Here are some of the best questions for a prospect survey about objections to purchase, and tips on how to create them. If you want to quickly generate a tailored survey, you can build it in seconds with Specific’s AI survey generator.
Best open-ended questions for a prospect survey about objections to purchase
Open-ended questions invite prospects to share honest feedback in their own words. They’re the key to understanding why someone truly hesitates or says “not now.” Use these when you want depth—not just a yes or no. Prospects appreciate feeling heard and you get insights you’d never see on a checkbox. Here are 10 of the best open-ended questions for your survey:
What’s your primary reason for not purchasing from us today?
Can you describe a recent situation where a similar product or service didn’t meet your expectations?
What’s missing from our offering that would convince you to buy?
How does our product or service compare to others you’ve considered?
What concerns do you have about our company, product, or team?
Are there specific features or benefits you feel are lacking?
How do price or budget constraints influence your buying decision?
What would make you feel more comfortable making a purchase?
Have you had any negative experiences during the evaluation process?
What other information would help you decide to move forward?
These questions get people talking. In fact, businesses that dig into open feedback gain richer and more actionable insights, as shown by research indicating that conversational feedback increases context recall and honesty in responses. [1]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for prospect survey about objections to purchase
Sometimes you want to quantify where the biggest objections are. Single-select multiple-choice questions work best when you want a birds-eye view: one clear answer, easily tracked. They also make it easy for a prospect to start the conversation—sometimes it’s less intimidating to pick from a list, then expand in a follow-up. Here are 3 example questions with practical answer choices:
Question: What’s the main reason you’re hesitant to purchase from us?
Price is too high
Not sure about product value
Don’t trust the company/brand
Prefer a competitor’s solution
Other
Question: Which factor is most important in your purchasing decision?
Price
Company reputation
Features
Recommendations from others
Warranty / after-sales support
Question: Where do you usually get more information when deciding on a purchase?
Company website
Online reviews
Friends or colleagues
Direct conversation with sales
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Whenever you see a choice that needs context, like “Price is too high,” ask “Why do you feel the price is too high?” or “What do you expect at this price point?” This simple “why” unlocks richer motivation behind the selection, often revealing actionable reasons like perceived value, budget cycles, or unmet needs.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include "Other" when your options aren’t guaranteed to cover every case. If someone picks “Other,” follow up to ask what that reason is. You’ll often surface unexpected objections—maybe something about onboarding, timing, or contract terms—that your list missed. These discoveries can directly inform your next move or improvements.
Specific’s conversational surveys make adding these kinds of questions (and intelligent follow-ups) effortless—just try the prospect objections survey generator and see how options and flows can be tuned for your specific audience.
Should you add a NPS-style question in a prospect objections survey?
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for customers—using it for prospects can give you a surprising pulse on whether you’re even close to winning their trust and interest. The classic NPS question, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our product/service to a friend or colleague?” lets you quantify sentiment—even among those not yet buying.
The twist: follow up the score with “why did you pick that number?” You’ll often capture hesitations that a yes/no can’t surface. It’s fast, it marks clear breakpoints in trust and brand perception, and it helps separate true fence-sitters from hard no’s. If you want to try this approach, check out the NPS survey builder for prospect objections.
Research shows that companies tracking NPS even pre-sale can anticipate future conversion challenges and iterate messaging, boosting conversion rates over time. [2]
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions can make or break your survey results. When you just collect initial responses, they’re often vague or incomplete. But prompt, smart follow-ups bridge the knowledge gap, transforming a one-way form into a real conversation. With Specific, AI automatically asks clarifying questions based on the exact reply and prior context. It feels personal—and you collect the context you need for clear insights. Plus, you save all the messy back-and-forth traditionally done over emails or phone calls.
Let’s look at what’s often missed without smart follow-ups:
Prospect: “Not sure if it’s the right fit for our needs.”
AI follow-up: “What specific needs do you have that you feel might not be met by our product?”
That first answer alone isn’t actionable. AI-driven follow-ups get you the details—fast. Read more about this concept in our dive on automated follow-up questions.
How many follow-ups to ask? Two to three follow-up questions are usually enough to clarify and deepen understanding, without causing fatigue. If you hit the point where you’ve got the full story, it’s smart to enable an “auto-advance” setting. Specific offers flexible controls for this, so every user experience is just right.
This makes it a conversational survey: Rather than feeling like a static form, your survey now becomes a dynamic, engaging interview that adapts to each prospect’s answers. This conversational style increases response rates and data quality.
Effortless AI survey analysis: Even if you collect tons of text responses, analyzing them doesn’t have to be hard. With AI-driven response analysis, you can ask the system to find patterns, summarize key objections, or compare themes across group segments.
Automated follow-up questions are still new for many teams. If you haven’t experienced this, go generate a conversational survey and try it from the respondent’s point of view. It changes how you think about feedback collection.
How to compose a prompt for ChatGPT or other GPTs to create strong prospect objection questions
Want AI to help create your prospect survey from scratch? Give it a direct, simple prompt, like:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Prospect survey about objections to purchase.
But you’ll get much sharper, more tailored results if you give the AI more detail about you, your goals, and your target audience. For example:
I’m a product manager at a SaaS company struggling with low conversion rates. Suggest 10 open-ended questions I could include in a survey for prospects who didn’t purchase, focusing on their objections and what might have changed their mind.
After getting a question list, ask the AI to organize and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Now scan your categories (for example: Pricing, Trust, Features, Decision Process) and dig deeper as needed:
Generate 10 follow-up questions specifically about Price objections from prospects.
Try this workflow to rapidly build and structure your survey—you’ll create a custom-tailored interview in minutes, not days. Or skip the manual steps and use Specific’s AI survey generator, built precisely for this approach.
What is a conversational survey, and why does it matter?
Conversational surveys feel like a real conversation, not a cold form. Instead of static question lists, they dynamically adapt, ask relevant follow-ups, and encourage natural dialogue. You get higher engagement, more thoughtful responses, and richer data. The biggest difference: someone filling a traditional form may give you bare minimum answers; in a conversational survey, they open up and tell the “why” behind their answers.
Aspect | Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Surveys |
Creation time | Slow, manual set-up | AI builds in seconds |
Quality of questions | Depends on your expertise | Best-practice, research-backed |
Adaptivity | Static, one-size-fits-all | Dynamically adapts flow |
Follow-up probing | Usually missing | Always included, automatic |
Response quality | Often shallow or generic | Detailed, context-rich |
Analysis | Manual, time-intensive | Instant, AI-driven |
Why use AI for prospect surveys? You save hours building, launching, and analyzing. You probe deeper without writing logic trees. And you generate creative, expert-quality questions every time. Learn how to create a conversational survey step-by-step or play with question editing in the AI survey editor.
With Specific, the experience for both you and your prospects is seamless. Creating an engaging AI survey example is simple, and respondents enjoy an interactive, chat-like process that feels fresh—not like another dry form.
See this objections to purchase survey example now
Unlock the power of conversational surveys and see how easy it is to collect deep, actionable prospect objections—Specific’s dynamic experience makes your feedback process effortless and insightful.