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Buying Marketing Research Doesn't Have To Be Confusing
By
Garry Upton
In the throes of deregulation, increasing competition, climbing costs, and
difficult-to-please customers, America’s energy companies are aggressively
seeking quality marketing research to help them chart a 21st-century course. In
fact, energy companies for years have relied on marketing research to better
serve customers and identify new markets. What is different today, however, is
the way some companies are seeking research.
Before the rush toward globalization and the advent of wholesale corporate
downsizing, an internal research department usually was responsible for
coordinating and managing research needs. Today, however, within some companies
many different departments are requesting information—and that isn’t
always producing optimum results. Because of the internal communications
required and a lack of experience in building Requests for Proposal (RFP), time
and effort often are being wasted in acquiring usable proposals and subsequent
research studies.
For those of you who (for better or worse) are becoming involved in research
requests concerning customer, employee and/or general marketing issues, I offer
the following as a way for you to move through the process more confidently and
efficiently.
A Little Insider Insight
It will help you to know that when you call a research professional, you can
look forward to speaking with someone genuinely interested in your call.
Researchers, however, like you, lead inordinately harried lives. The day of
your call, for example, the professional researcher might be in the process of
completing three reports due at the end of the week—and that’s
tomorrow! Her day may have begun with a call from someone wanting a bid
“just to make sure a more preferred supplier was keeping his costs in
line.” Her second call might have consumed 30 minutes speaking with a
less-than-informed caller (the inventor of a new product) sent by a loan
institution requesting valid research before extending a loan. The researcher
may have already helped a student with a class assignment, and quite possibly
the call before yours was from a competitor trying to confirm his own decision
concerning a study’s methodology. And the list goes on.
It is critical then to know that you and the researcher are on the same page.
Toward that end, here are a few tips:
- Always introduce yourself.
- Take a few minutes to spell your name. Many of the '60s generation took great
pride in finding new and innovative ways to spell their children’s names.
Today Smith may be Smyth or Smythe or Smithe. Kelly may be Kelli, Kellie,
Kelley or Kely.
- Be sure to include your company’s full name (e.g., "Comwell,
Consultants to Management," not simply "Comwell"). It is easy to
slip into using an abbreviated name and not give it another thought, until you
see the returned proposals you want to send on to others has the wrong name.
- Remember to always give your telephone and fax numbers. Failure here extends
the supplier’s requirement for delivering a timely and usable proposal.
When applicable, include your email address and website. Client service
representatives are trained to search for additional information (to build a
stronger first proposal) before responding to a new prospect. Your assistance
with website locations will help shorten the discovery process.
By doing all of the above, you are helping the researcher clear his mental
decks to concentrate on your needs. And now let’s talk about that process.
As part of communicating clearly, it is important that you take a few minutes to
relate the call’s background—i.e., why you and your associates
believe research is required. Try to share as much information as possible and,
if necessary, ask the researcher to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
If possible, you should share the names of all the departments that will use the
research. This will significantly enhance the final product. If you have
concerns about identifying the end users, instruct the researcher that you are
his contact, and any attempt on his part to go around you will be met with an
immediate cessation of any working relationship. Any supplier worthy of
becoming your partner will honor your directive.
As you describe your needs, add any information that might help the researcher
build her proposal. For example, if the study needs to be conducted every year,
make that clear. Frequency significantly affects research development. Specific
questions not required for a one-time report, but valuable for a study that
will be fielded over and over again (tracking study), should be considered.
Unfortunately, having to build a benchmark the second year of a study, rather
than the first, is more the norm that the exception. Often a few alterations in
the first report would have saved the corporation valuable time and money.
Review other information that might be used in combination with the study. The
additional information (internal date, earlier studies, etc.) will help your
researcher design the data files (cross-tabulations) produced for the analysis.
As with the other suggestions made here, share only as much as you are
comfortable sharing. Realize, however, that the more you share, the better the
proposal—and the subsequent research—will be.
Objectives And Methodologies
To help you best reach your goal, the researcher needs to understand what your
objectives are. If you are developing this project for another end user, prompt
your ultimate client (corporate department or associated partnering company) to
help list the objectives. This will help ensure they have been as clear with
you about their requirements as possible. This can be difficult for a
nonresearcher to visualize. Occasionally you can help your department’s
clients by asking each to write a possible scenario they would envision, and
possibly follow, after the research has been delivered. Asking about possible
actions your clients may be considering can be one of the best ways for all of
you to understand the true objectives.
In your initial conversation with the research professional, feel free to
suggest methodologies for data collection and processing, but remain open to
alternative techniques. Spend a few minutes discussing and better understanding
ways in which the use of different methodologies will expand or reduce your
overall use of the study. You need to make sure you understand why your contact
is suggesting certain methodologies. Many research companies have become
specialists. In other words, they have developed an expertise in one or two
types of research. You shouldn’t automatically eliminate them from
consideration; just make sure you are comfortable that the methodology
suggested was selected because it bests delivers the information you
need—not because it’s their only option. To use an old cliché,
to a man with only a hammer, every situation resembles a nail.
Once you have a firm understanding of the benefits of a certain type of
methodology, make sure you convey your schedule for the proposal and research
to the researcher. You should not automatically discard a company (for future
surveys) that cannot meet your current deadline. A good research firm will
quickly tell you if it cannot meet your schedule—a courtesy that should
keep it on your list for future studies.
Budget
Being open about your budget helps researchers with the overall study design.
However, until you have built a relationship with your contact, you might not
be comfortable sharing your budget. Until you reach that point of trust, you
can assist the potential research supplier by relating the overall breadth of
information required. When doing this, make sure you don’t ask for more
than you can afford. That only wastes your contact’s time. Remember,
purchasing research is much like acquiring a new vehicle: A less expensive one
might still get you to your destination, but not as quickly, dependably, or
comfortably.
Trying to set the boundaries for research—when you have no understanding of
the researcher’s costs—can be counterproductive. There are various
ways to work around this problem, including sharing your budget with one
supplier—but not all—so a benchmark is established. Be careful,
however, when trying to determine why costs vary among research firms. A
particular methodology delivered within a certain time frame can be more costly
for one firm than another. That’s because some proposals may include
hidden benefits such as:
- The research firm is vertically integrated and employs extra quality checks to
ensure your decisions are built on correct data input, not a type
“O.”
- The research organization has chosen to employ more qualified research
technicians within every department, resulting in higher salaries.
- The client-service department includes experiential (client side and supplier
side) as well as academic backgrounds, which produce more succinct and
action-oriented (real-world) conclusions and recommendations.
Preparation
Now that you know how to express your needs to a research company, drafting
internal and external communications becomes an easier task. In terms of
internal communications, you now can build a request form for the rest of your
stakeholders. You may want to use the form yourself and interview customers who
will benefit from the research, or send the form to your partners to fill out.
Either way, make certain you establish communication procedures with these
customer departments, including a system for the customer to sign off on the
project’s requirement list. If your clients want to help decide which
research firm should be selected, build and share a schedule
for their input, and stick to that schedule.
As for external communications, if you are sending the RFP to more than one
supplier, design a form that will compare each proposal with the others by
section. Analyze and share the differences (with your departments and/or
clients) that you feel are important when making your decision. If you require
a final report, and the cost for a personal presentation is reasonable, always
make time to include it. You may want your department to be the only one in the
audience, or you may wish to open the presentation to customers. Either way, it
is simply human nature for a supplier to take more time preparing and analyzing
the data when she has been requested to present it. You will find your analysis
to be more comprehensive and useful.
In summation, remember that nothing substitutes for professional marketing
research when it is time to find new opportunities or to measure how well your
company is performing. Entering the process blindly, however, can cause problems,
so take a little time to prepare. Once you do, you’ll find the world of
marketing research to be not only beneficial to the bottom line, but an exciting
new experience.
Copyright © 2000 by Decision Analyst, Inc.
This article may not be copied, published, or used in any way without written
permission of Decision Analyst.
About the Author
Garry Upton (gupton@decisionanalyst.com)
is an Executive Vice President at Dallas-Fort Worth based Decision Analyst.
He may be reached at 1-800-262-5974 or 1-817-640-6166.
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