Why Survey Data Isn’t as Important as Talking to Customers
What can your business learn from the pre-Presidential election polls? Elections are mostly a “luck of the draw.” Our country is divided roughly 45% Republicans and Democrats, Conservatives and Liberals. The other 10%, give or take are the undecided and that’s what our Presidential races are largely about.
From what I can gather, in this latest Presidential election, the media pundits had Hillary beating Trump by 3 – 10 percentage points, depending on what poll you check. Obviously, that wasn’t the case and from this, we learned a lesson from Trump’s campaign. Let me explain.
Surveys are important, and we should all survey our customers. But what’s also important is to TALK to customers. To GO SHAKE hands and get the HUMAN perspective of someone – which a poll can never give you.
It’s easy for people to “check off” a box to indicate one preference or another. But until you talk to someone, or until it’s time for them to BUY from you (or vote), you really won’t know what they think.
Intuit did this well with their “follow me home” program. In this program, they went to the homes and businesses of customers to understand the MIND of their customer and prospective customer.
The “post-election” pundits are now saying the Trump campaign’s data showed different data than the national polls showed. Regardless of the details of one campaign or another, the professional pollsters got it wrong.
Can you afford to get “it” wrong in your business? I doubt it.
“It” might be a new product launch, a new campaign or something else. You want to be sure your data is as accurate as possible.
Survey your customers and TALK to them.
Smart Hustle Resources