The Competitive Advantage

January 22, 2025

Inside the Mind of a Research Buyer, Part 2

In our last post, we started this blog series based on interviews with research buyers I had the pleasure of meeting at the end of last year. Their insight into how buyer’s buy should be required reading for all MR agency employees. Here’s the second in that series…

Name: Brad Dancer
Title: President & General Manager
Company: WSHU Public Radio
Years at company: 1, after 22 years at National Geographic (EVP, Global Data, Insights & Brand Standards) and 3 years at WWE (SVP, Global Strategy & Data Analytics)

January 7, 2025

Inside the Mind of a Research Buyer, Part 1

This past November, I had the privilege of hosting and moderating the Insights Association’s webinar series on sales. [A terrific event, by the way!] As part of this program, I had the chance to meet with several research buyers representing a variety of businesses across the US. And a few of them agreed to allow me to interview them for this blog. Here’s a transcript from the first of those interviews…

Name: Karen Kraft
Title: Associate Director, Consumer Insights & Analytics
Company: Johnsonville
Years at co: 6

November 19, 2024

‘Former’ Clients Don’t Have to Be ‘Former’ Forever

When a client leaves you for a competitor, do they come back? In many – if not most – cases, the answer is ‘no.’ But why is that?

For most of us, when we lose a client, our mindset becomes, “Well, it was a good run – time for us to move on.” In some cases, we get busy with other clients and other projects and just forget about them. Occasionally, we get pissed at them, “How dare they? We did good work for them… why are they leaving?” But the fact is, it doesn’t have to be like that.

Gone doesn’t have to mean gone forever. Here’s an example of a client experience that happened to us recently…

November 12, 2024

Nobody Gets Forgotten!

I was having a conversation last week with my client and friend up north (Canada, not Kentucky!), Stephan Sigaud with Phase 5. We were talking about his smart use of a CRM platform and effective communication with buyers.

During the conversation, he used the phrase, “Nobody gets forgotten!” I lit up! That’s the perfect way to describe how you should stay in touch with clients and prospects. And Stephan makes it easy on himself. Here’s how…

November 5, 2024

How NOT to Be an Effective Sales Manager in Our Industry

True story… I was talking recently with an agency-side market research professional that I’ve known for a long while. He not only heads up one of the primary service lines for his firm, but he’s also responsible for revenue generation for his team… the true definition of a ‘seller-doer.’

We talked about some of the challenges he’s facing in the marketplace, and as I asked some questions about his selling environment, the conversation slowly transitioned to a number of internal issues he’s facing – most of which, sadly, are far too common in our industry. And none of which are his fault…

October 29, 2024

Ditch Your Capabilities Presentation!

OK, this one is likely to stir up some response, but I’m feeling a little ‘contrarian’ today… so here goes: I think market research agencies should stop delivering capabilities presentations as part of their sales process. And here’s why…

October 8, 2024

Fish Where the Fish Are… How Sales is Like My Favorite Hobby

For those of you who know me, you know that one of my hobbies/passions is fishing. There’s nothing quite like standing in a cool stream, water flowing around your legs (washing away your stress) with a nice smallmouth bass on the end of the line. My happy place!

As I was standing in the Harpeth River recently – yes, that’s why I named our firm as I did – it dawned on me that sales is a lot like fishing. Let me explain…

September 25, 2024

Stop Pretending You’re a Specialist!

At the Insights Associations’ Corporate Researchers Conference last week (a really excellent event, by the way), I sat in on a panel discussion with the CEOs from four of the largest research agencies in the world.

I was listening intently as they were describing their firms, when one of the CEOs said, and I quote, “We specialize in a wide variety of solutions!” Huh? Wait a minute… that makes absolutely no sense! If you’re a ‘specialist,’ your firm has a focus on one or two key things… a methodology or an application or a particular industry or market. But more than a few… and you’re a ‘generalist.’