Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

After founding the Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring (FTO), a couple of months ago, I find it has been rather heavily discussed on market research related social media.

A few of the criticisms have been surprisingly unjust, and clearly not based on fact. After thinking about it I found this rather encouraging. As esteemed psychologist Charles Osgood pointed out, “one indication of the validity of a principle is the vigor and persistence with which it is opposed. In any field, if people see that an idea is obvious nonsense and easy to refute, they tend to ignore it. On the other hand if a principle is difficult to refute and it causes them to question some of their own basic assumptions with which their names may be identified, they have to go out of their way to find something wrong with it”

It seems that the handful of smaller suppliers who have opposed the FTO in social media, at least in their arguments, are either not clear on the definition of offshoring and the differences between offshoring and outsourcing, or have no experience with offshoring. Hiring one of the foremost experts in the world on a certain methodology, or conducting a global study using local fieldwork personnel would NOT be considered offshoring. No, offshoring is moving business processes from one country to another in order to take advantage of significantly lower labor costs (often well under a third of the cost). Offshoring can expose clients to various risks related to quality, privacy and intellectual property. To offshore projects without client disclosure is irresponsible and unethical.

Surprisingly most of the trades have been very quiet on the formation of the FTO thus far. This shouldn’t be so surprising when you follow the money. After all 90% of the largest firms (think Honomichl 50) are not only those who are most heavily invested in offshoring, but also most likely to advertise with the various trades.

While these large MR firms don’t mind mentioning offshoring on a finance call with investors, they are extremely careful not to mention it in front of clients. So it has not been surprising to hear that senior leadership at a few of these firms are extremely upset about the FTO, calling it “unnecessary” and “alarmist”.

The FTO is reaching out to each of the major MR trades, and we will be updating our supporters of the feedback we receive in the coming weeks. Some have been more open to discussion and collaboration than others.

So far the largest support has come from clients, who are usually not so keen in expressing their views on social media. Many have contacted the FTO thanking us for our efforts in bringing this important topic to their attention. Some have also suggested a directory of FTO certified supplier companies. We currently have 30 companies certified and there are plans on providing a directory in the future.

Thank you for your continued support of the FTO. I hope that fellow responsible market researchers will encourage their employers and/or suppliers to self certify.

Finally, as we are a completely free non-profit organization, we welcome your help getting the word out about the FTO. If you are a blogger or webmaster of a market research related site and would like to show your support please feel free to use any of the banners below.

Thank You

Tom
Tom H. C. Anderson

Founder & Chairman
Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring
www.offshoringtransparency.org
@OffshoreTrans

Managing Partner
Anderson Analytics, LLC
www.andersonanalytics.com

Tweet This Post 

Miss us? - We’re back!

Glad Twitter turned my account @TomHCAnderson and Anderson Analytics’ account @InfoaAdvantage back on today. Unfortunately they deleted a few thousand of my followers, but easy come easy go.

I got a few questions yesterday, so thought I would elaborate briefly on the last post about Twitter and why I Tweet. I said that Twitter is the Babylon of Spam, and that it is mainly for marketers and those selling something (a product, service or cause). So if there aren’t many customers there then why bother Tweeting?

It’s true. Look at the list of Next Gen Market Researcher (NGMR) members who Tweet. There are about 80 of us, and I believe ALL of us are suppliers! I’m sure there are some MR clients on Twitter, but probably not as many as you would think. So then as my Tweeting is for marketing purposes who the heck am I trying to reach?

Well, other than showing potential clients interested in leveraging various social media that Anderson Analytics actually knows and understands how to leverage each of the important networks, the other, just as important, goal is to reach my fellow market research suppliers. As it turns out, Twitter users are not only more likely to be selling stuff, they are also much more likely to be opinion leaders and bloggers. If I drive fellow suppliers who blog to my blog it is likely that some of them will eventually tweet and blog about an Anderson Analytics study. Why is this important? Blogs are extremely useful for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They show up high in Google because of the many links and back links.

In turn both our blog and the Anderson Analytics website, studies, press releases etc. have great search ranking on a variety of key subject areas. New clients consistently call us because they “found Anderson Analytics on Google and read some of the interesting things you’ve been doing”.

Of course, Twitter and blogs fit in well with LinkedIn and Facebook too. Though our strategies for these are somewhat different. So you see, though I don’t have the highest hopes for Twitter in the long term (unless it changes considerably), In the short term it is still very effective and provides a good ROI.

So for now I’ll continue to Tweet until either the ROI decreases, there are better social media options, or Twitter decides no market researcher should be able to have >50,000 followers.

@TomHCAnderson

Tweet This Post 

My views on using Twitter for marketing and market research

I wasn’t going to blog about this, but I’ve started getting a few pings via Facebook, LinkedIn and email wondering why I’m missing from Twitter all of a sudden. As is the case for many ‘power users’ of various social networks, the reward for encouraging use of these services among other professionals in your industry is often met with some sort of account freeze or other punishment. (you may recall the LinkedIn incident when my account was frozen for having an “inappropriate” image).

These are one of the many problems with social media, and social networking in particular, which make it more difficult to take them seriously as either a long term market research or marketing tools. You may invest considerable time and money in building an application/widget, growing your fan/follower base etc., but you are at the mercy of these networks growing pains, changes in API, automated data mining rules etc.

This is also why it is often a source of amusement to me to see how “social media consultants” and “social media market researchers” talk only about the pluses and never about the risks and downsides.

Don’t get me wrong. Social Networks are a powerful tool now, and will continue to become more so. I’ll leave MR out of it for now, and focus on marketing. For SEO purposes alone social networks unarguably are a powerful driver of traffic to sites (see traffic chart for past 30 days www.tomhcanderson.com stats).

Take this blog for instance where 20% of the traffic comes from LinkedIn. Arguably, these 20% are expensive in terms of effort spent moderating and maintaining the NGMR discussion board on LinkedIn. On the other hand, although I do have more followers than anyone else in market research on Twitter (about 50,000 currently), other than setting a strategy and seeing it through, I’ve spent rather little time on this network. Yet Twitter has generated well over 10% of the traffic, a great ROT (Return on Time). [Facebook, is third for me with about 3-5%.The same is true of traffic to Anderson Analytics.]

Even so, my feelings on Twitter are mixed. I called it the “Babylon of Spam” the other day, and though I know many would disagree, I still view it mainly as a tool for marketers. I’ve always been, and will continue to be, doubtful of Twitters long-term viability. To me it seems to make no sense why having a better strategy/tactics should allow someone like PDiddy (2.5million followers) or Ashton Kutcher (4.5 million) to have millions more followers than CNN (<1million). I find it hard to understand why Kraft Foods with only 3,500 followers can justify the marketing/time expenditure. Neither of the above have much interesting content, rather they are taking advantage of a temporary frenzy. If Twitter has different rules for some users rather than others, it will likely decrease interest. Right now a very large proportion of Twitter users are interested in Twitter solely because of the PR/SEO opportunity. Take it away and it will become much less interesting to us. Facebook and LinkedIn technically offer everything Twitter does and much more, but without the same PR/SEO opportunity.

I admit, if Twitter turns our accounts back on later this week, I’ll continue to Tweet as well. But either way I won’t be holding my breath expecting Twitter to be a meaningful long-term marketing or market research option.

Unlike many market researchers involved in Next Gen Research, I tend to turn clients away who come to me asking, “can Anderson Analytics text mine Twitter for us? We want to know what people are saying on there”. The reason for this is that these potential clients tend to be one time clients. The decision to text analyze Twitter or any other source should be thought thorough. Begin by asking a broader question such as “How can my company better leverage social media to promote our services/products?”, then ask “Does text analyzing Twitter make sense as part of the insights needed to answer this question?”. If we think the answer is yes, Anderson Analytics will be happy to text mine Twitter data for you as part of the project. If we don’t think it will help answer at least some specific questions; we won’t. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find a few thousand “Twitter consultants” out there who would be willing to help you even if we don’t.

Tweet This Post 

Passing the Research Baton to the Consumer

When I saw the new Tempur-Pedic commercial on TV just now I thought it was fantastic. From Anderson Analytics’ research on social media I know that today’s consumers get their product info from social media. Discussion boards and social networks are valued even more than friend and family opinions.

Enter Temour-Pedics commercial. Basically, “don’t trust us, do your own online research”. Great! In the near future perhaps the market for blog mining tools etc. will not be corporate PR departments, but end consumers?

Tweet This Post 

Dana Stanley, author of Blogus Operandi and host of Podus Operandi posted a podcast interview with me today. He asked me a few questions about next gen market research, online research, data and text mining as well as social media research. You can listen to the mp3 on Podus Operandi here:

There is also a transcript on the Operandi blog and below if you prefer reading.

Dana Stanley: Hey Tom, how are you?

Tom Anderson: Good, how are you?

DS: Good, thanks for taking the time to participate in this podcast.

TA: My pleasure, thanks for having me.

DS: Sure. Well, I wanted to, have some time with you because, you’re doing a lot of different things that I think are interesting to people out there in the research industry, and you’ve innovated in a number of ways. I wanted to get some time to ask you about that and let people consider some of the things that you’ve done.

TA: Great.

DS: So, Let me start out by asking you a little bit about your background and your company, Anderson Analytics.  It probably would be helpful for you to start out just kind of talking about how you got into research and talk a little bit about what Anderson Analytics does.

TA: Sure, I’ve been in market research for about 14 years or so. I started out with an internship at ACNielsen/BASES and then moved on to NFO, and in 2000, I had a chance to work for a dot com, so that’s where I first started getting into social media. Then, more recently, when I went back to grad school again I got into Data Mining and specifically Text Mining, and that’s why in 2005 I started Anderson Analytics as an online research firm: surveys, online discussion board focus groups, but also leveraging text information.

DS: What kind of academic study did you do in your graduate work?

TA: I did a Masters in Economics in Sweden, and there was an area studies component as well so I did my field work in China. And then an MBA at the University of Connecticut in Marketing Research and International Business.

DS: How did you get interested in Data Mining?

TA: I had a professor who was interested in the leading edge of Text Mining and Data Mining, and I, started working with him, and also SPSS.  After I was done I managed the Starwood account on behalf of TNS. And obviously, they had a lot of open ends, doing one million completes per year. Starwood wasn’t able to do much with the open ends at the corporate level, so I saw Text Mining as an obvious way to leverage that.

DS: So I think there are a lot of people out there that you know, have a general concept of what Data Mining is, but they really don’t know the first thing about how to do it, or I think more importantly how to think about what’s possible with it.  Can you give some examples of the ways that you’ve innovated with Data Mining and some things that you’ve done for clients?

TA: Yeah, I mean it really varies, from analyzing and segmentation is often a key area obviously, in many cases. We’ve done a lot of work with CRM data.  The client obviously collects a lot of data in doing business. So that’s usually a good step to start. Unfortunately, there are a lot of data silos, so trying to get marketing research to work more with direct marketing or CRM, loyalty etc., in leveraging multiple streams of data can be difficult. Obviously you can do a segmentation on just CRM data or you can do a segmentation just using survey data, but we’ve found the most powerful ones are the ones where we’re able to combine both of those. But for Data Mining you know, sometimes there are specific key objectives that you go in there with, and other times, it’s an exploratory to find out what trends you can find.  Data Mining is discovering patterns and so, when clients are able to or are willing to go in there, and this is the case with Text Data as well, there are certain things that we’re looking for, usually, and then there are other things that we discover that we weren’t really planning on.

DS: So how do you approach a set of data, you know, without getting too specific or certainly into anything proprietary, but how do you approach, essentially a mound of data when you come across it?

TA: Well, it again depends a lot on what kind of data it is and where it’s coming from and what the objectives are, and also whether it’s just quantitative data or text data it’s also rather different.  So for Text Mining, which we’ve been doing more and more of, we find that text data can come from a number of sources. Survey open ends are an obvious one, screen scraping, or blog mining etc. is another one. But we’ve analyzed, call center log data, emails, as well.  We’ve set up some best practices, in dealing with Text Mining, and part of that is the AA-Text [Anderson Analytics Text], basically validation through triangulation. So we’ve used a number of Text Mining softwares, not just what we call tactical Text Mining, which looks at what’s being discussed: verbatim concepts and sentiment, but also emotional content analysis software which looks at the words people choose to use, and that tells us something about their state of mind and their emotional needs.

DS: Well, that’s interesting. With the proliferation of web sites and companies not just having one web site, but having multiple sites, I imagine that’s a big source of data for you as well. You mentioned screen scraping?

TA: Yes, often a client will ask, ‘can you scrape the web for us and tell us what they’re saying about our brand?’ And I have to explain that nobody can do that, nobody can get everything. Facebook, for instance, is very valuable, they have a host of the more personal web. Google has everything that’s public, and Facebook has our personal conversations. But that’s [Facebook] a walled garden, so most of that data, or pretty much all of it, is not available for screen scraping.  So in our projects, we tell our clients that it’s much better to carefully scope out and understand what you’re going after, which sites are important.  In many cases you’d be surprised at the kinds of products that are being discussed and have discussion boards dedicated to them. Everything from knitting to guitars to obviously video games and cell phones. But in those cases where the client has a product that is not being discussed as much, then I advise them to, why not look at sites where their target demographic is active, screen scrape that and and understand what their customers are discussing, and what makes them tick, so that you can then incorporate that into your marketing?

DS: OK, so lets see, so you are quite active in social media, you’re involved in a number of things relating to the research industry, on Linkedin, and Twitter and whatnot, so I want to ask you about your approach to social media and some of your thoughts of how the research industry can benefit from participating in it.

TA: Yeah, I think there’s a big opportunity - in a study that Anderson Analytics does every year among senior level marketing executives of MENG, the Marketing Executives Networking Group - social media and social networking, blogging etc. came to the top this year in terms of buzz word trends they were frustrated and tired of hearing about. On the other hand though, we found that they also felt that they were very important, so the frustration lies in not understanding how to leverage that. I think the first step in understanding how to leverage it, is to understand which of your customers use it and how they use it and how.  You really need to understand social media and social networking in order to understand how to best leverage it for research as well. I view social media, Twitter, Blogging, Facebook etc…as concentric circles. You know there’s a certain percentage of the population that touches on all of those forums and then there are others that you reach on just one of those. I was an early adopter of LinkedIn, for personal business use, and from there on started using Facebook, and then started a blog, basically because we were doing blog mining and I wanted to understand it from the blogger’s perspective. I really had no, intention of blogging, I wasn’t a blog fan at all. Didn’t read any blogs at the time really, I didn’t think I could blog.   I started blogging a bit, and quickly noticed that we got four times the amount of traffic to the blog as we did to our web site, which had been around for, several years, and had advertising etc.  From there on, Twitter was a logical move because Twitter’s great for driving traffic to blogs. So I’ve talked to a lot of new media gurus like Seth Godin, and Guy Kawasaki, and adopted a lot of what they think, such as sharing information more openly. Not worrying so much about what’s proprietary etc., and Guy Kawasaki in terms of how he uses Twitter.

DS: What would you advise people who, are not early adopters, but who maybe have some of that sinking feeling that you mentioned the marketing executives having earlier, that this is something important, but I simply don’t have the time, maybe people are a little intimidated.  What would you advise people to do to kind of maybe babystep in and get involved?

TA: Well, I think the first step is just getting on one or two of these networks. I mean, for business Linkedin is critical. So I think that’s the best step, and then you know, for personal use, maybe Facebook. But you really start understanding it once you start using it. I’ve talked to social media managers at companies that haven’t, tried too many of these social networks. Whether you believe in a certain social network or not - not that you should try all of them, but I think you have an obligation if you are working in marketing, to at least give the three or four major ones a try.

DS: I suspect there are a lot of researchers who are increasingly being asked about these things or being asked to measure these things in their research.

TA: And I think at the, at the strategic level, a lot of executives think Facebook is something their children use, and that’s not something that adults or their customers use. Either they haven’t seen the statistics, with one in three Americans using social networks and 60% of the online population, or they haven’t obviously gotten on there, and they don’t know that the fastest growing demographic, on Facebook recently has been women over the age of 35.  Often children or daughters inviting them at first, ‘friending’ them, and then maybe deciding to ‘unfriend’ them, and then mom says ‘no, no, you’re keeping me on there so I can see what you’re talking about’. But also, beyond that, obviously boomers and the WW2 generation is getting on Facebook as well to keep in touch with their family and share pictures and so forth. Business networking, I think is moving a bit away from not just Linkedin, but is now also happening on Facebook. It’s nice to see the personal side of people you’re meeting with in business as well.

DS: Yeah.

TA: And I think there was some apprehension to that, do people need to see what I do in my personal life? But I think that’s evaporating. Huge social changes are coming. One thing we see for instance in our work with college students is that, whereas Linkedin tends to skew more male, Facebook skews more female and younger.  So I think, in the future, women are going to be more connected, or have a better networks than men and that’s obviously a change from, from the current status, which you can see by looking at Linkedin’s demographics.

DS:  Interesting, I think Facebook is an interesting case because I think a lot of people are confused about, well not confused, but maybe have mixed feelings about, as you mentioned mixing the personal and the business, but I have noticed an increasing number of people, I myself have more work contacts on Facebook, but I do have to say that whenever I put a link to my blog post up there, my mom is the first one to, to ‘like’ it.

TA: Yes…(chuckles) well, I mean, everybody has different viewpoints on social media, on social networks and different strategies, and who’s to say which strategy is right, but I’ve noticed my strategy on each of the networks has changed over time. How I used Linkedin, who I connected to and didn’t and Facebook as well. And you can see that probably by the number of connections people have on the various networks. But, there is no right or wrong way per se.

DS: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.  I want to ask you, you mentioned Linkedin several times and I did want to ask you about NextGen Market Research, which is your group on Linkedin. Tell us about that, and what’s behind it, what the philosophy is behind it, and what kind of things people can expect if they check it out?

TA: Well, a lot of the groups on Linkedin, and there are obviously many, and a few in market research. For most of these it has been pretty much all about growing the total number of members for each group. Pretty much from the outset, I thought it would be nice to be a bit more careful about who got into the NextGen Market Research group. So at first it was for US professionals who had 7+ years experience in marketing research, and I ended up easing up on those restrictions, but what I didn’t ease up on was trying to keep it about serious discussion. So in other words, people aren’t allowed to post promotional messages about their own company.  So I have to follow that rule myself as well on the board. But because we follow these rules, there’s much more discussion in this group I think than any of the other groups. A lot of the threads have 12, or 20 or more comments, so I get a lot of positive feedback about the group.  So it’s been a very interesting way to communicate with fellow market researchers. It’s something that none of the trade orgs really at the time were offering, now they all have various groups, but they aren’t as strict about moderating their groups as the NGMR group.

DS: So people can just go ahead and click on the group, then you have some sort of validation process?

TA: Yes, Now it’s invitation only, but either myself or sometimes my assistant helps me. But pretty much I try to read all the applications and if they at least fit one or the two requirements then they’ll get into the group. And there’s the board rules that are posted there, so that people know. Basically it’s best practices for discussion board groups, which have been around for quite a while, especially in the really good forums with good community.  But with Linkedin, there were a lot of salespeople getting on there just trying to drive traffic and had no idea of good discussion board protocols.

DS: Interesting, where do you see all this heading in the next few years in the research industry? You mentioned the associations are getting more involved. It seems like more and more people are getting involved in social networking, and yet there’s still a long way to go. There’s a lot more, there are a lot more people who aren’t involved.  What are your thoughts on the direction of, where we may be in a few years with all of this?

TA: Well, again there’s an opportunity here and hopefully marketing research will take it. I like to think of it as it’s as big as when the internet came along and marketing research was rather quick, especially in the US to migrate surveys to the online forum. We have another such opportunity now with social media and social networks to try to leverage this, if we don’t do it, then other areas, you know whatever you call it, business intelligence or other areas of marketing will do it alone their way. But I think market researchers can add tremendous value in terms of getting good actionable consumer insights. But social media does present a lot of challenges. Often market researchers still don’t have the budget to play and experiment on social networks.  Other than recruiting panelists from Facebook, how do we get all that link analysis and feedback. You know, one of the ways that we’ve experimented are Facebook applications. But we realize we have to sometimes piggyback with Marketing to get the budget, so maybe they have a dual purpose. But, we follow obviously the guidelines of ESOMAR and MRA and are clear about what will be used how. In a project we did last month for instance, it was a beta test, and we needed three thousand participants within three weeks to take part in this beta program and we had a limited budget so we used social media. The client didn’t feel the need to have a representative sample, and arguably, you don’t really know how your online panelists are recruited anyway, in many cases. And since they are going to be using social media to market these products that we tested for them anyway, it seemed logical to leverage social media for that. It was extremely successful, we did use a small group of online panelists as well so that we could measure to see what the results looked like, but that’s one of many ways obviously, or two of many ways you can leverage social networks.

DS: Yeah, there are really two strands if you think about it, there’s how researchers use social media for methodology and there’s also how they use it for their own marketing and connecting with other researchers as learning.  And I think that those are both undergoing an evolution.

TA: Right.

DS: So, Tom, if people want to get in touch with you, what’s the best way?

TA: Best way, is to go to our site [http://www.andersonanalytics.com]. We have contact information there. They can email inquiries@andersonanalytics.com. Feel free to shoot us any questions.

DS: Excellent, well thank you very much, appreciate your time.

TA: Thank you Dana.

Tweet This Post 

Today I’m talking to Paul Kirch, whom I first met at ESOMAR Congress in Montreal. He is the recent founder of ActusMR, and is the past president of NorthWest MRA. He has several years of experience in operations and sales management at firms like Common Knowledge/Toluna, M/A/R/C Research, Harris Interactive and Gallup, to name just a few. I thought I’d ask him a few questions about his new business and about how he views the MR sales process.

Tom: What made you decide to start this business now?

Paul: For me, it was really about timing and opportunity. I have been an aspiring entrepreneur for years, but was married to the security of a steady paycheck. Last year, however, a company I worked for was one of the many acquisitions our industry has seen. I was in charge of the sales group and with the new leadership continued to manage the US sales team. I started to think about the vulnerability you have as an employee in today’s corporate world. Though I had a job and the position was what I wanted, I just felt it was time to take control of my future and resigned. Acquisitions are hard, especially if you’re part of the team acquired. ActusMR, Inc. was inspired because I wanted to do something to help marketing research firms. I wanted to leverage my sales and sales leadership experience in a way which gave back. Today, I’m proud to say we’re helping our clients find success and opportunity. It is truly rewarding.

Tom: Thinking about selling in today’s market, what do companies have to do to succeed?

Paul: Today’s competitive environment requires a company to find a way to differentiate from their competition. If you’re selling the same service as the company down the street and your message doesn’t stand out as creating a greater value that matters to the buyer, how do you expect to win on anything other than price? Many firms in marketing research struggle to stand out. Think about gold, one of the most commoditized items in existence. South Africa minted a gold coin called the Kruggerand, which sells at a slight premium. If gold can be differentiated, then any company can if they take the right steps.

Tom: How has the sales process changed from just a few years ago?

Paul: Especially true in marketing research, many times a sales transaction took place between two business owners or senior executives. It was very relationship driven and there was a great sense of loyalty. Today, often we’re dealing with very junior or mid-level executives, or even procurement departments who are hoping to avoid the next round of lay-offs. Their buying motives are different and are very focused on making themselves look good internally. Self preservation often comes in 3 ways: 1. They get the lowest price to save the company money 2. They won’t switch vendors, fearing the new company may make a mistake (thus making them look bad) 3. They micromanage vendors to try to prevent problems, which often back fires

Tom: How do you win these buyers over if they’re so worried about trying a new supplier?

Paul: You have to gain their trust by proving that you create a value that matters to them. What matters to them? You can only find out through asking the right questions and learning about their business and business needs. What’s their biggest fear or pain point and how can you address it in a way others can’t? If you can answer that question and earn their trust, then you can win. Today’s most successful sales people are great at asking questions that uncover real needs. By doing research on the firm and the staff involved, they can anticipate the issues in advance and be prepared with answers that create real value.

Tom: You mentioned purchasing departments. Depending on the organization these can be really tough to deal with. We’ll often pass on RFP’s from Universities or other organizations that send out a one way 30 page statement about what they want with very little opportunity to ask questions or provide project design. What are your thoughts on situations like this?

Paul: When I first heard the phrase ‘procurement department’ in our industry, it caused me some great concern. It is a shift in how research is being purchased and sold. Anything which puts price as a leading factor above capability, weakens what our industry offers. I have written several articles arguing against commoditization in marketing research. We’re not selling commodities, though I think there are firms who have done a poor job of creating differentiation and value that matters, thus fostering the perception there’s little difference between the supplier’s offerings (especially in sampling and data collection). However, when we bring purchasing and procurement into the conversation, we create a scenario where commoditization might fit. Fortunately, very little buying has moved in this direction, but it is becoming more and more common. Like you, I’ve always avoided situations where I have no control beyond the content I put into the RFP. Uncovering real needs, as you stated, is so crucial to providing quality research and more importantly, VALUE as a partner. It’s the only way to do business right, in my opinion.

Tom: How do we motivate our sales staff? Are there any ways you’ve seen that are particularly good/not so good?

Paul: There’s a misconception that all sales people are motivated by money. I’ve heard people say that a sales person not motivated by money is not a good sales person. This is simply not true. As an example, two years ago, I managed a sales person who claimed he was in sales for the money. I revised his compensation plan to give him more opportunity to earn significantly more, but it made very little impact. What I discovered over time is that he did best when he was receiving praise and made to feel important. He went from being a lower to mid-level producer to being one of the top sales people in the company. Yes, he made more money, but it was the pats on the back and the sense of being important which really motivated him. Also, he thrived in an environment where he felt he was part of a team that valued him. Therefore, you need to know what makes your people tick and what will drive them the most. Here’s some other ideas that can work well:
1). Sales Contests - Structure them so that everyone has a chance to win and give cool prizes. Make it something they’d want, but might not buy for themselves (TVs, Flip Camera, trips, etc…) It can be an inexpensive way for a company to get maximum productivity. If you’re always motivating your top sales person, it can deflate the others, so make it fair, fun and competitive.
2.) Enhance Culture - Create a culture where you value the opinions of your sales staff and listen. Some of them have great ideas and a ton of experience.
3.) Embrace Success - Another area that works for motivation is to focus on a recent success during your weekly (or some other interval) sales meeting. Let them share what worked and why, and then as a leader make sure you recognize it as a win. For me, I often made sure others heard about the successes and gave credit to the people who made it happen, without discrediting those behind the scenes. After all, everyone deserves kudos when they’ve earned them.
4. ) Performance Based Compensation - For many sales people, it really does come down to money. Sales people should be putting a significant portion of their earnings at risk in the form of commission. In my opinion, the best plans have quarterly sales targets which are lofty, but not out of reach. Pay a certain percentage up to their target and then offer a bonus or an additional percentage for anything over their target. If they fall short one quarter, allow them to make it up on the next. Motivate them to always exceed their target.

Tom: What doesn’t work?

Paul: First, not treating your sales people as an important part of the team. Secondly, not learning what drives them to succeed (It’s not always money) and creating ways to leverage that. Thirdly, not giving them an opportunity to succeed financially. And finally, making their compensation plans too easy to earn. I see some people in our industry earning very large bases and barely covering their cost to the company with their sales. If you’re paying a large base, set targets which are appropriate and drive them to succeed, don’t drive them into complacency. If they aren’t performing, bring on someone who will. It sounds harsh, but true sales professionals know that there’s a risk for them if they don’t perform and they also expect a reward if they do. However, if you have someone falling short, take the time to help them find their path by trying to help them turn it around. Had I not done that in the case above, I might have missed out on a great success story.

Tom: What level of knowledge should sales staff have? It seems this can vary quite a bit from firm to firm.

Paul: What are the firm’s expectations from the sales person? Are they looking for someone who can be more of an order taker? Or someone who can service the client, but not necessarily be the aggressive hunter? Maybe an inside sales rep? Let’s assume you’re looking for someone who can really sell. Just like any career choice, knowledge is power. If you’re hiring sales people and you’re willing to invest in training and educating people you feel have great potential, then good for you. Often you can hire an inexperienced person at a reduced rate and salary, giving them an opportunity to learn and grow. Others are more comfortable seeking out sales people with a great resume and a ton of experience. Though this is often giving you someone who can produce faster and provide real growth, you have to know who you’re hiring. There are a lot of sales people that have a lot of experience, but they’re really not that effective. Did they work in an environment where leads came to them? Did they have to aggressively open doors and create relationships? What did their clients think of them? Were they someone who worked well with the operations team? This is a big question to have an answer, since market research firms and suppliers live and die by their operational offerings. I was fortunate enough to have worked in operations for 10 years before moving into sales, so I’m able to speak both languages and can relate to the frustrations of the programmer or project person who is stuck cleaning up a mess that someone in sales created by not caring enough to follow through. Experience does matter, but when hiring sales people, I think there’s far too little due diligence done during hiring. Far too often sales people or people hiring them believe that a seasoned sales person can bring a ton of business to them. In reality, buyers of research are often more loyal to the team that did the work and it doesn’t guarantee that they’ll shift their business. When a sales person is confident that a lot of their former clients will follow, it often falls short of expectation. Employers need realize this and align their expectations to avoid disappointment.

Tom: In winning new MR business, how important/effective do you think the various parts marketing are? Are cold calls effective? Are face to face meetings necessary? What about Advertising, conferences, whitepapers etc.? How should we allocate our time?

Paul: This a great question, Tom. First off, there’s a perception that sales and marketing clash. The simple reality is that their end goal (growth) is the same, but the path is different. Marketing is often referred to as “we-we” talk. “We do this, we do that…” Brochures and advertisements are filled with biased messages about what a company can do or will do. It’s important and it plays a very powerful support role to sales if used correctly, however it is very one sided. Good sales people know that selling is less talking about what they can do and more about uncovering what a client needs and then providing solutions that fit. It’s about asking questions and becoming a real investigator. Unfortunately, many sales people have not learned this lesson and spend more time talking about the promises in the brochure. Have you ever sat through a sales presentation where they spent an hour telling you everything they do and you walked away remembering almost nothing? It happens far too often. The key is to engage the clients by getting them talking. How? By asking powerful questions. There’s a phrase that is probably overused, but it’s “find a client’s pain points and then offer a way to ease that pain.” It really does come down to finding out what their frustrations are or what their real needs are. If you can offer a solution no one else can or if you can do it better or guarantee success, then you’re likely to win.

Cold calling ONLY is a very difficult way to make a living and it takes a special type of sales person to make 60-100 calls per day. Still, it is something that most sales people have to do to generate opportunities. Warm leads, on the other hand, are a much better tool to leverage. Conference attendees, visitors to your website, responders to requests, members of your social networking groups, referrals from a client or colleagues, and contacts you’ve met through networking are all great ways to have warm leads which dramatically increases your likelihood of success. Successful sales people often present at conferences, write articles, blog and are very involved in networking, since they know this is going to translate to money in the bank.

Advertising is an area near and dear to my heart. I studied to be a copywriter in college and actually interned for an advertising agency when I was 20. Advertising can work, but like your sales message, it needs to stand out and it needs to use some call to action. Give them a reason to respond… I avoid anything that reduces the value of research in the eyes of the buyer, such as weak discount offers. And, track your ads, by using a special number or code which allows you to follow which publication it was in.

Face to Face meetings are an incredible way to achieve great success. Living and dying by the phone alone is a hard way to grow a business. Though you have to be careful not to annoy your clients, getting in front of them allows you to build rapport and trust very quickly, assuming you’re bring a message filled with value. When you’re in front of a client, you can read reactions and gauge how you’re doing better than you can via telephone. Face to face meetings also show the clients they were important enough for you to hop on a plane to come see them, which goes a long way toward relationship building. When does face to face fail? When you’re unprepared or you spend more time just talking about what you do, instead of learning what they need. If you’re investing in a sales team, budget for travel and you’ll see a faster return on your investment.

Allocation of time depends on several factors. Personally, I like to see sales people travel at least two times per month. In most cases, 1-2 day trips work best, due to the prep work that must go into a face to face meeting. Also, unless it is a key opportunity, I never travel for just one meeting. Try and fill your day with 3 or 4 meetings in any given city to justify your time. When not traveling, part of your time should be spent scheduling meetings for the next trip, researching the clients you’ll visit and continuing to prospect and follow up with existing accounts. You should also expect to track a sales person’s metrics, such as calls dialed, meetings scheduled, proposals, and jobs won. Make it easy for them and for the company by implementing a great CRM solution, such as Salesforce.com. You can even tie compensation to using such a tool, guaranteeing it will get used.

Tom: Is there one type of ideal sales executive or are there different types that work equally well? Personally, what specific characteristics do you have that make you more successful than others? What is an area where you think you could improve?

Paul: There are so many different sales people out there. What I look for are people who are honest and trustworthy, are likeable, work well with others, are driven, understand research, have strong communication skills (written and verbal), think quickly and who want to grow and learn (they must be open-minded). Also, I think a sense of humor is important if used appropriately.

If I look at my own success, there are 7 areas which I think stand out as to why I achieved what I did: 1. I spent 10 years in various operations roles, which allows me to relate to the clients I talk to 2. Clients tend to trust me. I am often able to relate to their issues and offer viable solutions. They often recognize that I want to take care of them. 3. I always believe in what I’m selling. I would stand behind anything I’ve ever told a client and I think they knew I was sincere. 4. I had great mentors and always strive to become better. I still focus on improving every day, not just as a sales professional, but also as a person. 5. “Be a Resource” was a lesson I learned early on. Helping people find work, offering ideas to help individuals, introducing people who can benefit from each other truly striving to help are probably what have given me the most success and fulfillment. 6. Contributing to the industry, such as volunteering for industry organizations or mentoring students hoping for careers in research are things which helped give me recognition and helped me become known by some very influential people. 7. Taking ownership of mistakes. Mistakes happen, but how you deal with them can make the difference. I always try to resolve them quickly and make the client feel as if I am doing the right thing.

Where could I improve? That’s a hard question, since self improvement is a lifelong battle. Related to sales, I’d say the one area I struggle the most is reducing the noise or avoiding distraction. The world we live in today is all about instant and constant contact, we all feel we have to respond quickly to everything and we’re rarely able to turn it off. This sometimes gets in the way of a schedule full of prospecting or follow up with clients. To combat this, I avoid personal email during the day except for first thing in the morning, possibly at lunch and in the evening. I also try to block out time where I avoid non-crucial business emails. I might block out an hour to complete a task before responding to emails. It’s not a perfect system and I still fight the battle daily. I’ve always been praised as being responsive, but as the noise increases, it’s harder and harder to juggle everything we face. For me technology is truly a love/hate relationship.

Tom: Are there any sales techniques that you find rather successful, but that if we asked clients about they would disagree with and/or say they didn’t like?

Paul: First off, I don’t like sales tactics or techniques which aren’t natural or honest. And, if a client says they don’t like it, why are you using it if your hope is to build a relationship? I strive to do what’s right for my clients and prospects and I try to avoid being an annoyance. The reality is, however, when we make a sales call into someone who is juggling 12 items and we get them on the phone, we have a very short window of opportunity to succeed by winning them over. Be direct and to the point and also be prepared. You might just have a few seconds to find a way to connect with them. I try to focus on setting the next appointment and try to schedule a specific time, without being long winded. Ask most people and they say that don’t like to receive sales calls, but they do work if you are focused on respecting their time and their needs. Avoid tactics or techniques which aren’t natural or honest and sell with integrity.

Tom: The word ‘value’ is one you use a great deal. Why is that word so important when talking about sales and growth?

Paul: If you’ve uncovered your clients fears or problem areas and you can offer a real solution that others can’t (or don’t), then price becomes much less relevant. If you stand out as being different and better, you can often charge a premium. In other words, if your client perceives that there is a better value in working with you and your company, you’re moving away from commoditized selling. If you can’t differentiate yourself or your company, then aggressive pricing is often a necessity.

Tom: In your experience how does the value proposition usually differ by size of supplier company?

Paul: Size often relates to the number of resources. Many smaller firms are focused on their workload and on meeting payroll, so they take little time to create real value propositions or value statements. They know it is something they need to do, but it often gets little attention. When it does get attention, it’s done with little thought or direction as they need to move on to the next project. The successful larger organization has more staff and can focus teams on trying to create powerful campaigns and create value propositions which resonate. The campaigns give them more exposure which often translates to trust in the eyes of the buyer. The more we see a name, the more it resonates that they must be good or why else would they be so large and well known? In reality, often the smaller firms are doing some of the best work and they’re extremely focused on giving their clients an incredible service experience. They try to hire the best and brightest that they can afford, since they refuse to let their clients down. Larger firms need more bodies, so you’re often working with less experienced staff and the focus is often on the bottom line more than the level of service. The senior researchers and executives are often overseeing things, but they might be less hands on than they would be if they were in a smaller organization. There are so many ways to create more value and value propositions, regardless of size today. With social media and social networking, the size of the company matters very little. It still requires the right approach and work to get to create the right message, but the tools are there along with other channels to make an impact, thus evening the playing field. In the end, many smaller firms have a great story to tell. They just might need some help uncovering exactly what it is.

Tom: What can your firm do for clients?

Paul: Through our sales strategy group, we focus on helping create a stronger sales approach. We start with an evaluation process to uncover their real needs and create a customized plan. Two core areas revolve around identifying true differentiation and creating powerful sales messaging that complements their operational offerings. It’s important that they are armed with an approach that is actionable and usable. Usability stems from improving networking, presentation and investigative skills (researching and power questions). By asking good questions, you keep your client talking and engaged. When they are engaged, they retain what they hear about you, which rarely happens when you’re doing all of the talking. For example, a client I have been working with recently had a sales meeting with a Fortune 500 prospect. When I asked him how the meeting went, he stated, “I think I’m going to get the project, but I feel funny about the meeting. I asked a lot of questions, but I didn’t tell him much about my firm.” In reality, his new client learned everything he needed and he didn’t have to suffer a sales pitch. Engage and win…

Tweet This Post 

Priced to compete with Kindles & Netbooks the iPad launched today. Apple stock seems to be down a bit, but probably more due to investors taking profit. Kind of scary that the first feature mentioned is “ability to change background” (oh wow). But I am curious about “best browsing experience ever”.

I love my iPhone and can’t travel without a netbook anymore. I’ve been thinking about a Kindle. Perhaps if iPad could take the place of both a Netbook and Kindle? Will have to check it out at the local Apple store.

Would love to hear from anyone who has played with/purchased one?

@TomHCAnderson

Tweet This Post 

Earlier this week with the launch of Research Radio I mentioned that one of the threads in our Next Gen Market Research Group (NGMR) discussion board on LinkedIn a new thread entitled “TV Show About Market Research?” has become very popular with over 100 posts.

It seems that perhaps there would be enough material for either something more serious or something more entertainment oriented focusing on MR. Apparently one effort is already underway in the form of a web comedy set in the world of focus groups. It’s called Groupthink.

I’ve posted episode 1 above. They are already up to 8 episodes. According to fellow NGMR member Jayme Harper, apparently they have close to 700 followers on their facebook group - a lot of which are Market Researchers…They also interview Moderators and consultants to come up with their stories”

I’m sure some of you could add some great MR war stories to their content. Gotta love some of the lingo they’ve made up, like a “veritable treasure trove of data” and “productitioners”

Plan to look into this a bit more and get back to you with anything interesting. In the meantime, hope you enjoy the video.

@TomHCAnderson

Tweet This Post 

Special Research Business Report Artilce on Next Gen Market Research

In the current issue of RFL’s Research Business Report Bob Lederer wrote a very flattering article about my thoughts on Next Gen Market Research and some of the work we’ve been doing in this area; bridging traditional market research (like online survey and focus groups) with new techniques (data mining, text analytics etc.). He was kind enough to allow us to reproduce it here.

You can access the original PDF from RFL Communications by clicking the image above, or if you prefer reading in html the majority of the article is below. I would be very interesting to know how you and your company view Next Gen Market Research.

@TomHCAnderson

What Most Clients Don’t Yet Comprehend About Web 3.0 MR

Some consider Anderson Analytics (Stamford, CT) CEO Tom Anderson the uncrowned father of Web 3.0 MR, but with or without any official anointing he continues to pile up acknowledgement as one of the specialty’s few real experts. Since 2005, Anderson Analytics has created unique technology- and Web-based research options. In late 2007, Anderson formed The Next Generation Market Research Group (NGMR), an online bulletin board where experienced MR professionals could read, learn and comment about emerging research and new techniques. NGMR daily updates-once, twice and occasionally more often than that-continually remind the industry of Anderson’s mastery in the field.

Anderson agreed to help RBR understand a few less visible factors that are amply impacting the appropriate, expeditious, ethical and actionable exploitation of Web 3.0 tools. That arsenal has grown from blogs, discussion boards and social networks to construction of a new Web sample gathered from various online groups for online surveys, small communities, mining, “screen” or Web scraping and “combinations.”

He affirmed usage of multiple social media tools in his company projects, especially with segmentations. The most unpredictable results can come from text mining. “Sometimes, it’s a little like data mining in that the research project has specific objectives, but the insights they deliver can take you in another direction,” Anderson said.

“I like to think of information from Web 3.0 tools as a hybrid of online surveys and focus groups-qualitative in large numbers, allowing statistically valid projections-plus ethnography. It’s probably diverting dollars from there and campaign tracking and customer satisfaction. At larger companies, a lot of research directors also seem to have budgets set aside for the cool and unconventional, like video camera studies, etc.”

Anderson Analytics’ customers tend to be client-side research organizations, a validation of reports that point to end users climbing on the social research bandwagon. “Some companies get dragged into the field by their customers. For instance, the most popular Facebook page on Coca-Cola has millions of members but was started by two consumers.

Coca-Cola Company could have worked to convince Facebook to take it down, turn it over to them or make the choice it actually did make: give the individuals ammunition and help them
evangelize C o k e,” related Anderson.

The preponderance of Anderson Analytics’ projects are ad hoc, but Anderson said that “extremely high satisfaction rates” have led to significant repeat business. “Few of the companies I speak to for the first time have to be sold on the importance of social media, or I wouldn’t be meeting with them. Potential clients are fully in the learning mode about Web 3.0,” he continued, “and, in general, a lot of their strategic corporate leadership are not involved in the space-social networks, blogs, etc.

“Many of their children probably are, so they think Facebook is primarily for kids or that their customers aren’t on there. Yet, our research shows 110 million Americans are on social networks. Ninety percent of tomorrow’s customers-Gen Y and Gen X-are already on social networks, but there’s also tremendous growth on sites like Facebook among Boomers and even the World War II generation, who are joining to stay connected to their children and grandchildren.”

He said prospective end-user clients need to be assuaged of the notion that social media MR be tied to “a huge new strategy,” Anderson commented. “It’s impossible to create a good Web 3.0 research strategy. The best strategy is ‘just start;’ create a platform and help your evangelists form content.”

Clients, Anderson said, “also must focus on gaining some knowledge about whether their customers are on there, where they are and what type of communications they would like or expect.” Anderson usually suggests a traditional online survey as step number one (if the customer has not already conducted one). The follow-up may involve picking client stakeholders’ brains about certain websites that are important to them and their industry, and can follow that up with an examination of website comments through text mining,” he explained.

Anderson’s classic case history here is a pharmaceutical industry website on which discussions about targeted diseases take place. “A patient speaks in one language, while doctors on another discussion board talk about the same disease, but very differently. From those, we can then understand what’s important within each group, compare the two and help the pharma client bridge the communication gap,” he noted.

Broadening this point, Anderson spoke about one of his agency’s initial clients, Starwood Hotels. “I founded Anderson Analytics to leverage unstructured or text data. We worked on Starwood’s guest satisfaction surveys, which were generating over one million open-end complaints/suggestions
each year,” he shared. (His ESOMAR Innovations Conference presentation on this won an award.)

“We took a three-pronged approach. First, tactical text mining looked at verbatim concepts, both positive and negative under discussion. Second, who was doing the talking and why; we have special software based on word choice developed in the field of psychology. Types of words tell us about a person and their state of emotion .The third component is human , basic random- sampling and analysis,” he summarized.

“We discussed how to leverage those data with Starwood, and, using our own tools, we scraped a major hospitality industry discussion board for 100,000 posts concerning the top five hotel chains over a year, and text-mined those to analyze the data.” Anderson said collected postings details went as deep as “user name, posting, their geography, time data stamps and frequent hotel program memberships. The second step was text-mining or coding all the text into a structured database for data mining and analysis.”

Scraping a third-party site-in the case of Starwood, “an extremely important forum for ‘road warriors’-previously required a dedicated full-time employee to read posts and comment and to intervene and explain or represent Starwood. In just a couple of days, we had a year’s worth of longitudinal data to spot trends and compare five competitors on brand promotion schedules, satisfaction, amenities and competitive issues.”

More and more individuals are aflutter about Twitter, but Anderson granted he was initially skeptical. “In 2007, I didn’t get it. I understand it now, but only from actually doing it myself. The same goes for blogs; I didn’t read blogs at first and I definitely didn’t write one. Then, I started my own blog to understand it from the other side, and in no time our blog had three times the traffic as our three-year-old website.” Anderson

Analytics can speak from its experiences with several Fortune 500 companies, but Anderson said he “thinks smaller, mid-sized companies have gained some of the benefits of Web 3.0 research faster than the big boys. Big companies are battling internal corporate communications and PR people. Their mentality-too much message control- has already led to the downfall of corporate blogs.”

Anderson shared an interesting “blog value formula:”

Quality x Quantity = Value

“If the CEO of a major company blogs, he or she is totally comfortable in expressing their opinions. A junior-level corp o r a t e communications person must check everything with company lawyers. But once any message becomes ‘controlled’ and people can’t post a negative opinion, none of it has value and traffic volume doesn’t matter. That formula applies to other types of social media as well,” he said.

Veering from Internet-based research’s initial “less expensive” selling point, Anderson described Web 3.0 MR as “a bit more costly” when done with fundamental depth and detail. Executing these new methodologies well comes with experience. “We’re still at the stage where we learn with every project,” he admitted. “If you approach social media just from a market research, marketing or technical standpoint , you miss out on tremendous opportunities to gain an information advantage.”

Accolades for Tom Anderson
On On LinkedIn, those who know Anderson say of his work:
• “one of a small community of researchers that are on the cutting edge of how to extract unique insights from the wealth of data available via social media”
• “seasoned, inspired, inventive researcher”
• “trend-setting social media and research professional”
• “very innovative”
• “refreshing and very forward-looking”
• “extremely accurate in his research reports”

[Reproduced from the Special 2009 Year-End issue of Research Business Report by RFL Communications, Inc.]

Tweet This Post 

ESOMAR Representative Elections Begin Today, and I wish all ESOMAR members running good luck.

I have been a long time supporter of the only truly global market research organization, ESOMAR, and as my firm has also become more involved in global research I felt that now was a good time to begin to give back to this important organization.

Therefore today I am writing to ask the support of my fellow US ESOMAR members in the Country Representative Elections running today through January 31st. I am running for the US East Coast Representative position and my nomination has been supported by our current West Coast Rep. (Beth Uyenco, Global Research Director - Microsoft) as well as the previous East Coast Rep. (Daphne Chandler, President - Global Focus)

Having been an member of ESOMAR for several years now, actively speaking at various events, contributing articles to Research World and the Global Research Report, and helping to arrange and moderate events such as the recent LinkedIn, Facebook Panel at ESOMAR Online, I look forward to even greater involvement with the organization.

Importantly, I have always felt that ESOMAR should have a greater awareness within the US. I think part of the reason that US membership is not even higher may be that the US is somewhat underrepresented in terms of relative size of our market. Large countries like the US, China and India have only 1 more representative than much smaller countries such as Finland, Sweden and Denmark. This arguably is not only somewhat unfair, but also makes the job of a representative much more challenging as US representatives are responsible for a larger geographic area.

I believe my experience blogging, tweeting as well as in founding and moderating the Next Gen Market Research Group (NGMR) has helped me understand how to leverage social media in order to advocate important issues and disseminate information. This knowledge is something I think would benefit SOMAR.

Secondly, I am not afraid to confront other difficult issues affecting our industry head-on. For instance, late last year together with a group of other industry executives, I founded the FTO (Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring) in order to address the growing trend in Knowledge Process Offshoring and potential IP/Privacy issues it entails.

I would be honored to receive your support in the election and look forward to the possibility of serving your interests in an important and global research organization such as ESOMAR.

To vote please log into ESOMAR’s website (My ESOMAR) and click on the blue bar labeled “Election of ESOMAR Representatives 2010″.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Tom H. C. Anderson
Managing Partner
Anderson Analytics, LLC

@TomHCAnderson

Tweet This Post