From the outside, most businesses appear pretty simple. Customers have a fair idea of what the products are, what skills the employees have, and how things are marketed.
But if you’ve ever gone from being a customer of a business to being an employee, you have seen just how much goes on behind the scenes. You were always aware of the outcomes of the business’ decisions, but you never saw just what went into those decisions.
Gathering the information it takes to resolve a business decision is what Primary-Intel.com is in business to do. They go straight to the customers, vendors, and all the people in the company’s trenches to trace through processes and determine how to advise management on where to go.
Before you take on a new business venture, you might want to learn a little more about what this type of firm does for other businesses and what questions they can resolve for you. What managers and entrepreneurs typically see is that the early days are easy. You’re offering a product or service that the market is starving for, and the customers often come rolling in.
In time, competition grows, novelty fades, and business begins to stagnate. You need information to help maintain that momentum, and research firms are an effective way to keep your business rolling the same way it does when you start out.
What are the things that you will want to know to remain fresh in an ever-more competitive market?
Where Your Inefficiencies Are
The story is told of a mathematics professor laboring for years on a complex problem, only to have a colleague wander through and notice that someone forgot to carry a one, thus resolving the whole challenge.
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is what you need. You are so busy keeping your nose to the grindstone and dealing with daily issues that you can’t step back and get an objective look at what’s going on. And even if you could, you lack the background to analyze effectively.
When a market research consultant comes in, they are a blank slate. They don’t know your personal biases or preferences. They will have an objective view of how things should be done, and you will get an accurate assessment of where your inefficiencies lie–and how to correct them.
Why Your Competition Is Succeeding
The first firm to break through in a particular line of business usually does very well with the tried and true for several years. Soon somebody else comes up with a way to cut in on the market, and that competitor typically has something to offer that you don’t.
If you’re the first barbecue restaurant in town, you may be in the big money for a few years before somebody else starts smoking across town. If you see your customers going there instead of to you, you need to know why. Is the dining room bigger? Is the menu more broad-based? Is the food simply better? Good research will reveal these often-painful truths and give you a chance to respond and regain your foothold.
What You Should Be Providing
Add-on sales are a great way to increase invoice totals. If you can offer companion products to go along with your primary offerings, you can get additional sales. For example, your bread and butter may be selling swimming pools, and you may make a lot of money on each sale. But if you add an inventory of the necessary chemicals, tools, and toys that most pool owners need, you will bring in additional money. You will also be more attractive for that initial sale of the pool because customers prefer one-stop shopping. You can stand a slim profit margin on the add-ons if they bring in the big-ticket buyers.
A market research project will help you identify the holes in your inventory. Your customers will highlight the shortcomings that they see, and that information will be passed along to you. The result will be better sales.
There are always tasks and chores that you should farm out to specialized workers. This is especially true of very specialized services like market research. You can try it yourself, or you can connect with a firm that knows exactly how to address your needs and will handle all the legwork for you.
When the future of your business is at stake, it’s clear which route will be most likely to yield a better outcome.
