Joe OviedoWhen I’m building a quiz, there’s almost always a point when I want to add another question. Since someone is already telling us how they work, why not ask how long they’ve been doing it, what they’ve tried, or what tools they use? From the business side, it all sounds useful. Then I take the quiz as if I don’t know what comes next and realize I’ve been giving away information for several minutes without knowing what I’ll get back.
I don’t mind being offered something at the end. What bothers me is getting a result I could have read before starting: “You have plenty of room for improvement.” If I answered twelve questions, I want at least one answer to have changed what you tell me.
Two people can get the same score and need different things
Imagine a quiz for independent professionals trying to understand why so many proposals stall. The first version might give them a follow-up score. We ask how they present the price, when they write again, and whether they agree on a next step. Anyone under a certain score gets a message: “You need to improve your follow-up.”
That sounds reasonable until I look at two cases. One person sends the proposal, doesn’t agree on when to review it, and spends a week wondering if writing again would be awkward. The other does agree on a date and meets the client, but spends that entire second conversation explaining what’s included in the price. Both struggle to move forward. They might even score the same. I wouldn’t suggest they do the same thing.
I’d ask the first person to try something in their next conversation: before sending the document, agree on when to review it and what you need to decide together. I’d ask the second to open their last proposal and see whether, from the first page alone, they can tell what the client will get and what isn’t included. If they can’t, they have a place to start.
Neither needs a label. It’s more useful to recognize a situation they’ve already been in and have something small to try next time.
I’d write the results before finishing the questions
I used to put the questionnaire together and save the results for last. Now I’d sit down and write what I’d say to each of those two people. It doesn’t need to sound polished: “From what you told us, you often send proposals without setting a date to review them. Before changing how you follow up, try agreeing on that date while you’re still talking to the client.”
Once that’s written, I can go back and see where it came from. If I only asked, “Do you follow up on proposals?” I have no basis for saying they need to agree on a date. I’d need to ask something more specific: “The last time you sent a proposal, had you agreed when you’d discuss it?” And if I’m asking which tool they use to send quotes, but the answer doesn’t change what I tell them, maybe I don’t need to ask.
I’d do the same check when the result isn’t clear. Someone might say they don’t agree on a next step and that clients always ask what’s included. I don’t have to pick a diagnosis with confidence just because the quiz needs an ending. I can show them the two things that came up and suggest they look at their last proposal to see which happened first. Sometimes the most useful thing I can give back isn’t an answer, but a better question to ask about their own case.
The invitation comes after the result
My test is to take away the booking button for a moment. Is there still something worth reading? Can someone close the page and do something with what they found?
If not, I wouldn’t start by changing the button copy. I’d go back to the result. “Book a call to find out what’s holding up your sales” isn’t the same as showing someone where the problem might be, then offering to look at a proposal together if they need help. In the second case, they can decide whether a conversation would be useful. In the first, they have to book just to find out if there was anything useful behind the quiz.
I feel the same way about email. If I promised a result at the end, I’d show it there. Then I can offer to email a copy or an example they can keep. There’s a difference between asking for an address to send something they want to save and asking because they’ve already spent five minutes and probably don’t want to leave empty-handed.
Someone might read the result, try what we suggested, and never come back. If all I count is bookings, I’ll miss the possibility that it was enough. I’d love for that person, even if they never buy from us, to get to their next conversation and remember to say, “Before I send the proposal, when would be a good time to review it together?” If the quiz helped them ask that at the right moment, it did something useful.
← Back to the Journal