The Do's & Don'ts of Interviewing

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One-on-one interviews are incredibly effective for getting to know your customers so that you can make strategic improvements to your marketing. 

People LOVE to talk about themselves and their experiences, and guess what?

Your customers are people! 

… even if you’re selling B2B.

If you can direct the discussion toward your research goals, you’ll be able to uncover deep insights quicker than you ever thought possible. 

Here are 3 tips to get the best results out of an in-depth interview… and 3 things you should avoid at all costs! 

The Do’s:  

1. Focus on your goals

   Write down at the top of your discussion guide the key outcomes: what you want to learn about your customers. It’s often helpful to write these in question format so you can focus on getting answers to these questions from participants. You will naturally ask more targeted questions that way, especially in unscripted followups.  

2. Build rapport.
   Your interview shouldn’t feel like an interview. It should feel like a very natural conversation. 

   Building rapport will come with practice, I promise. But in the meantime, you can fake it by getting participants to talk about themselves.  

   Ask questions about the person, not your brand. Start with easy questions, and keep the wording open-ended to get your participant talking.  

   Followup questions should center around their motivations, feelings, and pain points.  

   Asking customers what motivated them to do something is a fine art because many times, they simply don’t know. They may give you a logical response when in fact, emotion was the cause. So dig in, keep them talking, and ask your questions from different angles.  

3. Reflect back on what you hear them say—even if it’s just an emotion you’re picking up on.  

   You might say, “Wow, that annoys you.” If you didn’t quite nail it, they’ll clarify.  

   I love when this happens, and sometimes I even reflect the wrong feeling on purpose, just to get them to explain a little more: They might say, “I’m not annoyed. I’m livid!” That right there: researcher gold.  

 So now that we’ve covered what you can DO, let’s talk about what to AVOID. 

The Don'ts:

1. Don’t talk more than you listen.  

   The whole point of an interview is to hear from the customer. Ask a question and then stop talking. Your participant will naturally want to fill that awkward silence—hopefully it will be something beautifully insightful.

2. Don’t use of the word “why”
   A question of “why” can come across as attacking, and participants can turn defensive in their responses.  

   Instead of “Why did you choose that?” ask “What made you choose that?” or “How did you decide to choose that?”
   Come from a place of curiosity, and they’ll be happy to answer any question you throw at them! 

3. Don’t skimp on the pilot.
   Finally, make sure to pilot your interview questions; run them by lat least a few people to make sure they make sense AND that they make sense TOGETHER as a flow.
   Ultimately, your job as an interviewer is to listen, ask probing questions, and gently steer the conversation where you need it to go. If you’re not sure what to ask, ask THEM what you should be asking about. 
   
   

So the next time you find yourself in an interview, just be you. Relax and build rapport. Remember your goals and steer the conversation there. 

Your customers will be sharing authentic, meaningful stories with you in no time. 

You can do this!

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If you liked this article, you might like… 

Sarah’s Storytelling Course on LinkedIn Learning  

InstaBrain: The New Rules for Marketing to Gen Z (grab your free chapter here)  

Sarah Weise is the CEO of award-winning marketing research agency Bixa and the bestselling author of InstaBrain: The New Rules for Marketing to Generation Z. For 15 years, Sarah has been a guide to hundreds of leading brands including Google, IBM, Capital One, Mikimoto, PBS, and U.S. Army, to name a few. Sarah helps brands achieve a laser-focus on their customers and build experiences that are downright addictive. She lectures at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and speaks at conferences and corporate events worldwide. 

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