Full disclosure: most sales managers don’t agree with me when I say that a portion of every salesperson’s time should be devoted to market research. Yet, devoting a portion of their time to market research, affords companies the opportunity to gain decades-long advantage over their competitors.
To get a better understanding of why I suggest that market research should not be exclusively the realm of marketing, let’s examine two traditional tools used in market research: surveys and focus groups.
Surveys
In my experience, there are at least two problems with market surveys:
- Bias
- Rational, not candid responses
Bias
Most satisfied customers don’t respond to surveys. They are happy with result and assume that their silence is indicative that they are satisfied.
That means that the responses a company gets to its surveys are from only those who are elated with the result or disappointed to the point of being angry. Visualize a bell curve. What you’re getting from survey results is typically the narrow tails at each end of the spectrum…not what I’d call a representative illustration of your customers’ view of your offerings.
Rational, not candid
Recall a time when you were approached in a store and asked to participate in a survey…and you agreed to participate. Were your responses designed to make you look like a rational, well-reasoned, intelligent person or were you completely candid with the surveyor?
I take no pride in admitting that I’ve fallen into the trap of wanting to be the former and, thus, being less candid in my responses.
Add to our desire to appear well-reasoned, the fact that most of us prefer to avoid delivering bad news and the associated potential for confrontation that exists and it’s easy to see why companies get less than candid responses to their surveys.
Focus groups
It’s well known that a dominant personality in a focus group can easily sway the thinking of other participants in the group. It’s also common knowledge that many people prefer not to:
- Speak up in group settings.
- Be critical of others.
- Confront others with whom they disagree.
These folks also prefer to be viewed as thoughtful, rational and well-reasoned.
Essentially, in both surveys and focus groups, participants do NOT have an incentive to be completely candid with the researchers. Can these limitations be overcome by adding market research to the salesperson’s responsibilities?
Sales’ market research role
Let’s assume for a moment that every salesperson was required to visit with existing customers once a quarter to ask these questions:
- What workarounds are your people using with our offering?
- What would you like to see our offering do that it currently isn’t doing?
- How are your customers’ demands changing?
- How can we help you meet these changing needs?
How likely is your salesperson to get a candid response to these questions? Very high…for two reasons:
- Your salesperson already has a relationship with their customers.
- Both parties have a vested interested in each others’ success.
Your salesperson has a vested interest in retaining the customer as a means of providing a long-term revenue stream to help support his family. The customer has a vested interest in continuing a relationship with a salesperson who cares enough about his business to invest time and energy in helping him stay abreast of his customers’ changing needs.
As you identify how your customers’ customers’ need are changing, you’re buying three to six months of time to develop the skills and resources needed to meet your customers’ changing needs. In doing so, you assure that you’ll be the first in your industry to meet these needs…making you the industry leader with all the benefits that affords.
Takeaway
A decades-long competitive advantage can be attained by changing the sales role to include quarterly visits with existing customers to determine:
- What workarounds are your people using with our offering?
- What would you like to see our offering do that it currently isn’t doing?
- How are your customers’ demands on you changing?
- How can we help you meet these changing needs?
If you enjoyed this insight, please share it with friends and colleagues. They’ll appreciate that you’re thinking of them.
Resources
For a complete overview of Greater Profit/Fewer Sales concepts, check out Dale’s books, Pricing for Profit and Generate Greater Profit With Fewer Sales:
Even More Profitable training programs assure that your organization enjoys the benefits of being a Greater Profit/Fewer Sales organization.
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