The right survey questions on a business reply card (BRC) can provide your sales force or channel partners valuable information on a prospect. Just as easily, however, the wrong questions (or more commonly, too many questions) can inhibit people from responding in the first place. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind when designing your next BRC:

#1 rule: the fewer questions the better. A reply card should take just seconds to fill out. Anything longer, and you run the risk of dissuading an otherwise qualified prospect from responding because they perceive it as "too much work." We usually recommend 2-3 questions maximum.

The only questions to include on your BRC are those that supply information CRITICAL for your reps to know before making a follow-up phone call. If it's information that the rep is likely to uncover up as part of that follow up call anyway, and if it doesn't help prioritize one lead as more important than another, don't include it.

You'll get a much higher percentage of your questions answered (and your BRC will take much less time to fill out) if you make each question a multiple choice option. For example, don't ask someone to write in their company's annual revenues - instead, give them a choice: $0-100,000, $100,000-250,000, etc. - and ask them to check the appropriate box.