There has always been some uncomfortable feeling around market research. Apart from quantifying and qualifying it, the results are always a little more subjective than researchers would lead you to believe. Market research only gives you a measure on how people are feeling today, not several years down the road. It provides some insight but not foresight.

Asking people in the street or over the telephone what they think about you doesn’t give you the full picture. How many times have you given a quick answer to a survey question, even when you know the supplier, just to get through it as quickly as possible? How many times have you thought, what a daft question to ask? And how many times have you refused to complete a questionnaire because you don’t have enough time or actually can’t be bothered?

Anyone can go out and ask the same questions and get pretty much the same answers and where exactly does that leave you? Market research is important but if you are going to do it, do it properly and where any research activity is going to add value today as well as tomorrow.

Real insight and foresight comes from building a community around your products and services. It’s far better to have a group of people you survey on a regular basis who have volunteered, than to press gang someone for 15 minutes. Don’t survey 300 people who are not interested in engaging with you but those 30 who really understand and buy into what you do. That way you are in a better position to lead a set of customers towards an abundance of influence on both sides.

You may have the best, even most innovative product on the market. You may be developing the most talented team with the latest leadership skills. You may have a significant competitive advantage through your brand. But if you’re not preparing your company for the effect of globalisation and the changes that will bring, you could fail in the blink of an eye.

Change and the speed of change will increase and affect the way we do business. Wealth and success will change and the definitions of those words will become very individual. Growth of your business will be different, how you make a profit will change and competition will be even greater.

Trust will be your most important asset with customers and employees. You will need to justify why you are different at every step even if it means you are cheaper. Technology will drive your business and we will become obsessed with trends. Marketing is changing and rapidly. No longer will you have brochures or attend that exhibition, that part of your budget will be spent online.

One of the best investments you can make at the moment is to read a couple of books on the subject of globalisation and get geared up. According to the leading experts on the matter, it is here to stay so we better damn well understand the implications for our small business.

Not mine but Tom Peters. Thought it was a worthwhile document to read and take on board! It’s got some useful reminders in it….

http://www.tompeters.com/blogs/freestuff/uploads/Heart_of_Strategy_ANN_033009.pdf

There are early warning signs that a business is in trouble:

1. Complaints by the senior team that it never used to be like this.

2. Lots of new competitors taking a large share of what you used to do.

3. Excess provision of what you do in the market place.

4. Your only differentiator is price and, as a result, margins come under pressure.

5. Too much risk management and an excess of market research.

6. Belief that it won’t happen to you.

7. The MD spends too much of his/her time looking over their shoulder.

8. The business is static, gripped in a fever of stand off. Avoid the issue and it will go away.

Big and small, a downturn takes no prisoners. Thousands of business with the above problems are being gobbled up by business with dynamic strategies, innovative thinking and differentiated products/services.

If you are doing one of the above, you’re possibly in trouble. Turn it on its head and change it and rapidly.

Great post by Seth. I posted something similar a few months ago, but of course, he puts it more eloquently: 

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/the-right-size.html

Would recommend this book by Dan Ariely. An interesting, enlightening and influential read, there are some interesting observations about our irrational behaviour backed up by research. Chapters 2 and 3 are fascinating, particularly when you consider their impact on your pricing strategy!

By the end you will have a greater understanding of human behaviour and picked up a couple of snippets of information that could alter your small business decision making too!

Just following on from the previous post…..

People want to be part of something that matters, that what they do is meaningful and has some significance and they want to know what contribution they are making too! That also includes you. This is about getting your team to respond rather than to react to problems. There is a difference.

If the MD isn’t good at change and his managers are not good at leading, no wonder employees try and stop it from happening and no wonder they get demoralised.

The first realisation is that people now only want to work on stuff they believe in, understand and find meaningful. In fact that was always the case its just we didn’t have enough passionate leaders to create it. Now we don’t have any choice. These kind of people want to know how it benefits them as well as the business. How it stimulates change, how creative it is and whether it embraces a ‘better way.’ The job of the leader is to engage their people on a journey, on a plan, on a route that they are fully motivated towards. In the future, it will be these things that will bring about a competitive advantage not products!

Leaders are great connectors, they can understand people quickly and they understand motivation. They have the ability to inspire people. They are not process orientated but lead from the front, galvanising support, creating ideas that drive the people in the business towards its goal. They are not interested in authority and can’t abide ego centric people.

One of the most significant problems with people who manage a small business is they are wholly task driven. They focus on the day to day operations and tasks without identifying and inspiring their people to the long term view, what the business is aiming to achieve. That’s coupled with not clearly communicating what that means for their people and how that benefits them! Creating purpose is the road map, the vision, the thing you gather at work every morning for. Nothing happens effectively without purpose, it presents a clear plan for the long term and looks at possibilities not problems. To start you off focus on:

-       What is your core purpose?

-       What is your dept’s core purpose?

-       What are your peoples core purpose?

-       How does that purpose add value?

-       What will it take for you to drive people towards the purpose?

The point is this, if you don’t know in one sentence what you businesses purpose is, how the hell can you people deliver it. What is your department’s value creating proposition in terms of leading your team and customers?

If you are thinking about changing the marketing approach in your small business and you feel some outside help from a marketing specialist is required don’t ask them the usual questions such as why are you different than your competitors? Or, tell me about your previous work.

What’s more interesting is to ask them this; “How will you help me remove the constant fuzzy noise in my industry and improve the signal I send to my customers?” Not only will it challenge them, the one that comes up with the rational yet exciting answer is the one you need to commission.