8 Pointers to An Effective Pitch For a Market Research Project.

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Solution sells if they solve problems, Simple. They do that by decomposing a problem into manageable parts or answers a client’s need or question.

The commonly offered market research solutions help the business open up the true potential of the market through data and nudges clients to embrace new business models with custom market research solutions. Market research solutions study and unveil each of these factors to identify emerging trends, challenges, risks, and opportunities in client’s industry.

Some of the things that market research solutions accomplish for the business include, Understanding the perspectives of customers, suppliers, business competitors, which gives clients an unparalleled understanding of their market. It also includes for example research for developing new products or services offering that address unmet market needs, adopts industry best practices, gives clients a heads up on disruptive market trends, and warns them about potential risks. So as you can see most solutions are critical but also there are 100s of players, who claim to do this as well. So, then, how do you sell your solution?

1. Do your homework

The first and the most critical one, that everyone should learn at the start of the career to do some search and homework, this set the context, for the industry, product, players, their strengths and weakness, current state and thus prepare you for relevant discussion with the client. The more the client thinks you know the nuances, the more likely they are to bond with you as a researcher, and I can’t understate the importance of this.

2.?Ask the right question

A client wants everything, it is for the researcher to slowly bring them to that central, key problem, this is where the real problem definition is given by the client, the issues revealed and broken into their working parts, as you connect with the client here, you will know how to do your research and the design thus will have a tunnel vision level clarity, also bringing both agency and client on the same page. It will set the right expectation.

3. Adapt your solution-talk to client problem

The client is not here to praise or even appreciate how great your solution is or the tools. He is not here to be wowed by it, that is simply not the purpose of research. What he is here to do is to see, how and why your solution will answer his question or solve this problem or provide him the insight he needs to grow. So, let say, your solution can do A, B, C, and D, it may be so that the client needs ABCD, but he needs D the most, so you start with ABC, but you stop at D and spend time in bridging the gap between the central business question or problem and how your solution handles it. Why will it give him a solution, what it will look like and how it can be used. The best is to show a case example. It can also happen that client needs just A, so just only about A, but selling ABCD you are overwhelming the client, showing a poor understanding of their problem, and coming across as a hustler than a researcher. You present A so relevantly that the client asks for more.

4. Remain meaningful and relevant

When you have solutions, it is easy to get carried away and talk more about your solution rather than the client's problem. It is how you display the features of your solution in the context of the client’s problem that builds a tunnel vision connection between you two, a strong meaningful relevance. If you can build that, you are golden, the client will not only buy it but pay a premium and be loyal. But if you go on your own tangent and become irrelevant, you will lose client attention and thus the business.

5. Be ready to adapt

No one solution has all the answers to business problems, so be mindful of that, if the client comes up with a problem that needs your feature A but also need a feature X which your solution doesn’t have, your response cannot be that my solution is the holy grail. No that is not possible, if the client says, I need A +X, coz that solves my problem, then you adapt your thinking. This is not to say that you have to change your solution, but you can find a balance between A and X and try to do them together for it is not the perfectness but the robustness of your solution that will deliver.

6. Educate your client about your unique method to stand out

Clients do not know about the advancements in MR, so help them understand what is it that makes your solution the best or the most relevant for his needs. In the process, you can talk about how your solution does it differently and thus how it creates actionable insights that other tools cannot. You have to do this with a positive attitude and not condescending other solutions.

7. Be flexible with price

With the advent of MR marketplaces like MyMRplace, the choices for the client are endless. They get a wider range of options and advice, so many a times cheaper than yours, so as far as possible, try and be flexible on the price to the extent that the solution remains relevant. There is no point in having a solution that does have the economy and the premium version or one in the mid-price range, do your research and find out what others are charging.

8.?Case studies, case studies, and more case studies

For building confidence that the solution works and can generate actionable insights, show them that it does, if you have case studies of how your solution worked in the past and how it benefitted the client, it is something that cements the confidence to sign off on the contract.

So, there you go, be curious, be humble, be empathetic, be flexible and be smart, you will need all of them to successfully sell a solution to the client.