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Actual for You - Why Market Research Will Help Your Business
Normally shareholder agreements or buy sell agreements are written by the majority shareholder's very smart and experienced attorney and are totally favorable to the majority shareholder/Corporation. The minority interest shareholders are required to sign these agreements and often do not understand all the implications of what they are signing until it is too late. I will define too late as when they are trying to exit the business and get a liquidity event at a value that is reasonably close to the value of the company multiplied by their percentage ownership in the company.There are several approaches that we see used in determining the Purchase Price for shares of selling shareholders. The most common is Net Book Value. What net book value means is that you take all the assets and subtract all the debts and you get the shareholder equity or net book value. To the untrained observer that would seem fair and log
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a n
“We Want Specific Direction”Though you may know what to do, most people would rather be directed. When giving instructions:1. Start by summarizing the project in a sentence or two 2. Be specific as to what things should look like when completed 3. Give the due date and how often you want updates 4. Instruct the employee on what to do if something goes wrong 5. Express your confidence that they will do a good job and get their buy-in.Profit risks: Poor Quality, late delivery, and higher level people will be forced to clean-up. There is wasted time correcting errors or miscommunication.“When You Give Us Detailed Praise, We Understand it, Remember it and Work Harder For You”Rather than saying “Great job” or nothing at all, try “I really appreciate the amount of thought and effort you put into this project, thank you.”Profit risks: People who do not fe
Is market research only for big corporations with deep pockets? No—actually, any business can put simple market research into place, and get about 80% of the benefit of the big, complex, expensive methods—without paying a penny.
In my own one-person business, I've used informal market research to:
Determine where ad dollars were effective, and where they were wasted. As an example, I advertise in several local Yellow Pages directories. By tracking which ads drew how many customers, over a period of years, I've been able to drastically increase the return on my investment, because if an ad doesn't work, I don't renew it. If I weren't tracking, I could still be paying every month for several directories that I tried but that didn't produce for me.
Get crucial feedback on new product development—testing titles, packaging, price points, and even whether a market even existed for products I was considering—that has saved me many thousands of dollars I could have spent developing the wrong things. The title and cover of my newest book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, are vastly better than the originals as a direct result of soliciting feedback from many, many people. And the price point, high enough to ensure a decent profit and low enough to sell as an impulse item, was also based on research.
Understand why different marketing approaches were succeeding while others failed. Early market research, for instance, helped me understand back in 1995 why the mall and bulk e-mail models don't work well online.
Let's look at my new book as an example, because it illustrates a number of different types of market research that you can do on your own, without spending any money.
When I got the idea for the book in August 2002, I sent some notes to business and publishing discussion lists to gauge, in general terms, whether there was sufficient interest to do the book. In the past, I'd received lukewarm response to some of the products I was thinking about creating, and this helped me decide to put my energies elsewhere. This time, feedback was very positive, so I started writing. Then I thought I had a great title, but I was feeling unsure about the subtitle. I asked directly for feedback on my possible subtitle choices—and discovered that there were large segments of my target market that absolutely hated my main title. This began a two-month process of brainstorming, narrowing down, putting possible titles out into the world, and rejecting them. Was there a title for this book?
Once I had a title, I had to choose a cover. My designer worked up several very striking, but controversial, designs, and none of them really told the story of what the book was about. Once again, I turned to my online support groups. His covers evoked strong emotions; people either loved them or hated them. (You can see one of his early concepts at
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a ne
Every last detail has been attended to and you’re standing in the front of your trade show display waiting for the show to open. Are you ready or will it just be another exercise in futility?Let’s take a look at what can happen.The first day starts off like a house fire and some of your best, long-term customers come by to see what’s new (and believe me, they’ll be scouting out what’s new with the competition as well). You have a good visit with these customers but now they’re gone and the prospects and suspects begin to come into your space. These folks are asking questions that begin to take up a lot of time.Assess Needs and Follow-UpThe best strategy for these prospects and suspects is for you to take charge of the conversation and find out all the census information first. Next, uncover their most important need, “So you’re not satisfied with the deliveries you’ve been receiving from o
Get crucial feedback on new product development—testing titles, packaging, price points, and even whether a market even existed for products I was considering—that has saved me many thousands of dollars I could have spent developing the wrong things. The title and cover of my newest book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, are vastly better than the originals as a direct result of soliciting feedback from many, many people. And the price point, high enough to ensure a decent profit and low enough to sell as an impulse item, was also based on research.
Understand why different marketing approaches were succeeding while others failed. Early market research, for instance, helped me understand back in 1995 why the mall and bulk e-mail models don't work well online.
Let's look at my new book as an example, because it illustrates a number of different types of market research that you can do on your own, without spending any money.
When I got the idea for the book in August 2002, I sent some notes to business and publishing discussion lists to gauge, in general terms, whether there was sufficient interest to do the book. In the past, I'd received lukewarm response to some of the products I was thinking about creating, and this helped me decide to put my energies elsewhere. This time, feedback was very positive, so I started writing. Then I thought I had a great title, but I was feeling unsure about the subtitle. I asked directly for feedback on my possible subtitle choices—and discovered that there were large segments of my target market that absolutely hated my main title. This began a two-month process of brainstorming, narrowing down, putting possible titles out into the world, and rejecting them. Was there a title for this book?
Once I had a title, I had to choose a cover. My designer worked up several very striking, but controversial, designs, and none of them really told the story of what the book was about. Once again, I turned to my online support groups. His covers evoked strong emotions; people either loved them or hated them. (You can see one of his early concepts at
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a n
Listen carefully to this; you can change your income significantly and your life by changing your daily habits. You must be willing to change! You must be willing work hard for to make the changes.It doesn't take a smart people to figure it out why we go broke. It means that our spending is more than what we earn. People go broke because their expenses are higher than their income!You must know how much money have and if you don't have any right now, you must know how much money you want to have in the future. Believe me, when you know your goals and destination and you know where you are going, it will give you the motivation to go there! Listen, your time is the most valuable thing that you and I have! We can trade our time for money by solving someone's problem. Find what you're good at and use your time, talents and gifts to start making money for you.So get up! Stop being lazy! The rich and the poor both
Understand why different marketing approaches were succeeding while others failed. Early market research, for instance, helped me understand back in 1995 why the mall and bulk e-mail models don't work well online.
Let's look at my new book as an example, because it illustrates a number of different types of market research that you can do on your own, without spending any money.
When I got the idea for the book in August 2002, I sent some notes to business and publishing discussion lists to gauge, in general terms, whether there was sufficient interest to do the book. In the past, I'd received lukewarm response to some of the products I was thinking about creating, and this helped me decide to put my energies elsewhere. This time, feedback was very positive, so I started writing. Then I thought I had a great title, but I was feeling unsure about the subtitle. I asked directly for feedback on my possible subtitle choices—and discovered that there were large segments of my target market that absolutely hated my main title. This began a two-month process of brainstorming, narrowing down, putting possible titles out into the world, and rejecting them. Was there a title for this book?
Once I had a title, I had to choose a cover. My designer worked up several very striking, but controversial, designs, and none of them really told the story of what the book was about. Once again, I turned to my online support groups. His covers evoked strong emotions; people either loved them or hated them. (You can see one of his early concepts at
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a n
As the dust settles on the glitz and glamour of the world’s most famous award ceremony, the Academy Awards, months of planning and preparation are over for another year. And whilst nothing is left to chance on the night of the Oscars, the same preparation needs to be made when entering your company, product or service for an award.Even though most business award ceremonies lack the same glamour as the Oscars, being nominated or even winning an award can propel your business in the most amazing ways.You will benefit from increased sales, wide spread credibility, extra valuable exposure within the business community and the media, boosts in employee motivation and increased levels of traffic to your website. Even if you don’t win, simply participating could open doors you didn’t even know existed.Preparing Your EntryEntering an award is something you should not go into lightly. It requires a who
Once I had a title, I had to choose a cover. My designer worked up several very striking, but controversial, designs, and none of them really told the story of what the book was about. Once again, I turned to my online support groups. His covers evoked strong emotions; people either loved them or hated them. (You can see one of his early concepts at
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a n
Example From The Physical World (as opposed to internet) A man appears at the door of an elderly widow's house. The place is a small quiet village, not too many nosy neighbours and not very much happening. The man pronounces that the house is in need of roof repairs because his good deed for the day happens to be conducting free roof inspections. He wins her confidence and before long he is in the kitchen sipping the elderly woman's tea and eating a piece of her home made cake. He manages to prise out of her a lot of information about her past, her late husband, her house and so on. An hour passes and before she knows it, she has given away information that is valuable to this man but she does not suspect anything. She believes everything the man has so far said and she has no reason to doubt this quiet-spoken young man who says he has just moved into the village.One vital piece of information he has
After a while, I decided the original focus group had been over-exposed to the concept and was no longer reflecting the market. Fortunately, there are many places on the Internet that overlap with the market for this book—so I picked a new focus group.
Meanwhile, the cover designer selected a concept that is a bit less dramatic, but received about an 80% approval rating—and has a good deal more to the with the book. We went with it. You can see a low-resolution version at
It was exhausting, but it was worth it. Of the hundreds of people who have commented on the final title or cover, only one didn't like it. The book is much better positioned in the marketplace, as a direct result of this feedback.
From past experience, I can tell you that the wrong title and wrong cover are very expensive mistakes for a publisher to make. An earlier book that I didn't road test sufficiently took seven years to sell 2000 copies, and I think the cover and title were a lot of the problem. This time, not only do I expect the book to do a whole lot better, but many of the people who helped along the way will feel so much a part of the project that they will evangelize it for me—a nice side benefit of all the market research.
How to Do Your Own Market Research
Getting information from your customers and prospects is easy! Here are a few of the many possible techniques:
Ask! If you bring people to an event, ask for a show of hands about how they all learned about it (don't forget "from a friend"); if you book clients for appointments, ask at the time they make the appointment; if you run a retail store, let each cashier keep a tally of what brought the customer in, and how much was purchased (an easy way to do this: pre-print some 3x5 cards where the cashiers can check off the source and write the dollar amount).
Join online discussion groups where your customers hang out. Post to the list that you want feedback on a new product or packaging idea.
Set up a web page on your own site to collect feedback.
Use tools like www.HostedSurvey.com, which allows you to set up your survey online, hook it to your web site or email invitations to your customer list, collect responses, view reports and download the data to your own computer—and that don't cost you an arm and a leg.
Try a real-life test. For instance, offer a choice of free reports on the same topic. The one that gets the most responses should be the name of your next product.
Use codes. In any direct-mail campaign, advertisement, or online medium, you can know exactly what caused your customer to respond. For instance, an ad would specify a response to PO Box 1164-B1, while a direct-mail letter to, while a particular rented list might be directed to PO Box 1164-
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