Corporate Researchers Speak

So, here’s a novel concept: researchers investing in research themselves. Think about it.

If you, as a research seller, were to actually purchase a research study yourself, what would be the focus of that study?

Would it be how the industry is trending in terms of the types of new technologies and designs that are gaining traction and solving today’s problems? That’s a logical focus.  But, that’s essentially what we already cover in great detail with the GRIT Report.

So, my guess would be the research that you’d be willing to invest in would need to be tied to revenue. You’d want to see a realistic ROI on whatever research investment you’d make.

So, based on that assumption, I want to tell you about a series of ongoing meetings we’ve had with David Harris of Insight & Measurement and Peter Zollo of Collaborata.

Many of David’s clients are research suppliers. He consults with them on how best to grow their business in today’s zero-based and fast-changing corporate environment. In fact, one of Dave’s clients was ready to commission a deep-dive qualitative study of corporate research buyers to develop an empathetic understanding of what they really want from research sellers. This research supplier specifically wants to better understand how to engage and sell new prospects, so his firm becomes a preferred partner.

Dave, who’s a former corporate research client himself (he ran research for many years at GlaxoSmithKline), loved the clarity and intelligence of this research request. But, he also wanted to address this need with a meaningful solution, which wouldn’t be too expensive for a single researcher supplier. So, he went to Peter with the idea of Collaborata helping to launch this study by bringing in co-sponsors to share the costs and the results.

That’s where we came in. At IIeX in Atlanta, Dave and Peter approached us with their concept. We loved it and immediately said, “we’re in!”.  To the best of our knowledge, there has never been a proper study conducted about how to actually sell MR clients — from how they first want you to contact them to how they’d like you develop the relationship. And, that’s what this study does. It’s called, “How to Engage and Sell Us to Become a Preferred Partner.” It reveals clients’ pain points and needs throughout their path to purchase (i.e., their path to purchase research!).

GreenBook will be recruiting the corporate researcher respondents for the study, which will consist of two phases: 1) A week of projective exercises — essentially digital ethnographies — on the Aha platform; and 2) In-depth interviews conducted by Dave together with Jim Chastain of RealityCheck.

We hope that you’re a researcher who truly believes in the power of research, so that you’ll invest in this critical study. And, if you become an early co-sponsor, you’ll have the opportunity for input into its design. Dave will be delighted to jump on a call with you.

By any measure, because of Collaborata’s cost-sharing model, this is not an expensive study. The buy-in price to become a co-sponsor is only $7,500.

But, to help you better swallow even that amount, GreenBook is offering a $3,000 credit for banner ads or sponsored post on our new Blog (which debuts the end of October) and two tickets to IIeX in Atlanta, which is a $2,900 value. So, your net investment in the study, taking into account the value of these two offers, is only $1,600. So, think about your ROI on that!

If you can land only one new project — or simply make inroads with an important new client – based on these insights, I’d say it’s a no-brainer. But that’s me. I believe in good, smart, strategic research. Especially research that’s directly tied to revenue.

One last consideration: How would you feel if your key competitors essentially bought this “playbook” on how to sell corporate researchers? Don’t you want to be armed with these insights?

So, let me know what you think. And, please check out the study on Collaborata.