Why Choose Use - An Outside Firm
People often ask about the benefits of using an outside marketing research firm rather than gathering information themselves through sales, tradeshows, customers, end users etc. There are a number of reasons to use an outside marketing research firm. To evaluate whether or not an outside research firm like Essential Resources is right for your organization consider the following benefits:
- Professional Marketing Research Expertise and Skills.
- Good Marketing Research Takes Some Time.
- More Objective, Open-Minded Market Analysis and Reporting.
- An Outside Firm Gets the Entire Unbiased Story.
- Total Client Anonymity.
- Difficulty in Selling and Conducting Marketing Research Simultaneously.
- Potential for Lost Sales Opportunities.
Professional Marketing Research Expertise and Skills
Marketing research firms have specialized, expert skills developed through years of experience. Marketing research skills fall intro three broad categories:
- Survey Development: Ensuring that the marketing research “asks the right questions, the right way and in the proper sequence” is critical to the success of any marketing research project. Professional marketing research firms are skilled at writing unbiased surveys and associated questions that clearly address the business objectives of the project.
- Representative Sampling: Professionally executed marketing research focuses on gathering a representative sample of the market of interest. Representative sampling is critical to ensure the results can be forecasted to the entire target market and not biased toward a particular subset e.g., customers only.
- Translating “Data” into Actionable Recommendations: Good marketing research should provide clear, concise results that yield actionable recommendations. Good marketing research firms are skilled at not only identifying the useful results, but communicating results and recommendations in a form that is useful to the client.
Good Marketing Research Takes Some Time
When market research is done well, using the skills and processes described above, a typical engagement could take anywhere between a couple of days to a couple of weeks or longer. Most organizations simply cannot dedicate this amount of internal staff time to do a thorough job. In addition, many companies need to conduct marketing research quickly. In this case, the necessary time becomes focused into a shorter time period, increasing the likelihood of errors and oversights. One of the reasons internally conducted marketing research falls short is that it isn’t done thoroughly due to time constraints.
More Objective, Open-Minded Analysis and Detailed Reporting
As an independent third-party, an outside marketing research firm brings a level of objectivity to the project that the client typically cannot get if they were to do it themselves. No matter how objective or open-minded they try to be, employees of a company always bring some degree of bias to a conversation with a customer or prospect. This is understandable—employees often live and breathe the product, and it is difficult to step outside that perspective to listen to customers and prospects with an open-mind. An outside marketing research firm brings an independent perspective—unbiased by internal opinions, past experiences, or passion for the concept. As a result, we don’t filter what people say and we are more open to hearing opinions that go against internal beliefs and assumptions.
An Outside Firm Gets the Entire Unbiased Story
People are more forthcoming with an independent third-party than they are with a company representative—even when they know who is ultimately sponsoring the project. This happens for several reasons:
- When most prospects talk to a vendor representative, their defenses are up because they know the vendor’s ultimate objective is probably to sell them something. They are less willing to share their honest concerns or thoughts in some areas for fear this will diminish their bargaining position at a later time. Customers may be more likely to share their thoughts with a current vendor, however, they typically represent a biased perspective—they’ve already bought from the company and have a real relationship.
- People are often uncomfortable delivering bad news directly. If a prospect or client thinks an idea for an enhanced product is bad, they often soften the truth rather than tell the company directly that the idea is poor. As a result, the company may get misleading positive feedback that could be very costly over the longer term.
Total Client Anonymity
A third-party firm can also conduct the marketing research without revealing the sponsoring company. In some situations, a company may not want the market to know they are considering a specific concept or product. It is very difficult for company representatives to conduct the marketing research themselves and remain anonymous.
The option to remain anonymous is also useful for marketing research participants—some people feel more comfortable providing their input when their name or company isn’t linked to their responses. Using a third-party marketing research firm allows participants to remain anonymous, and can provide a more representative sample of the market as a result.
Difficulty in Doing Market Research and Selling Simultaneously
An alternative to using a third party marketing research firm is often to append some marketing research questions onto another client sales meeting. For example, one approach is to have the sales force ask questions of customers and prospects during their meetings. Salespeople have a limited amount of time with a prospect to accomplish their primary objective—selling. Including a marketing research related discussion in the sales meeting dilutes their main objective, and the resulting information generally falls far short as well.
Potential for Lost Sales Opportunities
While a client can gain some of these insights through its own interactions with the market without hiring a marketing research firm, it takes longer and may cost more in the long term due to lost opportunities—sales that would have succeeded if the company had done the marketing research before rather than during the sales meeting.
