Senior Conservative MPs are urging the prime minister to consider a more radical response to the party's losses in council elections in England.
The UK Independence Party made gains as the Tories lost control of 10 councils.
Former leadership contender David Davis said "more conventional Tory policies" including tax cuts were now needed.
He also called for a planned referendum on the European Union to be brought forward, a move party deputy chairman Sarah Newton said should be considered.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Davis said the Conservatives must break the impression that they are "privileged and out of touch" if they are to stand a chance of winning the next general election.
He said "We have to start convincing the people that we care about the things that matter to them".
'Simplified Tory manifesto'"So no matter how uncomfortable it makes our metropolitan elite, we have to deal properly with fears over immigration.
"Start Quote
End Quote David DavisWe should give the people a say over Europe, ideally before the Euro elections. Otherwise Nigel Farage will characterise those elections as 'the referendum the Tories wouldn't let you have'"
"We have to do more to help conventional families through the hard times, including serious tax breaks for married couples. We should start cutting taxes to regenerate the economy, indeed we should have started years ago when it had more chance of working before the election."
UKIP, which campaigns for the UK to leave the European Union, averaged 25% of the vote in the wards where it was standing in Thursday's elections and won more than 140 seats.
And its leader Nigel Farage said the party had taken its "first substantial step towards a party that can credibly win seats at Westminster".
Mr Davis said UKIP's policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs, and Europe "mimic a simplified 1980s Tory manifesto".
He said the Conservatives needed to be "more straight talking and fewer focus groups; more conventional Tory policies, not because they are Tory, but because they work; less pandering to metropolitan interest groups; and please, please, no more Old Etonian advisers".
Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will call a referendum to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels if the party is re-elected in 2015.
But Mr Davis called for this to be held ahead of next year's European elections.
"We should give the people a say over Europe, ideally before the Euro elections. Otherwise Nigel Farage will characterise those elections as 'the referendum the Tories wouldn't let you have'."
'No doubt'Meanwhile, Sarah Newton, the Conservative Party deputy chairman, acknowledged that the party will have to listen more to voters.
She told the BBC: "MPs will be sitting down with their activists learning the lessons, making sure that we can redouble our efforts to get out on the doorsteps, out into our communities, really listening to people and really telling them about the really good things the government have done."
"Start Quote
End QuoteIt is the day UKIP emerged as a real political force in the land"
Asked if UKIP's success would lead to Mr Cameron reviewing his plans for the EU referendum, Mrs Newton said: "I think we should really consider bringing forward the legislation in this parliament that would enable the referendum. So people can be in no doubt."
Earlier on Friday, responding to the success of UKIP in the elections, Mr Cameron said: "We need to show respect for people who have taken the choice to support this party and we are going to work really hard to win them back."
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the Tory leadership believes any damage can be limited at the next general election.
They intend to subject UKIP's policies to greater scrutiny, said our correspondent.
Contests took place in 27 English county councils and seven unitary authorities, as well as in Anglesey. About 2,300 council seats were up for grabs in England, in a major mid-term test for the coalition government.
The BBC's projected national share of the vote put Labour in the lead with 29% of the vote and the Conservatives in second place with 25%, UKIP in third place with 23% of votes and the Lib Dems fourth with 14%.
An estimate from a BBC sample of key wards suggests that average turnout was 31%, down 10 points from the last local elections in 2009.
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