Competitor survey questions: What would make buyers switch to you?
A rival's lower price may be visible while the real switching obstacle stays hidden. Reconstruct the buyer's last decision before asking what would change it.
Ask buyers what they were trying to do, which alternatives they considered and what they chose before asking how your offer could win. Starting with “Would you switch for a lower price?” supplies an explanation before the buyer has described the decision.
Framewell sells client-approval software to creative agencies. Its team suspects that a cheaper rival is winning business and wants to decide whether to cut its price or improve the product. This illustrative brief includes agencies that adopted software, kept another tool, continued using email and shared documents, or postponed a change. Each outcome can reveal a requirement the sales team has missed.
Choose people who took part in a real decision
For this study, recruit adults at U.S. creative or advertising agencies who personally helped evaluate, recommend or approve a client-feedback workflow during a review completed in the past six months. Include reviews that ended with a decision to keep the existing process. Ask one participant per agency for the main account-level readout.
An invitation sent only to lost prospects would omit agencies that never considered Framewell. A customer list would omit people who chose another route. Keep the recruitment source beside the results and describe the agencies the study actually reached. AAPOR recommends defining the research objective and considering which other records are needed alongside survey answers.
The instrument below records the participant's account of a decision. A paid contract or a completed migration would need its own supporting record if either becomes material to the recommendation.
Establish eligibility before naming competitors
Use these questions in order. A respondent can skip a question or stop. End on an unanswered eligibility question. Keep other skipped answers separate from the explicit options below.
Question | Exact wording, answers and route |
|---|---|
S1. Adult participant | Are you aged 18 or older? Yes → S2. No or Prefer not to answer → end. |
S2. Agency location | In which country is the agency you work for based? United States → S3. Another country or Don't know → end. |
S3. Organization | Which best describes the organization you work for? Creative or advertising agency → S4. Another type of agency. In-house team at a brand. Independent freelancer. Another organization. Prefer not to answer. All other answers → end for this brief. |
S4. Involvement | Which of these did you personally do in the most recent review of how your agency collects client feedback or approvals? Select all that apply. Compared possible approaches. Recommended an approach. Approved the decision. Used the approach but did none of those things. None of these. Don't remember. At least one of the first three → S5. Otherwise → end. Make the last three options exclusive. |
S5. Decision period | When did that review finish? Include a decision to keep the existing process or postpone a change. Within the past month. More than one month and up to three months ago. More than three and up to six months ago. More than six months ago. The review is still in progress. Don't remember. First three → Q1. Otherwise → end. |
Keep the agency and participant study IDs outside the questionnaire text. If several colleagues contribute, link their accounts to one agency and retain disagreements. Three colleagues from the same agency are three perspectives on one buying decision.
Reconstruct the choice before prompting reasons
The questions deliberately ask for unaided accounts before showing a list of factors. Pew Research Center explains that wording and earlier questions can influence later answers. Pretest the whole sequence with people like those you intend to recruit, including an agency that kept its old process. Source: Pew's questionnaire-design guidance.
Question | Exact wording, answers and route |
|---|---|
Q1. Starting workflow | Before that review, how did your agency collect client feedback and record approvals? Open text. Ask for the tools or combination used. Don't remember is valid. Continue to Q2. |
Q2. Trigger | What prompted the review at that time? Open text. Nothing in particular and Don't remember are valid. Continue to Q3. |
Q3. Alternatives considered | Which approaches did your agency seriously consider during the review? Include keeping the existing process if that was considered. Open text. Record names and combinations in the participant's words. None and Don't remember are valid. Continue to Q4. |
Q4. Actual trial | For each approach named in Q3, ask Did anyone at your agency try this approach on a client project during the review? Yes. No. Don't know. If Q3 names no approach, skip to Q5. A demonstration alone does not count as a client project. |
Q5. Review outcome | What did your agency decide at the end of the review? Adopt a different dedicated approval tool. Adopt a different combination of general tools. Keep the existing dedicated approval tool. Keep the existing general-tool process. Postpone a change. Another outcome, please describe. Don't know. Continue to Q6. |
Q6. Selected workflow | Which tool or combination did the agency use after the review? If a change was postponed, what did it continue using? Open text. Don't know is valid. Continue to Q7. |
Q7. Decisive reason | What was the most important reason for that outcome? Open text. Don't know is valid. Continue to Q8. |
Q8. Decision criteria | Which factors, if any, did your agency use to compare the approaches? Select up to three. Total cost. Time to start using it. Access for client reviewers. Handling files and versions. Keeping earlier records. Approval controls. Fit with other tools. Another factor, please describe. None. Don't know. Randomize the first seven. Keep None and Don't know exclusive. Continue to Q9. |
Q9. Disqualifying condition | What, if anything, ruled out an approach your agency considered? Please name the approach and what ruled it out. Open text. Nothing and Don't know are valid. Continue to Q10. |
Q10. Future reconsideration | What, if anything, would need to change before your agency reviewed this choice again? Open text. Nothing and Don't know are valid. End. |
Q7 captures the participant's first explanation. Q8 captures recognition of possible criteria after prompting. Keep those outputs separate. Selecting cost from a list does not establish that price caused the final decision.
The same distinction applies to Q4. A tool that was mentioned, demonstrated or trialled has reached different points in the buying process. Use those differences to choose the next investigation instead of combining them into a single popularity score.
Build the readout around agency decisions
Return one row per agency containing its starting workflow, review period, alternatives considered, trial status for each, selected workflow, outcome and reason codes. Retain the original open answer beside each code. Allow several codes where the answer supports them, so coded reasons may exceed the number of agencies.
Readout | Base and interpretation |
|---|---|
Considered Framewell | Agencies naming Framewell in Q3 divided by eligible agencies with a usable Q3 answer. Show explicit None and unknown answers separately. |
Trialled Framewell | Agencies reporting an actual-project trial divided by agencies that considered Framewell and answered its Q4 item. Keep Don't know visible. |
Selected Framewell | Agencies naming it in Q6, with Q5's outcome retained. Show the count among all usable selected-workflow answers and among those that considered it. |
Kept or deferred | Show the separate Q5 outcomes. Retaining email, retaining a rival and postponing a decision need different responses. |
Price as a reason | Code unprompted Q7 answers separately from Q8's prompted cost selection. Report each with its own valid-answer base. |
Conditions for switching | Group Q9's reported barriers separately from Q10's future conditions. Keep the named approach and original answer with each theme. |
Unknown consideration is not zero consideration. A named tool with no known trial remains different from a tool known to have been rejected after use. Save those distinctions when building the chart or passing the findings to sales.
Turn a switching condition into the next study
If agencies explain that they must preserve earlier approval records, Framewell needs to establish what transfer its product can actually support. A discount may leave the requirement unresolved. If agencies can complete the workflow but misunderstand the supported import, a clearer explanation becomes a candidate to test.
Our competitive-research guide shows how buyer accounts join competitor facts and ongoing monitoring. Use the questionnaire to identify the disputed requirement, then check the relevant offer and investigate the accounts that contradict the apparent pattern.
Once Framewell has a feasible offer, Sapien can compare simulated responses to alternative prices, migration explanations or service packages. Supply the audience, complete terms and switching question. Keep that proposed comparison alongside the reported decisions collected here, with its own response source and measures. Source: Research with Sapien.
