Livingston Surveys Complete!

I recently purchased a DVD seminar series for the Livingston survey method called “How to Double Your Business”. If you’re not familiar with Dr. Glenn Livingston, click here to read more about his methodology.

Since I am already involved in the Incorporation/LLC market I decided to apply the lessons there first.My objective was to gather at least 300 surveys in the Incorporation/LLC/DBA market, and at least 35 for each of the channels that I wanted to move into.

Most of the data being collected was open-ended questions asking the survey taker to tell me about their most important problems. For taking a survey, I returned the favor by giving away a compilation of data that already existed for free on the Internet. (To be fair, they would have had to search long and hard to get all that data, and I provided it in one spot, so it was valuable.)

After more than a month, and a sizable $$ outlay, the surveys have been completed. Below is a screenshot of the number of surveys I completed for each channel.

As you can see, the LLC market is by far the biggest. At least, that’s the one that I was most successful driving traffic to with my Adwords campaigns.

This was not a cheap endeavor! The clicks in this market are expensive and only a small percentage of the people I paid for actually took a survey. But, the data collected was very valuable and confirmed that I am in a potentially lucrative market.

New business owners face an uphill battle of legality and complex rules. These people have all kinds of questions about their business entities. And, they are willing to form a personal relationship with me (even though we’ve never met and they’ve never heard of me). 23% of the survey takers gave me a their phone number (even though it was not required).

Now the real work begins! I’m moving on to the coding phase of the Livingston survey method. This step will require me to break down the answers of every survey received into “codes” that will tell me many things about my potential customers.

When done properly, the resulting data will tell me everything I need to know to make money in this market. It will tell me:

• What kind of products they’re desperate to buy, and at what price point.


• Exactly what the strongest selling points are that I could make (in order of highest priority to lowest).


• Which sub-groups and segments are most responsive.


• What types of terms they are likely to search on to find the data they’re looking for.


• Which markets are related (and which are not).


• Market demographics for laser-targeted offline advertising.

So, off to the Excel mines! Time to get my hands dirty and figure these folks out.

More updates coming soon.

Travis

ps. In addition to coding the survey data, I must also at this point begin my phone interview process. All of the data above will provide the “hard facts” I need about my market, but only by talking to the actual people and hearing the words they use and the emotion behind their problems can I understand the “softer side” of their needs.

Using Online Surveys To Understand A Market

When you understand a market, you know what they like and dislike. You know what products they buy. You know the terminology they use. You know how to talk to them.

If you understand a market the way Glenn Livingston does, you also know how much a lead/sale will cost. You know what you can sell the customer on the back end. You know the search terms that the customer will likely enter first, second and third in order to reach the information they're looking for. You know, based upon the potential customers' most important issue what else they're interested in (in order of highest to least priority).

When you know a market the way Glenn Livingston does, you cannot fail in that market. When Glenn Livingston enters your market - beware!

I've recently had the pleasure of watching the Dr. Glenn Livingston course "How To Double Your Business". I've spoken with Glenn and exchanged emails several times to discuss a project I'm working on using his methodology. He is highly intelligent, encouraging and helpful. I'd like to thank Glenn for his instruction and guidance.

Outside of seminars, this is the highest price learning course I've ever purchased. He used testimonials from a bunch of gurus whom I've followed for a long time (including Perry Marshall) to convince me that it was worth it. And - it was worth it - it was worth every penny!

A psychologist by trade, his methodology is to survey a market before you ever move into it. Or, if you're already in a market, use surveys to better understand it. He likes to say he'd rather "sweat in training than bleed in battle."

Once you collect enough surveys from your web site to be statistically relevant, you go through each one and code it for a scientific understanding of every aspect. Glenn then follows up on the phone with a select group of those people who took the survey to understand the softer side of their mindset.

He boils it all down and sells exactly what the market wants, in exactly the way they want it.

The DVD videos and accompanying audio cd's, computer software and testimonials explain every aspect in great detail. If you have the heart to implement the tactics, you have all the knowledge to do it.

In addition, Glenn hosts a monthly mastermind session where he answers questions and puts two people on the "hot seat" to analyze their campaigns in detail.

The survey methodology has several advantages and disadvantages. In my humble opinion, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. I've already implemented the surveys for one of my markets, and am preparing to do more.

Advantages of the Livingston Survey Method

• Understand a market before spending a lot of time and money on a venture
  
• Understand if a market is unlikely to be profitable (or not) before launching a product
  
• Understand what kind of products the market wants to buy
  
• Understand the search continuum in order to reach a potential customer earlier in the search cycle (and therefore pay less for her)
  
• Understand the cost per lead/sale so you know how much you have sell a product for in order to realize a profit
  
• Understand the amount of traffic available
  
• Understand the channels that traffic comes through, how engaged those people are, and how to most effectively market to each
  
• Understand exactly how the people within a market speak, what lingo they use, what drives their passion
  

Disadvantages of the Livingston Survey Method

• Costly
  
• Time prohibitive
  
• Not easy! This method is not for slackers - there is a lot of overhead involved in understanding a market like this
  
• Math... although Glenn makes it easy for all of us who are not statisticians, there is some excel work involved.
  

To get more information on the Glenn Livingston Survey course, just head on over to his web site. I'd highly recommend signing up for the

http://www.HowToDoubleYourBusiness.com

Travis