Six Elicitation Techniques That Work
Phone research starts with a positive attitude. Elicitation techniques, approaches, and tenacity will all fail if you do not believe in yourself, your training and experience, or that your objective is possible. Primary research has an element of luck, but keep these quotes in mind, maybe tape them up over your computer:
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
–Roman philosopher Seneca
I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.
–Thomas Jefferson
The conversation snippets illustrated below provide six elicitation techniques—flattery, provocation and naiveté, erroneous statement, word repetition, bracketing, and quid pro quo, that work for me.
Basic Premise
Boost the subject’s ego and thus increase the subject’s desire to talk at length about his/her experience and accomplishments.
Approach
“Hospital-acquired infections are such a huge problem in the U.S. Everyone I spoke to told me you are the foremost expert in this field. What’s your take on the specifying of copper? Worth the extra cost? A fad or here to stay?”
Basic Premise
Affirm your lack of knowledge and push the source to explain or correct you.
Approaches
“I’m really glad that I don’t have to work on the pricing side of these subcontractor proposals. I’m not sure I’ve ever understood this kind of thing.”
“Excuse me, I’m a bit confused. Do you mean dormitories, academic buildings, science labs?”
“So, your statistics only deal with new construction. It seems to me that’s only part of the industry. What about retrofits?”
Basic Premise
Affirm your knowledge of inaccurate information to encourage the subject to correct you.
Approach
“I read that higher education sector construction in the Southeast is 30% new, 70% retrofit.”
Basic Premise
This is an active listening framework that lets the subject know you’re paying attention. It works best if you use synonyms rather than parroting back the same words.
Approach
“I heard you say earlier that the plumbing fixture market in the healthcare sector is big and still growing.”
Basic Premise
Take a statement made by the subject by using a key number to build a more precise range. This example also includes word repetition.
Approach
“Earlier you said the cost of an average restroom retrofit is between $25,000 and $100,000. In your experience, is it closer to $25,000 or $100,000? So, it’s like $75,000–$100,000?”
Basic Premise
Give the source a piece of intelligence in order to build rapport and receive another piece of intelligence in return.
Approach
“As a result of the Affordable Care Act, we’re seeing more of the standalone emergency and specialty clinics. While it depends on state laws, in Texas for example, we treat patients in these facilities. Then if they need to be admitted, the healthcare system that owns the clinic sends them to the “mothership” hospital down the road. Hmm, then again, those small little clinics don’t have lots of restrooms.”
Elicitation techniques can be very powerful. Mixing different techniques with different subjects is the best way to get the best results. Most importantly, while a pause or silence is not an elicitation technique, it is very useful.
Problem Solved
Savvy researchers use a combination of secondary and primary sources to answer questions. Just as you rely on the computer for online searching, the phone can be your new best friend. Rather than combing through yet more materials that don’t provide what you need, pick up the phone. The person you are interviewing will want to fill in the silence and you will gain more information.
