Now, more than ever, it is not enough for research agencies to simply offer their client a commodity service. In fact, I have always believed that you should add value. By doing so, the agency stands out from the crowd, offering a far more meaningful result for the client. The work that is being done becomes more stimulating and exciting for the agency.
More importantly, it leads to a more meaningful relationship. In this increasingly competitive marketplace actionable advice is imperative to add value for the client. Like anything in life and commerce you cannot do this by chance; you have to think through what you do and how you do it. For many years BPRI has believed that best practice principles must guide how we add value when our clients are commissioning B2B research.
The first step in this process might appear obvious. It is not enough to be research specialists that is a given. It is crucial for us to understand our client’s business. Researchers are experts in what they do: for instance qualitative or quantitative methodologies. By the nature of what they do, they become generalists in business.
There are advantages to this: they come to a project with a broad business overview enabling them to bring an expertise and insight which clients might not have.
The disadvantage to a research agency is that without in-depth knowledge of a sector we will not be able to serve our client fully. Ensuring a researcher specialises in one industry sector or by a business issue (eg. corporate reputation) is a good rule.
The next is step is for the researcher to do their own research on clients’ organisations before the briefing meeting. This way they will be fully aware of what keeps the client awake at night.
In consumer research, the client will more than likely be the market research department within the company. With business-to-business, the client is usually from another functional area: marketing; strategic planning; human resources; risk management; corporate communications or finance. With some clients it is the chief executive of the organisation who is driving the research programme.
Part of understanding a client’s requirements and research needs is to hold an internal review. By meeting with internal stakeholders you do several things:
- Achieve their buy-in to the proposed research programme
- Gain their perspective on the issue and their view of how the outside world sees them
- Speeds up the learning process about their business.
Once the external views of the client’s company are collected during the research, the two perspectives can act as an essential guide in drawing up recommendations. If a client’s internal stakeholders believe all is right with the world, while the world believes there is something rotten in the State of Denmark, we know our client has a problem that needs to be rectified. Good quality research will be the start of that process.
Making assumptions about the level of understanding a client has about market research is, therefore, a danger. It is all too easy for a researcher to sit in a meeting dropping technical research jargon left, right and centre.
While some researchers might think this will impress their client, the truth is that as eyes glaze over, the audience is being alienated from the speaker and from the whole idea of research. The worst thing someone in the communications sector can do is fail to communicate effectively with their client.
If clients want a relationship instead of having a commodity supplier, then they can do certain things to help achieve this. It is critical to the success of the project to hold a briefing meeting regarding the proposal.
All too often a research brief is sent out by email and researchers are expected to respond without a meeting. The research agency has to have the opportunity to question their potential client about the brief. If researchers can do this, it gives them the chance to fully understand what the client hopes to gain from undertaking the project.
There is an old computer programming formulation that says rubbish in, rubbish out in other words if you write bad software you will produce a bad result. If a proposal is produced on the basis of an unclear brief, then the design, methodology and structure of the research project can be incorrect. This will mean the end result is unclear, unhelpful and non-actionable. The research will be placed on someone’s office shelf and forgotten.
Some clients only want a supplier; someone to metaphorically deliver pencils. To keep with this analogy, if they pursued a relationship or partnership with their research agency they would get pencils that are sharp and made a point.
Best practice must mean not wasting clients’ money. Before asking a client to commit to a significant sum of money for a project, it is advisable to pilot the research. This will test the programme. It will iron out any problems or flag up any flaws in the methodology.
The pilot helps identify the most suitable methodology to use for the participants and if the methodology isn’t right, it can be changed. It also sets the agenda for the main research programme re-enforcing what the programme is setting out to do.
If using research jargon at the beginning of a relationship is unhelpful and off-putting, it is even worse when reporting and presenting to the client. A non-market researcher needs to understand what the research means to them and their strategic area.
The point of commissioning the research for our business-to-business clients is to move their company forward. Clients need to take from the results clear, commercial actionable suggestions.
To sum up, if you are thinking about selecting a research agency for B2B work, you will find they add value to your research if they have a best practice guide that resembles the following:
- They understand your business
- They speak your language
- They speak to internal stakeholders
- They build a relationship with you
- They encourage you to build a relationship with them.
- They communicate the results of the research in a pragmatic and commercially useful way.
Please note that there is no right or wrong way to formulate a research brief, writes Jonathon Shingleton of BPRI. But there are certain areas which should ideally be included in the brief. This does not imply that every research agency has to reply in the same way most briefs outline the research need and let the agency determine how best to meet that need. However, trying to ensure the following areas are covered will help.
1. Have a clear view of what you need.
2. Ensure research agencies can respond in a relevant and timely manner.
3. Provide a description of your company/division.
4. Outline the main business issue(s) and objectives eg. what do you need insight into? Why do you require research? Who will use the research internally?
5. Outline any previous research you have commissioned that might be relevant this will help the agency and also mean they can benchmark findings.
6. Explain any unusual or specific issues the agency may need to be aware of.
7. Outline what you hope to gain from the research.
8. Outline whether the findings need to be differentiated in any way.
9. Identify your key audiences and/or markets.
10. State if you require data to be analysed by sub-groups eg. sector, function, location.
11. State whether any of the groups need to be excluded from the research.
12. State whether the research might be qualitative or quantitative.
13. State if you will be providing sample for the research eg. from your own contact database or whether you will require the agency to provide it.
14. Indicate how the findings should be presented eg. statistics?
15. State what is expected from the research in terms of presentation and/or report writing. You might require any of the following:
A verbal presentation
A full report
Report by country, market sector or target audience
State if more than one presentation will be required and what format that might take
State if an interim presentation is required and if so what format that should be in
Indicate who will be the users for the interim presentation
State who will be using the results
Be clear on your eligibility criteria
Define your preferred timescale
Provide a budget range.
