risk of “preaching to the choir,” I can’t stress ENOUGH just how powerful and important deploying Surveys are in your business!

Let’s look at the problems most online marketers face…

My Facebook Ads won’t convert (or they’re too expensive!)

My Webinar tanked (no sales!)

No one is buying my stuff!

No one is opting in for my “freebie!”

…and the list goes on!

Stop trying to be the psychic with the crystal ball, “predicting” what your customers want!

It’s so much easier to ask them. In fact, it’s so darn easy, it will feel like you're cheating.  

So, this is where we draw a line in the sand and pledge to no longer ASSUME (“makin’ an ass out of U & ME”) what our customers want.

You’ll no longer ASSUME you have the PERFECT PRODUCT that you know they NEED!  

Sell them what they ACTUALLY want…

…THEN you can give them what they really need!

And the only want to know what they ACTUALLY want, is to ASK THEM!

Ready?

If you want to find out EXACTLY what your audience wants, you can’t just ask them, “What do you want?”

Why?  

Because most people are clueless to what they want. They have no idea! It’s a question that will stump them.  

Plus… they may THINK they know what they want, and it may not be what they really, REALLY want.

So, instead there is a much easier approach:  You ask them for the OPPOSITE.

“What is it you DON’T want?”

Or, in other words: “What is your #1 Biggest Struggle or Frustration?”

This beautiful question is the focal point in Ryan Levesque’s book: ASK. I can’t recommend it enough. If you want to take this conversation about Surveys deeper, GRAB THAT BOOK NOW!

When you ask your audience what they don’t want, they’ll immediately tell you all the problems they have. You see, that’s how the brain is wired. It’s a survival mechanism. Our brain looks for problems, danger, and threats. And it focuses on them.  

So, when you ASK someone what their struggles are, they’ll tell ya!

And it’s simply your job (in the Data Interpretation Phase) to figure out HOW TO REMOVE THEIR PROBLEM!  

Setting up your survey is simple! SurveyMonkey is a great tool to use for setting up your survey.

In Survey Monkey, click "Create Survey" in the upper-right corner.

If you have not created a Survey before, you can create one from scratch.

Select the option to add a new question. On the top left, you will see the option to choose multiple choice, dropdown options, rating options, etc. Repeat this process for all of your questions.

Best Practice:  Only ONE Question per page.  Multiple questions will quickly overwhelm and deter your audience.

You can customize your Survey on the lefthand side of your SurveyMonkey window.

In my latest round of asking, I conducted two different types of Surveys. The first was Ryan Levesque’s Deep Dive Survey with the ONE Question. 

Question #1: When it comes to building your online business, what is your #1 BIGGEST Struggle or Frustration?

And then, I offer an optional “follow-up question” asking for their niche and their contact information.

Question #3 asks the respondent to leave their contact information.

And WHY do we do this?

The reason is simple. Question #1 flushes out the problem, the pain, and the unwanted.

Question #2 tells us more about WHO this person is (or how they identify themselves) and Question #3 QUALIFIES this user. By leaving their contact info, they show just how SERIOUS they are about solving this problem.

As you’ll learn in the Interpretation Phase, I put far more weight into the responses that include contact information than the ones that don’t.

Next I made a second Survey to a different segment of my audience. In the next section, I’ll talk about the power of segmenting and who you should really be sending your Surveys to!

But, so you have a little more context, I sent THIS survey to everyone who went through my LAST video series for my Signature Marketing Program: Business By Design.

It was made up of 6 questions (I know it sounds like a lot!).

Here they are…

The 6-Question Survey:

#1. Have you ever tried _____?  If No, why not?

#2. What is your #1 Biggest Struggle or Obstacle?

#3. How are these problems affecting you?

#4. What is the ideal Solution?

#5. What are you hoping to achieve?

#6. If you could sit down and ask me any question, what would it be?

The POWER of these 6 Simple Questions

Even though there are more questions here, and you may not get as many people to fill out ALL of them, each of these questions offer a very specific intention or purpose. Let’s take a closer look…

#1. Have you ever tried _____? If No, why not?

When someone answers “no” and shares why not, you’ve just found your audience’s OBJECTIONS.  

For example, if I ask, “Have you ever tried using VIDEO to market your business? If no, why not?”

And the response is, “I don’t like how I look on camera.”

I now have an OBJECTION: "I don’t like how I look on camera/video."

Now it’s my job to address that objection in my marketing.

I can either a) HELP people look BETTER on camera (i.e. better lighting, etc) or I can b) TEACH them how to make videos WITHOUT being on camera.  

Objection destroyed!

#2. What is your #1 Biggest Struggle or Obstacle?

This is our PAIN question from before. This question helps us to identify the EXTERNAL PROBLEM. Remember, when someone tells you what they are struggling with, you can simply look to the SOLUTION or removal of that pain. Ask yourself, “How can I help this person? What is the solution?”

#3. How are these problems affecting you?

This question gets us to probe the INTERNAL PROBLEM. The feelings, emotions, and thoughts they feel. Ultimately, this is the negative experience this person is trying to avoid. When you know this, your message becomes extremely powerful.

#4. What is the ideal Solution?

This questions helps us to identify the EXTERNAL SOLUTION. How do they want their life to look. What solutions are they thinking about already? What do they want their day to look like.  

#5. What are you hoping to achieve?

And this question offers the INTERNAL SOLUTION. This is the positive emotion, feeling, or thoughts they are moving towards (or wish to move towards)

#6. If you could sit down and ask me any question, what would it be?

And lastly, this question allows us the opportunity to see… what else? This question alone can give you content and topic ideas for months!

After you have entered in all of your Survey questions and customized your Survey, click 'Next' to get deployment options. Choose the link that you will use to deploy your Survey.

If you would like to embed your Survey on a webpage, click "Embed," and SurveyMonkey will give you several options for inserting your link.

You can then customize the size and color of your Survey as it will appear directly on your site as an embedded Survey.

Now that you have the link to embed your Survey onto your hosting site, you can then send your Survey to your audience!

So… who do you send your Survey to?

I think it is a very bad practice to put your Survey in front of anyone who doesn’t already know you. Spamming other random Facebook Groups with a link to your Survey is a poor approach.

Here’s why…

Your audience (no matter how small!) is YOUR audience. They have rapport with you... a relationship with you. So, not only do they feel like they can open up to you and share authentically… BUT… YOU are unique. You are special. You’ve attracted a specific type of audience. And you will continue to attract that type of audience. So to ask ANOTHER type of audience is pointless.

For instance…

Ever since I got married, I’ve noticed this bizarre phenomenon: more and more Couple-Entrepreneurs have been joining my programs. In fact, 40% of my high-level Mastermind group is made up of Husband & Wife Teams.

I have NEVER had that experience before. So… why now? Well, it’s simple: as I share my story about how my wife and I work together, it attracts others who are LIKE me. Other Husband & Wife Teams resonate with me and want to learn more from me.  

YOU are you. And others resonate with the uniqueness of you. They are drawn to you for the uniqueness that makes you... YOU. So… going to someone else’s group and asking THOSE people what they are struggling with is a waste of your time! Make sense?

Okay, so to whom do we send our Survey?

Answer: YOUR Community! Your email list. Your Facebook Group (or Page!), or wherever else your peeps are hanging out!

In fact, here is one of the emails I sent to my email list asking them to fill out my Survey:

Asking is Easier Than You Think… just tell them WHY

Don’t over think this. If you have an engaged audience… just ask! Just make sure you tell them WHY you are doing the Survey (and the answer is never: so I can sell you stuff!).

If you read the example above, you’ll notice I’m simply asking people to help me with “topic ideas” and content for my podcast and videos… content that will help them!  

That’s it. No bribe. No incentive. Just a simple, “Hey! Help me help you!”  …and a link to your Survey!

Ok, let’s talk SEGMENTING!

This topic becomes more relevant the larger your email list becomes. The basic segment begins with:

Segment A: Existing Customers

Segment B: Non-Customers

If I wanted more of Segment B to become Segment A, I would email Segment B a Survey and ask them, “What are you struggling with?” Make sense?

But even those two segments can be broken down further.

Segment A: Existing Customers

…can be broken down into all the different products you have (ex. Product A Customer vs Product B Customer)

And Segment B: Non-Customers

…can be broken down into different traffic sources (How did they find you? Which lead magnets did they sign up for?) or what previous actions/behaviors they’ve taken.

In fact, we did something rather interesting…

Since my Survey is to help craft my Video Series for my next Business By Design launch, I sent the FIRST Survey to everyone who watched the LAST video series but didn’t buy (that is my MOST relevant audience right now, and I pay close attention to their responses).

But there is SO much more you can do…

You can send a Survey out right after your launch asking people why they didn’t buy.

You can email your existing customers and ask WHY they bought? What else they are struggling with? What else the product/offer needs?

You can add a Survey to your funnel or opt-in.

The options are endless! The goal is that you ACTUALLY DO IT!

“But James! I don’t have a big email list!”

Good! You have a leg up on the competition!  A small list means you can do things that bigger businesses can not!  Side note: I must stress that it should be your #1 goal to GROW your email list. It’s okay to have a small list now, just make sure you are ALWAYS focusing on growing it.

So, if you have NO email list, well, you’re gonna have to get started. And it’s not the intention of this process to jump into list-building, but the simple answer is: start running FB ADS to a webinar or something and build your list. Building your list means building your business. And if you are saying, “But James I don’t have the money to pay for ads,”  that’s because you aren’t building your email list! No list, no money!  

…and your only other option for building your list is to spend MONTHS of hard work building your list organically… and I’m sorry, but your TIME is much more valuable than your MONEY. You can’t really get time back, can you?

Okay, okay! Rant over… let’s talk tiny list!  

If you have 50-800 email subscribers, your job is easy! Don’t send them to a Survey! Just ask them to hit “reply” and share their answer in their email!  

Below is an example of an “Exit Survey” I sent people who did NOT sign up for Business By Design, and notice that I didn’t send them to a Survey, I just asked them to hit “reply” and let me know why!

If you have a small list, you can do the SAME THING!

ex: “I’m working on some new content for this quarter, and I was hoping to get your feedback and input into what you need help with right now. Please take just a quick moment to share with me what your #1 BIGGEST struggle is when it comes to ________.

Simply hit “reply” and let me know!

I promise to read each and every email!

Thank you!”

BOOM! Easy, right? Well it should be… AND this actually makes it easy for your subscribers to give you the answers you’re looking for!

After your Surveys come in, this is the absolute crucial piece. Please don’t rush this. Don’t make the mistake I used to make and ASSUME you know what your peeps want and need.

Step #1: Read each Survey Response aloud and slowly. Or better yet, have someone read them to you.

Just stay present to each response. Try and get their world. How do they feel? What is this like for them?  Just listen. Don’t jump to solutions yet. Listen. Stay present.

Step #2:  Create a Two-Column Spreadsheet with Problem & Solutions.  

You’ll want to write out EACH problem from all the Surveys. You’ll also want to take note of which responses are most popular. I tally up the responses and rank them in order of “popularity.” That’s important.  

Then, after I write out each summary of the “problem,” I list out examples of possible solutions. Content, training.. anything I can offer to help remove the problem.  

Step #3.  Identify the Most Popular Responses to the Other Questions.

If you did the 6-Question Survey, you’ll want to go through each one of those to find out the most popular/common responses to each of those questions. I like to only focus on the TOP 5. Notice the common themes that appear PLUS the language/words used to describe these answers.   

That’s what I did. There’s always more you can do. Any notes or ideas that come up for you, just write them down.  he key is just to stay as present as possible to these responses.

Okay… so what the HECK do you do now?!

I think this is the most common question I hear. What are you supposed to do with all of this?!

The answer is: EVERYTHING.  

Marketing is simply putting the right MESSAGE and the right OFFER in front of the right AUDIENCE.  

All the ingredients to do that are now inside your Survey Responses. Your audience will tell you EXACTLY what they want and how they want it. You just have to be willing to listen… and repeat.

For example:

One response to the “Struggle" Question I got was:

“I’m struggling to spread the word, get exposure... getting known as the “go-to” guy.”

As a “Negative Consequence” he experiences:

“Slow growth and low revenue.”  

Whatever I sell, if it doesn’t help this person get the word out and be seen as the GO-TO Guy, he won’t be interested. So, watch this simple formula in action to see how you can sell MANY things to this one person.

Formula: You’ll learn ______ so that________.

ex 1: Discover how to rank YouTube Videos so you can get found and become the Go-To Person in your marketplace!

ex 2: Discover how to Master Facebook Ads so you can get massive exposure and transform yourself into the Go-To Person in your marketplace!

ex 3: Discover the secrets to sold-out webinars so you can get massive exposure and transform yourself into the Go-To Person in your marketplace!

Okay… that’s it! Now it’s your turn!

Go forth and Survey!  

You will learn:

-Essential questions to clearly identify your Customer Avatar.
-What is an Avatar?
-Identify vs Situational Avatar
-FB Group Discovery Process