Shepherd Advisors

If you ask buyers what is important to them when buying a product or service, most of the time you will hear that it is some combination of price, quality, service, and product features.    But information at this generic level is not very actionable or helpful.   To be valuable, you need to truly understand which needs are their "essential needs” that may prompt purchase decisions.    

Recently Shepherd Advisors produced a webinar entitled “Using Market Research to Send the Right Message to Your Customers” that focused on this topic.  The webinar explored how to construct and send the “right messages” to your target customers focusing on using research methods to identify your customer’s essential needs. 

Link to the 11/3/2011 webinar: /media/AA/AC/shepherdadvisors/downloads/182073/2011-11-03_14.00_POSITION_FOR_GROWTH__Using_Market_Research_to_Send_the_Right_Message_to_your_Customers.wmv 
(note: audio recording has an echo but clears within 2 mins)  

GAINING INSIGHTS: By engaging buyers in detailed conversations about how they use and buy products outside the context of negotiations, you begin to get a more nuanced and actionable set of insights that you can use to position your company in your website, brochures, trade publications, and other marketing materials.   Understanding how they do or would use the products and services you offer, how and when they decided to buy what they did, and the circumstances of the last time they switched suppliers will inform not only your ideal messaging, but can generate key insights when designing new products, considering pricing strategies or channel partnerships.    

GAINING CLARITY: While price is usually the critical factor for many customers, most markets have segments where customers are willing to pay more for certain features, quality, or service.   Knowing what clients really mean when they use these terms is invaluable when designing marketing and sales strategies.  Field interviews can help differentiate between these generic industry needs and the specific needs that individual prospects have.   Exploring these dynamics can help you clarify those few needs which may actually motivate prospects to switch suppliers in your favor.  Your marketing materials can then be organized around these "essential needs".   In depth conversations about their "switching behavior" can help you understand how to position your business whether your concern is more sales within your existing markets, jumping into new segments, or targeting new types of customers.   

POSTIONING FOR GROWTH: There are many ways Market Research can help you find insights that can help grow your business, but some of the best are field interviews with people in your industry, in your current market, or in markets you are considering entering.   Market Research allows you to benefit from candid and in depth conversations with your existing customers, prospects, and others in your market place outside the context of a sales call.

Before investing in new product or marketing campaigns to expand or diversify, you may want to explore how Market Research can speed up your penetration into new markets with well positioned materials and a well-armed sales force.

Over the summer Shepherd Advisors consultant Steve Craig moderated a panel of Smart Grid experts at the Michigan Energy Forum meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The event was videotaped and can be watched online now by clicking here.