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Best questions for prospect survey about decision maker authority

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Adam Sabla

·

Aug 28, 2025

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Here are some of the best questions for a prospect survey about decision maker authority, plus actionable tips for crafting them. You can build a conversational, AI-powered survey in seconds using Specific—just generate your decision maker authority survey here and customize every question effortlessly.

Best open-ended questions for prospect survey about decision maker authority

Open-ended questions shine when we want honest, detailed answers—especially for understanding authority and buying power within complex organizations. They give us context you simply won’t get from tick boxes, and let respondents share what actually drives their decisions. Here are 10 powerful open-ended questions to use in a prospect survey about decision maker authority:

  1. Who is typically involved in making purchasing decisions for new solutions in your organization?

  2. Can you describe your current decision-making process when selecting a new product or service?

  3. What steps do you personally take before making a final decision on a major purchase?

  4. Which departments or roles usually have the final say in purchasing decisions?

  5. Has there been a time when you faced internal challenges or obstacles during the decision-making process? Tell us more.

  6. How do you evaluate and prioritize vendor proposals?

  7. What factors are most important when deciding which solution to approve?

  8. If your organization has a buying committee, who’s on it and what is the approval process like?

  9. Are there certain conditions under which you delegate decision authority to someone else?

  10. How do previous experiences with vendors influence your decision-making authority?

Open-ended questions like these are the backbone of a high-quality prospect survey—they reveal the stories and nuances behind the numbers, laying the groundwork for tailored follow-ups and smarter lead qualification. Using AI-driven conversational surveys, we can automatically generate follow-up questions based on these responses, resulting in richer context and more actionable insights than conventional forms ever could. That’s the real power of going conversational with Specific.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for prospect survey about decision maker authority

Single-select multiple-choice questions are our go-to when we want to quantify patterns or jumpstart a dialogue—especially when respondents might not know exactly how to phrase their answers. These work well early in a survey to segment prospects quickly, and they’re fantastic for follow-ups where precision matters.

Question: What is your level of authority in your organization's purchasing decisions?

  • I am the sole decision maker

  • I share decision-making with others

  • I recommend solutions, but someone else decides

  • Other

Question: Who else must approve a purchase in your organization?

  • No one else—my approval is final

  • A manager or executive

  • A committee or group

  • Other

Question: At which stage are you typically involved in the buying process?

  • Initial research

  • Vendor evaluation

  • Final decision/approval

  • Other

When to followup with "why?" Sometimes, a simple choice just isn’t enough to capture the reasoning behind a prospect’s selection. A smart follow-up like “Why do you say that?” can uncover the rationale, context, or hidden blockers behind their answer. For instance: if a respondent selects, “I recommend solutions, but someone else decides,” a follow-up like, “Why do you not have final authority on purchasing decisions?” can deliver insights you’d otherwise miss.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include an “Other” option when you think your list of choices might not cover every unique situation. Combined with a prompt for respondents to explain, it helps you discover unexpected nuances or exceptions that you didn't anticipate—sometimes shaping product or sales messaging in ways you hadn’t considered. Follow-up questions here reveal those hidden edges that enrich your understanding.

NPS survey question for prospect decision maker authority

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) format is typically used for customer feedback, but it’s surprisingly effective in prospect surveys, too. For decision maker authority, you can frame the question as: “How likely are you to recommend our solution or brand to a colleague with purchasing authority?” This gives a quick read on sentiment and affinity, and, paired with AI-driven follow-ups, tells you exactly why someone’s a promoter, passive, or detractor. See how easily you can build a decision maker authority NPS survey using Specific’s template. AI will tailor follow-up questions based on their specific score for more nuanced prospect profiling.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions turn plain surveys into conversations. With Specific’s automatic follow-up feature, every reply can trigger a contextual, on-point probe—so you gather the full story in one go. Instead of emailing back and forth for clarifications, the AI acts like an expert interviewer, naturally uncovering what matters most to you and your prospect.

Here’s how things often play out without smart follow-ups:

  • Prospect: “I’m involved, but not the final decision maker.”

  • AI follow-up: “Who is the final decision maker, and how do you typically collaborate with them?”

Without that follow-up, you’d be left guessing—or chasing additional context by email, slowing your process. Automated, AI-driven follow-ups save everyone’s time and make every response instantly actionable. As recognized by experts, AI-powered surveys and probing questions can surface more nuanced answers, leading to deeper insights and more accurate data quality than static forms [1].

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2-3 smart follow-ups get you the insights you want without making the survey feel endless. In Specific, you can configure settings so the AI knows when to keep digging and when to move on once the core info is captured.

This makes it a conversational survey: The back-and-forth, context-aware probing transforms static questions into an interview-like exchange—always natural, never robotic.

AI survey response analysis is easier than ever—even with lots of unstructured text, Specific lets you analyze responses using AI, summarizing key themes and surfacing trends you might otherwise miss.

Automated follow-ups are a new paradigm in survey design—don’t take my word for it, generate a conversational decision maker authority survey yourself and experience the deeper insights first hand.

How to prompt ChatGPT or GPTs to generate questions for prospect surveys about decision maker authority

If you want great questions, just asking for a list isn’t enough. Here’s how to get more from AI survey tools:

Start with this direct prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for prospect survey about decision maker authority.

You’ll get even better results by providing context. For example, describe your ideal prospects, typical deal sizes, and what insights you want. Try something like:

We sell SaaS to mid-size B2B organizations. Suggest 10 deep, open-ended questions to understand who the real decision makers are, how authority is distributed in the buying process, and the main blockers. Focus on context, not just titles or roles.

After you see the initial list, dig deeper. Use this prompt:

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

Pick the most relevant categories, then ask:

Generate 10 questions for categories "decision process breakdown" and "collaboration with colleagues".

With better prompts, you unlock better survey questions—AI works best when you share your specific situation and goals.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is an interactive, chat-style questionnaire—driven by AI—that feels just like messaging with a helpful expert. Instead of ticking boxes or filling static forms, respondents engage in natural dialogue, answer probing questions, and clarify their answers in real time.

Let’s compare the two approaches:

Manual survey

AI-generated conversational survey

Rigid forms, pre-set questions

Dynamic, real-time chat with contextual followups

Limited personalization

Questions adapt to respondent’s answers

Manual analysis & slow followup

AI summarizes responses instantly, prompts deeper insights automatically

Lower engagement, higher drop-off

Mobile-friendly, more engaging, drives higher completion

Why use AI for prospect surveys? Because AI-powered surveys can tailor the conversation, ask clarifications in real time, and analyze complex answers on the fly—no manual effort needed to get actionable, nuanced data. Specific’s AI survey generator gives you all these advantages in a user-friendly experience that your team and your prospects will actually enjoy. For more guidance, check out our hands-on guide on how to create your own decision-maker authority survey.

With Specific, our conversational survey experience is second to none—feedback flows naturally, response rates improve, and sifting through insights feels effortless, not painful. Whether you’re starting from scratch or tweaking with the AI-powered survey editor, everything is built for clarity, speed, and depth.

See this decision maker authority survey example now

Start collecting deep, actionable feedback from prospects—see what a conversational decision maker authority survey can reveal and create yours before your next outreach. Empower your research, team, and qualification process with smarter, AI-driven insights.

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Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.