Every good business person knows that there is no asset more valuable than information about your client's customers. Knowing their prospective customers, what they are looking for, and what is important to them makes all of the difference in making sales.

While many of these businesses minded individuals spend large amounts of their time involved in research - far too many forget what is probably the least expensive, easiest, and most reliable method of gathering this information. Your client's customers are the best source of information you could ever ask for. Who knows better what is important to the customers than their customers themselves?

A powerful tool for gathering this information from prospects and clients is a Market Survey, also known as a Poll. Market Surveys go directly to the source and provide you with the feedback your client need to succeed. A few tips on implementing a Market Survey on your client's site:

• Keep it short - your client's customers may want to give you feedback, but if you make it too difficult, they are likely to remember they have better things to do
• Think carefully about the questions you ask - as with anything else, your client's prospects and customers will draw conclusions from your questions - be careful what statement your questions make
• Make your client's survey easy to find - prospects and customers won't go looking for your survey, and a survey doesn't accomplish anything if no one completes it