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he wants.
This is what politicians do.
President Clinton and his advisors were obsessed with conducting
surveys and focus groups to find out what voters were thinking, what
was on their minds, what they wanted. And then Clinton would craft his
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message exactly according to what the polls were telling him and his
speechwriters.
President Clinton was a master politician. He was a master marketer
and salesman. His approach was scientific. The survey data came in. He
crafted his message accordingly.
We can do the same thing in all our marketing and sales work. We
can conduct surveys both to find qualified prospects, and also to help us
zero in more accurately on what our existing customers want.
Another great feature of surveys is that people like filling them out.
People love an opportunity to give their opinions about things. You can
also offer a reward to those who fill out and return your survey perhaps
a free special report on a subject you know is of interest to your reader.
A well-crafted letter and survey to a good list should be able to get a
15 percent or even a 20 percent response rate.
The answers you get back from your surveys should then be organ-
ized and entered into a database.
Let s say you are selling a variety of health products. Health care ex-
penses account for about one-seventh of the entire U.S. economy, so the
virtue of this field is that everyone is interested in their health. Everyone
has concerns about health, the quality of health care, the cost of health
care, and government policy on health care.
And most people will be interested in completing a survey on their
health care if they believe their participation in the survey might lead to
better health, lower health care costs, and a longer or healthier life. Senior
citizens are especially concerned about health care. So you might start by
targeting your letter to the over-60 crowd.
Here s how you might begin your letter, the goal being to persuade
your reader to complete and return your survey:
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National Research Survey
On America sHealth Care Needs
and Concerns
Dear Mrs. Jones,
You have been specially selected to partici-
pate in this National Research Survey on Amer-
ica s Health Care Needs and Concerns.
The results of this survey will be submitted
in a report to Congress and the President of the
United States.
I am hoping you will take just a few minutes
of your time to complete this important research
poll.
Your participation will help ensure that your
voice is counted and heard as the President and
Congress prepare to reform Medicare and change
how health care is delivered in America.
The results of this survey report will also be
submitted to America s leading pharmaceutical
companies and medical research institutions.
In addition, all participants in this survey
will receive a free copy of the final survey
report.
Your individual answers will be held in confi-
dence. Only the overall results will be made
public.
We have selected 355,000 citizens from across
America to participate in this poll, representing
every congressional district.
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Because this survey is so large, you can be
sure Congress and the White House will study the
results carefully. And it will have a major im-
pact on the Medicare and health care debate in
Congress over the coming months, when crucial
decisions on Medicare and the delivery of health
care will be made.
So I hope you will make a special point of
completing and returning your survey for process-
ing today.
The survey letter starts this way because you must give your reader
some compelling reasons to take the time and effort to fill out and return
the survey.
The incentive in this case is the promise of having an impact on the
health care and Medicare-reform debate taking place in Congress.
The incentive is having one s voice heard and counted by the power-
ful important decision-makers whose decisions will have a major im-
pact on all of our lives.
People vote in elections because they want their voice, their opinion,
to count. People will fill out a survey like this for the same reason.
The letter will continue to develop these points.
The survey questions then become very important.
The survey should begin with a series of public policy issue questions
concerning Medicare and health care delivery in America, questions
along the lines of:
·ð Do you think Medicare should be changed to be a program
only for those who can t afford health insurance?
·ð Are you in favor of more government control over
health care, or less?
·ð Do you believe government should guarantee health
care for all Americans?
·ð How do you rate the overall quality of health care in
America?
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·ð Are you for or against the President s proposal to . . .?
·ð Would you like to see Congress make all your medical
and health care expenses tax-deductible?
After you complete the public policy questions, you start to move into
more personal questions.
·ð What is your age range?
·ð What is your income range?
·ð Approximately how much do you spend on medical
treatment each year?
·ð How much do you spend on prescription drugs each year?
·ð How much do you spend on vitamins each year?
·ð How much do you spend on supplements each year?
·ð Which prescription drugs do you use most?
·ð Do you now have health insurance?
·ð How concerned are you about the quality of your
current coverage?
·ð What is your weight?
·ð What is your height?
·ð Do you belong to a gym or health club?
·ð How much exercise do you do a week?
·ð What kinds of regular exercise do you focus on?
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·ð How do you rate your overall health?
And there are all kinds of other related questions you might ask, de-
pending on the information you need. Can you see how the answers to
such questions could be very helpful to a marketer of health products?
Your survey should be an impressive, very official-looking document,
a four-page booklet at a minimum. I often construct 8-page surveys.
Your survey should look like it might have been produced by a govern-
ment agency perhaps the Census Bureau, or an academic or medical re-
search institution.
And, as you promised in your letter, you will deliver an impressive
report to Congress and the White House on the results of the survey,
which truly can have an impact on the policy debate.
You do everything you say you will do with the survey, including de-
livering a copy of the final report to all who participated. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]