Best questions for prospect survey about competitor alternatives

Here are some of the best questions for a prospect survey about competitor alternatives, plus practical tips for crafting yours. With Specific, you can effortlessly generate a conversational survey in seconds—making it simple to launch smart, engaging feedback channels.

The best open-ended questions for prospect survey about competitor alternatives

Open-ended questions are where you find the real, unbiased gold. These give prospects space to share motivations, hesitations, and thoughts in their own words—especially handy when you’re uncovering why they consider (or don’t consider) your competitors. Studies show that using open questions leads to more specific, actionable insights compared to rigid forms. If you use AI-driven conversational formats, engagement and richness of response both go up. This matters—engaged respondents give sharper insights[3].

1. What other solutions have you evaluated or used for this problem?

2. Can you describe your experience with any competitor products or services?

3. What features or benefits matter most to you when considering alternatives?

4. What do you feel is missing from competitor offerings?

5. Have you switched providers in the past? If so, what drove your decision?

6. What did you like or dislike about other competitor options?

7. How did you first hear about our competitors?

8. Are there challenges you’ve faced with other products that still aren’t solved?

9. What factors would make you choose us instead of a competitor?

10. If you could change one thing about any competitor alternative, what would it be?

The best single-select multiple-choice questions for prospect survey about competitor alternatives

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want top-level numbers, spot clear trends, or reduce respondent effort. Sometimes it’s easier for prospects to start with a simple pick before sharing deeper feedback in follow-ups. This makes surveys less intimidating and conversation more natural. Here are three solid examples:

Question: Which competitor are you currently considering most seriously?

• Competitor A

• Competitor B

• Competitor C

• Other

Question: What is your primary reason for considering a competitor alternative?

• Pricing

• Features

• Customer Support

• Brand Reputation

Question: How satisfied were you with your previous solution?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

When to follow up with "why?" If you spot a revealing choice—say, a prospect selects "Pricing" as their main concern—ask "Can you tell me why pricing was the main factor? Were there specific aspects or thresholds that made a difference?" You’ll uncover specific objections or thresholds that general surveys miss.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” to cover unexpected responses. Letting respondents specify unique competitors or reasons gives you edge-case insights, which can reveal blind spots and competitive threats you haven’t mapped yet. Following up here almost always pays off with richer detail you’d otherwise miss.

NPS-type question for prospect survey about competitor alternatives

NPS, or Net Promoter Score, isn’t just for customer loyalty. In a prospect context, NPS questions help benchmark market sentiment versus competitors—essential insight for go-to-market, sales, and product teams. A well-placed NPS question quickly shows how likely prospects are to recommend you (or a competitor) based on their explorations, and offers invaluable follow-up opportunities. Want to try an auto-generated NPS survey? Try making one now.

The power of follow-up questions

Automatic follow-up questions are the reason conversational surveys extract such deep user context. Instead of letting a vague answer slip by, Specific’s AI probes delicately, asking clarifying “why,” “how,” and “can you give an example?” at just the right moment. This is more than a gimmick: AI-powered surveys have been shown to yield responses that rate much higher in informativeness, relevance, specificity, and clarity vs. traditional surveys [4]. That’s a huge competitive advantage. Learn more about automated AI follow-ups.

• Prospect: “I didn’t like the onboarding process with Competitor B.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you tell me more about what felt frustrating or confusing during Competitor B’s onboarding?”

How many followups to ask? Two to three targeted follow-ups usually provide the richest detail without exhausting your respondent. Wildly long threads risk survey fatigue. A good system lets you set a maximum, or skip ahead once you have what you need. Specific offers flexible settings for this—strike the balance between depth and speed.

This makes it a conversational survey: Automated follow-ups transform static polls into two-way conversations—prospects feel heard, feedback is nuanced, and completion rates often go up.

AI text analysis, theme summarization, and reporting: Don’t worry about getting overwhelmed by all that open-ended text—AI tools (like Specific’s AI survey analytics) instantly group, summarize, and chat through your results, giving you actionable insights at a glance even with hundreds of qualitative answers.

Try it: These dynamic follow-ups are a next-level survey experience. Give it a go: build a custom survey using Specific for a “wow” moment in user research or prospect discovery.

How to prompt ChatGPT or AI for great competitor alternatives questions

If you want to use ChatGPT or a similar AI to help brainstorm survey questions, start with a simple prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for prospect survey about competitor alternatives.

But you’ll get much better quality if you add more detail about your context (about your business, your goals, any key competitors, what you’re trying to learn):

We are a SaaS business. We want to understand why prospects consider switching to competitor products in our segment. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that help us discover unmet needs, purchasing motivations, and key competitor strengths or weaknesses.

Once you have your initial list, try this to organize:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Now, pick categories you care most about (maybe “Purchasing motivations”) and say:

Generate 10 questions for categories “Purchasing motivations”, “Competitor weaknesses”.

This structured, iterative prompting—plus the right context—draws out expert-level questions every time.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is not just a static form: it’s a smart, dynamic chat that adapts, asks clarifying follow-ups, and uses a natural tone to keep people engaged. Why does this matter? Field studies show that AI-powered, chatbot-driven conversational surveys consistently yield higher quality data—more detail, more relevance, more actionable insight—compared to traditional forms [4][5]. Respondents appreciate the “talking to a person” feeling, even when it’s AI behind the scenes.

Why use AI for prospect surveys? AI survey generators, like Specific’s AI survey builder, turn bland question lists into expert-level interviews. The difference isn’t just in convenience—it’s in data quality, respondent happiness, and analysis speed. And it’s not niche anymore: recent research shows over 78% of organizations now use AI for at least one business function, with adoption growing rapidly [2].

With Specific, you also get best-in-class user experience—whether you’re researching competitor alternatives in your product, or running a public landing page survey. Seamless, mobile-friendly, and easy for both you and your prospects. Want to see how easy it is to create a conversational survey? Check our guide.

See this competitor alternatives survey example now

Get rapid, actionable feedback from your prospects, surface competitor insights in real time, and experience how AI-powered, conversational surveys make the whole process efficient and engaging. Build smarter prospect surveys and uncover what truly drives alternatives—try it instantly.