Hone your communication skills

Editor’s note: Brett Hagins is the chief client advocate for Marketing Visience Inc., a Plano, Texas research firm.

It is absolutely critical for marketing research departments to deliberately involve themselves as early in marketing programs as possible. Frequently marketing research projects are not initiated proactively, either by marketing decision-makers or by the research people supporting them. As research executives, it is critical to be able to look over the horizon and anticipate exactly what decisions will be made in marketing programs.

Let’s assume that a company is considering a new product line. An entire spectrum of decisions will have to be made, from target market, to features and benefits, to advertising, to pricing, to choice of media, etc. The types of decisions that a company makes in a new product or service introduction are similar and predictable. The same is true for research on a potential advertising campaign and many other types of research. There is a fairly consistent research cycle that is followed for different types of decisions.

Given that we can look ahead to the future, we can plan. We can serve as consultants to our clients and recommend the appropriate research plan for the entire business decision-making process. Or, in the face of a limited budget, we can recommend the kind of research that is most likely to impact business results.

In corporations, information flows down from the top. Sometimes, a press release will come out that says your company is going to enter into a new category or service - then about nine months later, someone decides that research should be involved. If the research department is waiting to be asked, it is missing the boat. It is also missing the chance to initiate involvement at the strategic level before emotional commitments are made to particular courses of action. The research director that waits to be asked to do something is often brought in after senior management has decided on a course of action and the research is then involved only at the tactical level.

Distinguish between research and business objectives

A marketing vice president may come to you and say he wants to test a prototype of a new product and get consumer reaction to it. This is often the kind of vague directive that research professionals are given. The research director still has absolutely no idea what the business objective is. In crossing the chasm from stated research objectives to business objectives, the following line of exploration is critical.

  • If we find out the reaction is great, what action will come next?
  • If the reaction is mediocre or poor, do we rework the product features based on subscriber feedback?
  • Do we know who the most likely target market is for the product? Do we know how we are going to promote it?

Bottom line, you’ve got to get commitments from the decision-maker as to how the information will be used: product optimization; go-no go decisions; determining the most appropriate target marketing, pricing, etc. Then go back with a written summary of your understanding of what the real business objectives are from the conversation and get their agreement.

Don’t start from scratch

It is amazing how often people will view individual research projects in a vacuum. They will start research as if they had never talked to their target audience before. Buried in previous research is a wealth of information and insight that can help. In addition, news articles, competitor Web sites and secondary research services may yield just as much combined insight as one home-use test on a prototype. Don’t have the mentality that if it wasn’t done here it can’t possibly be of any value. Pride goeth before the fall.

Look forward with scenario planning

Take the rough draft of the questionnaire and anticipate possible and most likely responses. If the average response is x, what does that mean and what are we going to do with it? In going over the entire questionnaire and planning out scenarios, you not only will realize what kind of statistical work you want to do (crosstabs, regressions, etc.) but you get a clear roadmap of possible actions that can be taken. Then take your alternative scenario plan back to your marketing v.p. and get a commitment up front on each of the alternative scenarios. In doing this, you are using the time-tested technique of pre-closing. Make notes about their anticipated plans in the event of different scenarios and then send them an e-mailed summary of the conversation confirming your understanding so that, psychologically, the person will be that much more committed to taking action on the results. If the decision-making requires multiple approvals, get commitments from all parties.

Integrate the results with other sources to fill in the skeleton

We know research often raises more questions. But don’t do research into oblivion just because there is still some degree of uncertainty. Remember, you can fill in the white space with secondary research, previous custom research projects, interviews with people internally like the sales force or any client-facing organization. Some in the profession are so focused on the diagnostics that they never get to the cure. Remember, the truth is a moving target. If you spend too much time aiming and never fire a gun, the target may be gone. In a world where the pace of change is accelerating and many businesses are finding that their core competency is being eroded by new business models, can’t it be more dangerous to sit still than it is to fire, re-aim and fire again?

Become a master salesperson of research

Research people have to be master salespeople. Unfortunately, many are not and become disillusioned, believing decisions are outside of their control. A research person e-mailing a report or a summary memo and not following up to make the sale is like an account executive sending off marketing collateral and then waiting by the phone to see what happens. Don’t become discouraged by politics, personal biases, the insecurity of others or skepticism. If the entrepreneurs and salespeople in this country were so easily discouraged, this country would not be where it is today. You have to understand the game AND play it better than anyone else around you.

Do fewer projects

One of the things that prevents research executives from making a sustained, disciplined, relentless effort to drive business results on all projects is the sheer quantity of things that they have on their plates. Find ways to reduce the load. Do a research audit of studies currently on the table and ask important questions such as:

  • Is this really adding more value than the other ways that we could be spending our time?
  • Is this tracking study that we report on every month yielding new, fresh insights? Is it actionable? Can we reduce the frequency of it (once a month to quarterly) or eliminate it all together? If we report on a predefined schedule and yet we spend a lot of time explaining to people why we can’t draw conclusions because of the lower sample sizes, can we reduce the frequency of the schedule?
  • Can we host internal brainstorming and ideation sessions as an alternative to focus groups?
  • Can we make greater use of secondary research already on the market answering similar questions?
  • Can we avoid doing research on what we know is bad or mediocre marketing to begin with and instead push for getting more internal DNA involved along with appropriate best-of-breed marketing books from authorities in their field? (For example, if I’m in charge of brand strategy and I’m about to do a brand equity study on something way too far out of our core competency, can I influence the thinking of others by sharing articles and essays from David Aaker or other authorities on the subject?)
  • Am I defining research plans in a way that eliminates unnecessary steps? Am I serving as a consultant rather than an order taker? If an internal client wants to do a study that is CLEARLY going to be a waste of time, do I have the persuasive skill necessary to convince them of that?

Guide action

Following these tips can help you develop your sales and relationship skills in such a manner that you can guide courses of action without seeming threatening or intimidating. In fact, effective communication allows those decision-makers you support to reach the final conclusion on their own - they don’t feel threatened, they are still in control. Meanwhile, you’ll know in your heart that your efforts are making a difference, and that’s why we go to work in the morning, right?