How to talk to five customers to find out why they chose you

Call five customers who bought in the last year and ask them how they decided. Do not ask whether they are satisfied. Ask what was happening before they contacted you, whom they compared you with, and what nearly stopped them. Fifteen minutes each is enough. Customers can buy for a reason other than the one the owner believes, and where the two differ, the pitch is probably aimed wrong.

The calls produce raw material. If you want a one-page card from them afterwards, a buyer persona that is more than a stock photo and a name shows how. This post is only about the calls.

Who do you call, and what do you say first?

Choose five from your invoices, not five you like. Include one who bought once and never again. Send a short message or say it on the phone:

"I am trying to understand how people decide to work with us, so I can make it easier for the next person. May I ask a few questions for fifteen minutes? I am not selling anything, and I will send a short thank-you note afterwards."

The sentence about not selling does most of the work. If you plan to offer something later, do it on another call.

The script

Ask in this order. The pauses are part of the method: count to five before you fill a silence.

1. "Think back to before you contacted us. What was going on that made you start looking?"
2. "What did you try first, before us?"
3. "Who else did you look at, and how did you hear of them?"
4. "What was the deciding moment, in your own words?"
5. "Was there anything that nearly made you go elsewhere?"
6. "After you bought, did anything surprise you, good or bad?"
7. "If a friend in your position asked about us, what would you say?"

Seven questions fit in fifteen minutes if you talk less than the customer does. Write exact phrases as they speak. A bad note made during the call beats a good summary written later.

How do you ask without leading the answer?

Here is the difference, in an invented call run the way owners often run it:

Owner: "You chose us for the price, I think?" Customer: "Yes, the price was fine."

And the same call, run properly:

Owner: "What made you choose us?" Customer: "Well, your man sent a sample in our colour the next day. I didn't even look at the rate until after that."

The first call collected the owner's own belief. The second collected a fact. Three habits keep you on the right side of that line.

Ask about the past, not the future. "What did you do when the old supplier failed?" is a fact. "Would you buy again?" is a polite lie.

Do not offer the answer. "Was it our price?" teaches the customer what to say.

Do not argue. If the customer says you were slow, say "Tell me more about that", not "We had a festival week". You are collecting, not defending.

For example: an industrial uniform supplier in Faridabad

Imagine a supplier of workwear and safety uniforms to small factories in Faridabad. The owner believes buyers pick the firm because the price per set is lower than the Delhi traders'. He calls five purchase managers.

Four say, without being asked, that they chose him because he sent a sample in their company colour within a day, which the Delhi traders did not. Two mention that their previous supplier had mixed up sizes for 140 workers and a shift lost half a day. One says price did not come up until after seeing the sample.

Which answers should change your pitch?

Tally the five calls on one sheet, a column for each customer and a row for each of the three things below.

If one customer says it, note it. If three say it, act on it. Two is a hint and not a fact. None of the three changes in the table could have been predicted from the owner's sales figures. The cost showed up quickly: the size sheet adds a day to each order, and two of the next five buyers found it fussy, so only one of the five orders (a ₹1.9 lakh set, in invented figures) came through the new route.

When does this not work?

It fails if you call only customers who adore you, or if you ask in a way that thanks them for the choice. It also fails when the person you reach did not decide. In a company, the person who paid may not be the person who chose. Ask whether someone else was involved and request a call with them. Who pays, who decides and who uses sets out the roles.

Skip the five calls if you have fewer than five customers. Talk to buyers who said no instead, and expect shorter answers.

What do you do the same day?

Sit down with the notes the same evening. One page. Write: what they said first, the words they used, the doubt, the comparison. Change one real thing: the first line of a reply, the order of a quotation, a missing proof. This research sits ahead of prospecting and the pitch in the sales process. If you have the notes and cannot tell what they mean, or want a larger set of calls run for you, customer research and voice of customer is the work, and you can tell us what you need.