Even some of the most seasoned and savvy business professionals haven’t had the opportunity in their careers to drive or even be involved in primary research programs.  That’s certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.  In fact, in many cases, these professionals are inexperienced with research because they’ve worked in organizations where the most senior members of management aren’t accustomed to making research investments and, therefore, don’t understand or appreciate the potential return. 

But, as markets get increasingly competitive and complex, research can no longer be viewed as a luxury.  Indeed, many of these executives and organizations are in dire need of richer business intelligence that can help them avoid risky mistakes and fuel continued success.

When Market Connections talks with potential clients who haven’t yet conducted true market research, we often hear the following questions: Read the rest of this entry »

How often do representatives from your organization’s key business functions convene to talk about what they do and don’t know about the market, customers, key prospects, competitors, product or service performance, and other critical business issues?

Market research projects create a reason – a platform – for doing just that. The most successful clients we’ve worked with pull in a cross-section of company representatives from the outset of the project. And, frankly, it’s sometimes astounding to witness how unconnected the dots are around some very key issues.

One research project can’t address every data gap in an organization, but it can deliver insights that can impact more than just one area of operations. This collaborative approach can result in quick and easy fixes or brewing problems that the whole group didn’t previously know even existed.

Make sure that you engage your research provider upfront, so they can design a research program that meets multi-purpose objectives that can impact numerous operational areas. A strong research partner can also help structure and focus your internal collaborative sessions to maximize their outcomes.

Taking a holistic approach to market research may take more work and more time, but will enable broader performance improvements. This translates into a better ROI and an extra pat on the back for you.

If you think you’re in need of some more current business intelligence, you’re probably right.  But, market research = a serious commitment.  So, before heading down that path, ask yourself these questions to ensure you’ll get a reasonable ROI. 

Is a decent amount of the required information already available?  You may discover that some of the information you need is already accessible for a fraction of the cost of conducting primary research. So make sure to explore secondary sources such as trade pubs, internal customer databases, government documents, syndicated studies, and so forth. From there, you can assess if primary research is needed to fill in any gaps.

Can we afford to conduct research the right way?  The right methodology and sample size are critical to getting reliable data, If you don’t have the budget, it may be smarter to wait on research until it can be properly funded.  Cutting corners could lead to invalid results which could send you down the wrong path.  Your research partner can help you price an appropriate study based on your research objectives and advise on whether it can be scaled down to fit a pre-determined budget.

Is management willing to act on the results? Change is hard.  Especially if it requires substantial investments of time and money or if it takes a person too far out of their comfort zone.  Seek out the scope of improvements your management will support beforehand. This feedback could influence how the survey is scripted or even if it makes sense to conduct the research at all.

Is it even possible to act on the results?  Most of the time, this issue relates more to specific research questions rather than whether or not a study should be conducted at all.  For example, why ask customers about their preferences on your office location if you have a 15-year lease that you can’t break? 

Be realistic when assessing these issues.  And, seek the input of a research partner to do a reality check on whether conducting the research you have in mind makes sense or not.

Just because you can’t afford to spend what you should on market research doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do any at all. Amidst the inherent chaos known as the annual budgeting process, make sure to give very careful consideration to areas in which your organization will need new or deeper market intelligence to effectively deliver on objectives and spend those budgets wisely.

Of course, the trick is balancing the need for market research with the pressure to do more – and to do it faster and with less.  What’s our advice for overcoming that dilemma?  Push back.  Take a stand.  Show how the lack of business intelligence has led and will lead to uninformed decisions that, in the end, will cost more time and money than the upfront research investment.

It’s estimated that 25-50% of marketing campaigns fail. The vast majority of new products struggle to survive. And many organizations can’t seem to get ahead in the game because customers are defecting for reasons yet to be identified and corrected.

Market leaders understand the value of market research as an investment in uncovering market opportunities, mitigating risk, and measuring performance.  They include it as a standard budget line item – an absolute given - to develop meaningful campaigns that resonate with the target audience, To introduce new products and services that the market actually needs and wants. To build loyalty and retain customers. And ultimately, to move the needle.

So, how much should you budget for market research – and how do you protect it from those holding the ax?  That depends.  Click here for some initial guidance. Then let us help you develop a realistic research budget and approach to meet your research objectives. We can also share tips on how to convince others why this is a decision your organization can’t afford NOT to make.

Tailored targeting based on gut feelings and assumptions is all too common and, unfortunately, typically fails. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to know the more that you personalize your approach to your prospect, the more they’ll prefer your brand. And, what does that equal? More sales.

Companies that truly succeed at market segmentation use strategies built on facts — facts derived from solid segmentation studies. These studies explore many different variables to provide a host of insights including:

• the most promising segments on which you should focus your efforts
• the characteristics of those segments
• their buying and usage behaviors and preferences
• which of your offerings will likely appeal most to them
• the value propositions that best resonate with them
• the most effective marketing messages and tactics

Your research partner will help you structure the study to ensure the segments it explores are:

• identifiable – they have differing attributes that can actually be measured
• accessible – they can be reached through available marketing channels
• substantial – they are large enough to justify your dedicated resources
• unique – they are different enough to make segmentation practical
• durable – they change infrequently, thus minimizing your investment as much as possible

Like other types of studies, segmentation research requires expert analyses by a research firm, to deliver meaningful segmentation results. Certainly, it can be more expensive to slice your target into multiple segments and market to them each differently. But, it enables you to be highly relevant to your target audiences. And that means you’ll always hit the bulls eye!

You may be anxious to get started on a new  research project, but have you thought about timing?   Most studies require a minimum of 8-10 weeks from the kick-off to report, and that’s  a best case scenario.  We know it can be tempting to rush into a research study in order to make business decisions faster, however, attempting to conduct a study at an inopportune time could have a negative impact on your schedule and budget. 

Because it’s the last month of the federal fiscal year, September is not a good month to conduct surveys or recruit focus groups with the federal government.  Your decline rate will likely be high.  The last month of the fiscal is also a no-no for  state governments, though watch out for the sneaky few who begin their fiscal years in July or January. 

Mid-December through the second week of January is never a good time to conduct focus groups or studies.  Many people are on vacation and busy with the holidays, year-end work demands and annual planning.  It’s likely many people who commit will end up as no shows. 

Also think about your own internal timing issues when planning your research schedule.  You’ll want ample time to reflect on the results and plan a course of action.  Ultimately, for the best ROI, make sure you plan ahead – both for enough time and the right time.

Many companies smartly rely on customer satisfaction studies as an important measure of business performance. However, surprisingly, many of those same companies often fail to gather and act upon the rich insights that their most important audience – employees – are eager to share.

Unquestionably, tapping into employee intelligence can help both protect and bolster the long-range success of an organization. Employees often reveal both obstacles to and enhancers of organizational performance, including factors contributing to low morale, ways to successfully hire and retain talent, perceived quality of managers and departments, process problems, and effectiveness of training programs.

Organizations can use one or a combination of several methodologies to conduct employee satisfaction programs, including phone and e-mail surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. Regardless of which methodology your company uses, it’s critical to take the following measures in order to maximize the research value and protect employee morale.

Seriously commit to acting on employee feedback
If your company wants to know what employees really think, management must be fully committed to developing and executing a plan that acts on the research results. Many companies don’t realize that conducting an employee satisfaction program creates the perception that employee feedback is valued along with the expectation that at least some improvements will be made as a result. Failing to act on the results of the research will likely diminish employees’ respect of management, damage employee morale, and lower the response rate in subsequent employee satisfaction surveys.

Include topics important to employees
Of course, the survey needs to address the topics deemed most important by management. But, if it doesn’t also probe topics that are important to employees, the organization is at risk of conveying that, at best, it’s unaware of or, at worst, purposely avoiding these areas. If your company is unsure about which issues are important to its employees, conduct preliminary research to identify them prior to developing the final survey instrument.

Protect the anonymity of employees
To gain their full cooperation and candor without fear of retribution, it’s very important to be explicitly clear with employees from the outset that the research will be conducted anonymously or, at the very least, kept confidential. Working with a neutral third-party research firm is the most effective way to protect anonymity and achieve complete candor, as it prevents management personnel from being able to single out specific employees’ responses.

A well managed employee satisfaction program can be an extremely valuable tool in helping companies improve from the inside out. Consult your research provider for guidance on how to put a meaningful program in place.

SEWP. Networx. ALIANT.  These are just some of the competitive contracts that currently dominate, or will dominate the federal purchasing landscape.  Whether you are going to be competing against 28 other companies for business through GSA’s ALIANT contract or are one of the three to five players on the Networx contracts, you will have to demonstrate not only your capabilities and technologies, but also your ability to deliver consistently on your promises.  How can you do that?

All contracts of recent vintage require some formal evaluation of performance.  These “check the box” methods of evaluation are fine – they make sure you are qualified going forward.  They make sure you won’t immediately be discounted for re-compete.  These evaluations, however, won’t necessarily win you work.  Nor will they necessarily give you the mechanism to know if you are satisfying your customer right now (making re-compete a much smoother process).

What we have found in our work for large, services contractors is that relationship AND transactional evaluation data are essential to a long-term relationship within any contract.  Sure, your sales teams have regular contact with the client.  They talk with their point of contact and have spent hours (and many dollars) building a strong relationship with this person, but do you really know what the “boots on the ground” are telling your contact on a regular basis?  Just like there may be things you won’t tell your best friend, there are things that your contact might not be telling you because you’ve done such a good job at building a personal relationship.  Nobody likes to hurt a friend’s feelings.  If you knew what the whole organization thought of your work, wouldn’t it make your relationship stronger with the agency?  What happens when your contact leaves or moves to another position?  Are you sure the new person won’t look elsewhere because of an issue you weren’t aware of?

If you are not in a position to implement a formal, third-party ongoing evaluation of your contracts, at least consider regular conversations or meetings with contract staff without your contact person present.  Get in the trenches and talk with those who must work with your product and people on a regular basis.  I’m sure the feedback will only make you stronger.

For those of you who were not able to attend last week’s informative web seminar on effectively penetrating the lucrative yet challenging state and local government market, we now have it available for complimentary viewing. 

The webinar features our very own Lisa Dezzutti, President of Market Connections, Inc. and Robert Silverman, CEO of ReachSolutions.  Gain insight from recent research into the needs and buying habits of state and local decision makers, along with an understanding of strategic approaches to building a successful, scalable sales program. 

Learn how your company can leverage this insight into increased revenue, reduced long-term cost of sales and sustainable growth in your S&L business.  Download this complimentary webinar today!

I recently attended a webcast hosted by the American Marketing Association entitled Assessing the Accuracy of Online Panel Research.  

Overall, online panels may seem ideal since they typically give you access to a large list of people from your target market.  However, some panels often have a large number of “professional respondents” (those who participate in panels or surveys for the purpose of financial gain or rewards).  Since these people usually care very little (if at all) about answering questions truthfully and completely, this could strongly affect the accuracy of your survey data.

To avoid this common pitfall, the next time you’re conducting panel research, make sure to ask your research partner how people were selected for the panel you’re using, how often the panel list is cleaned, and what safeguards they have to protect their lists from professional respondents.