Secondary and Primary Research – What’s the difference?

Any individual or organization that requires any data or knowledge about themselves or their market will use some form of secondary or primary market research. Some of the main reasons to conduct market research are as follows:

• Identify industry trends (consolidation, GPOs, e-commerce)
• Identify market statistics (demographics, sales forecasts, industry stats)
• Identify market perceptions (receptivity to new products/services)
• Identify customer needs (wants, needs, expectations, opinions)
• Identify competitive landscapes (who else is out there?)
• Protect resources – time, money, energy
• Support the organization’s overall strategic plan

Secondary research lays the foundation for primary research. Simply put, secondary research is information/research that already exists somewhere in the marketplace that can be accessed with excellent “sniffing-around” skills. It is a great starting point for any business initiative pertaining to market research. Information can be free, or a fee is required from some information sources. Secondary research sources can include (just to name a few): 

• Internet
• Libraries 
• Local sources 
• Chambers of Commerce 
• Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) 
• U.S. Department of Commerce 
• Small Business Administration (SBA) 
• Trade and industry associations 
• Specialized market research firms
• Census Bureau 

Primary research fills in the gaps left behind by secondary research. It is tailored to a company’s particular needs, and by customizing tried-and-true methodologies, you can gain invaluable information about your customers and target markets. Primary research obtains information directly from the source and offers more specific results than secondary research. It also involves statistical methodologies via targeted sampling, and is typically more expensive than secondary research because of its customized nature. Primary research methods include (just to name a few): 

• Telephone interviews 
• Personal interviews 
• Focus groups 
• Internet surveys 
• Intercept surveys 
• Field tests

Both secondary and primary research are extremely important to an overall market assessment initiative. If you would like to learn more about how to utilize secondary and/or primary research to get the information you need, feel free to contact Tweed-Weber. We will help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at

mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber)

Tweed-Weber's Information Assessment Profile

Have you ever wondered about your organization’s current level of awareness and knowledge relative to your market(s)? Tweed-Weber has developed a tool that can help you focus on the three essential areas of market information: Market Characteristics, Market Perception, and Competitive Information.

 

In this assessment, we ask you to decide to what extent 15 specific descriptions are true of your organization today. The following are five to show you as an example:

• We have identified the markets that represent opportunity for us. We have further prioritized these markets to focus our efforts on those that represent the greatest opportunities for us.
• We have a tool to monitor our customers’ needs. We systematically use this tool on a continuous basis. As a result, we know precisely, at any time, the needs of our customers. This tool includes an established method to statistically measure our customers’ level of satisfaction with our products and services. As a result, we are continuously aware of our customers’ level of satisfaction with our performance.
• We conduct a competitive assessment with our customers on a regularly scheduled basis. As a result, we are completely knowledgeable as to how our customers perceive us versus our competitors.
• We have an instrument and systematic method to understand the key steps in our markets’ purchasing and distribution processes. We use this instrument on a regular basis. As a result, we are constantly aware of shifts in our markets’ purchasing and distribution behavior.
• We have a tool and method to monitor our markets’ needs. We use this tool on a regular basis. As a result, we are constantly aware of the needs of our markets and their product and service preferences.

After completing the full assessment, Tweed-Weber will score your answers and provide you with your own personal Information Assessment Status. The result will help you to focus on the areas of most need (Market Characteristics, Market Perception, and/or Competitive Information), so you can enhance and optimize your organization’s overall knowledge about your market(s).

 

If you would like to learn more about Tweed-Weber’s Information Assessment Profile, feel free to contact us. We will help you Know More, so you can Do More. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

 

Assessing a High Performance Team

Teamwork in business has become one of the hottest subjects in business and supervision literature. Everywhere you look, there is another article on self-directed teams, self-managing teams, cross-functional teams, project teams, quality improvement teams, and of course, management teams. The primary reason for this is simple.

 

It appears that baby boomers and other people born after World War II like being part of a team. Where their parents relied on themselves, their own skills, their own motivation, and their own ability to get the job done, later generations look to their peers for the support, motivation, and assistance to achieve work-related objectives. Whereas those people born prior to 1946 (the year traditionally used to mark the beginning of the baby boom) generally want to be told what to do and simply allowed to do it, the people born after 1946 want to be involved in as many aspects of their business lives as possible. They want to participate. They want to be “in on things.” They want to know why they are doing the work they are doing. They want to feel they are contributing to a “greater good.” They want to feel they are part of a team.

 

This emerging reality causes us to focus on two fundamental questions:

1. What is the difference between a group of people and a team?
2. What is the difference between a team and a “high performance” team?

The key difference between a group of people and a team is a team is a group of people pulling together in the same direction and dependent on each other for their common success. 

 

The distinction between a team and a high performance team is not so easily drawn. In order for a team to be properly described as high performance, it must possess seven characteristics. These characteristics are: 

1. A mission that motivates 
2. Common goals 
3. Mastery of the fundamentals 
4. A communications system 
5. Trust 
6. A need for continuous improvement and the ability to correct course
7. A task/social mix

When all seven of these characteristics are present, the performance level of a team increases significantly. It moves from average performance to high performance, and its members enjoy the corresponding benefits. Let’s take an in-depth look at each of these characteristics and the role they play in team building efforts.

 

A mission that motivates

A mission raises people above the day-to-day tasks that make up the bulk of what we call work. This is no less important when attempting to focus a team than when attempting to lead individuals. In order for a team to rise above the average, it must have a focus that is above the average. High performance teams have a clearly defined mission. They are able to look beyond the immediately visible and see the future. Most importantly, it is a future that is worth the extra effort required if the team is to distinguish itself through its performance.

 

Common goals

While a mission is the first characteristic of a high performance team, it alone is not enough to unite the individuals who comprise the team. Somewhere along the path to exceptional performance, that mission must be converted into specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based goals – goals that can be seen and touched.

 

Organizations invest a considerable amount of time, effort, and energy in establishing strategic goals, annual performance plans, and budgets. Once established, these goals should be measured on a regular basis. If you learn about and pay attention to these planning functions, you should be able to connect the vision of your mission with your actions as team members.

 

Mastery of the fundamentals

Once a team has a mission that motivates its performance and goals to direct its activity, it is essential the individuals who comprise the team have the skills necessary to successfully achieve the first two characteristics. Average teams have ability. High performance teams master the fundamentals. They know the basic skills of their work so well their execution of those basics is instinctive.

 

A communications system

On closer examination, however, you would find the main reason people feel communication is a problem is there is often no real agreement as to what they should be meeting or talking about. The business world does not suffer from a lack of communication, but rather from unfocused communication. Everyone is talking; we just are not talking about the same things.

 

High performance teams do not just communicate, they agree as to what the communication should center around. They have a system for communication.

 

Trust

Whenever two or more people work together, the question of trust is bound to be raised.

 

High performance team members understand there are three different kinds of trust that must exist if true trust is to exist. Those three kinds of trust are:

1. Disclosure trust is the trust that exists when any member of a team believes he or she can say absolutely anything to any other team member without fear of being criticized, ridiculed, or talked about behind his or her back.
2. Contractual trust is knowing when someone makes a commitment to you, they have every intention of keeping that commitment – at the time it is made.
3. Informational trust is the ability to trust what a person says to you is, to the best of that person’s knowledge, true, complete, and accurate.

A need for continuous improvement and the ability to correct course

All teams perform at some level. High performance teams perform at a level consistently above the average team. One reason is they are never satisfied with their present level, whatever it might be. They consistently strive for continuous improvement as a natural part of their day-to-day activities. Course correction is the ability to realize you are going down the wrong path and having the courage to change direction. This is often easier said than done because it sometimes requires an admission that an earlier decision was wrong.

 

A task/social mix

The final characteristic of high performance teams may seem trivial at first, but upon closer examination you will find it is actually the result of the presence of the first six elements. This seventh characteristic is a task/social mix. Sometimes referred to as the “beer and pizza syndrome,” task/social mix is the ability of team members to enjoy and appreciate each other’s company on a personal, as well as a professional basis. It is the ability to grow and improve from simply being together, regardless of the setting.

 

As you invest your energies in building a high performance team, it is essential you understand the role each of these characteristics plays in your efforts. All are required if you are to build a truly high performance team. Most importantly, you, as a member of your team, must constantly and objectively evaluate your team’s progress toward them. The status of being a high performance team does not come without effort. The results, however, are clearly worth the work.

 

Everyone enjoys being part of a winning team. Research shows that winning teams demonstrate certain characteristics and patterns of behavior. By assessing how frequently and effectively your team demonstrates these characteristics, you will be able to make improvements that are necessary to become a truly high performance team. For more information on how to embark upon a High Performance Team Assessment, call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).

 

 

Social Media and Market Research

In today’s ever-changing society, social media impacts everything it touches. From everyday tasks to communicating to friends and those in different countries, social media opens the door for new and improved ways of thinking, communicating, and doing. But how does social media affect research?

With everything in life, utilizing social media the right way will help benefit a business with marketing, branding, and other important aspects that shape a business. There are six easy “tips” for implementing social media in a business, ultimately improving results.

Tip One: Track trends
You may be asking yourself what a trend is. According to Webster, a trend is a general direction of change, a way of behaving, proceeding, etc. that is developing and becoming more common. A trend can also be depicted as a trend line – showing the general direction that a group of points seem to be heading – either upwards, downwards, or staying the same over time. But how does one track changes? It’s easy. Social media – Twitter or Facebook – makes it simple by offering many ways to analyze trends. These sites allow one to search posts, both new and old, and popular ideas, giving insight to the emerging trends of customers and prospects. By doing this, it allows one to see what people are looking for and what they need.

Tip Two: Learn the language of your audience
Learning the language of your audience is extremely important because it helps a business grow. The language you may think is appropriate may not always be what your customers are thinking or view as being important. Social media gives an outlet to businesses because it is a free tool where one can analyze comments and data about certain products, services, or brands offered by a business. By utilizing these results, a business can change their direction and focus on the areas where they see the greatest impact to costumers.

Tip Three: Social media = quick research
Market research, traditionally speaking, involves the implementation of surveys or study groups, but today with social media, the implementation is easier because it is so fast. Because of its fast-paced nature, the results may be there, but beware: are they always correct?

Tip Four: Broaden the scope of your market research
According to a Nielson report, 80 percent of people use the Internet to utilize social media. With such a large percentage, it gives a business a larger audience to conduct market research.

Tip Five: Discover unnoticed trends
Research is driven by questions, and asking the right ones, the right way, will give great results to those burning questions businesses want to know. With social media, information is gained through interaction and observation, which is easy since it is all just a “click” away. It gives a person the choice to be either an observer or a participant in the discussions found on social media, but it can also help a business discover new and innovative ways of thinking and doing.

Tip Six: Cost-effective
Social media is  cost-effective. It is a great tool for research, as well as advertising because it reaches millions of people. Though it does take time to use social media, if it is used right, it can greatly benefit a business.

Now that the journey through the six “tips” of social media is complete, it is up to you to see if it fits for you. Social media is present in everything we do; it surrounds us. But is that always a good thing? Do we want everything at a “click” of a button? Social media is very accessible to those who know how to operate the different sites and how to use it to benefit their business. As you saw throughout this article, social media helps you track and discover trends, broaden the scope of your market, and is cost-effective. These are all enticing, but how does it influence research?
It makes it easier to find results and to analyze trends to who don’t know where to begin. Social media is always changing to adapt to society, and so must a company. It helps a business know the markets surrounding them and how they can create a niche to adapt to them. How do you exactly do this? 

Market opportunity assessments and market perception surveys allow a business to see how they are doing in their given markets, and if they should look into a new and/or different niche. If you don’t know where to begin, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).Today, sit back and allow us to do all the work, and help you figure out the perfect picture for your company. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More.

Research-Based Marketing

Marketing. What is your message? Who is your audience? What does your audience really care about? What grabs the attention of your audience? All of these questions need to be asked prior to rolling out a marketing campaign. Having a significant and purposeful information-gathering activity will help answer those questions. The following is a three-phase process we use when helping management teams develop the appropriate market research to help make their marketing campaigns successful.

PHASE I: Survey Design
The primary objectives of survey design are to identify the essential information to be gathered from your market and identify the appropriate people to contact in order to obtain that information. A brainstorming session is conducted with the management team to define the desired objectives. During this session, a great deal of awareness-building takes place which leads to a heightened sense of anticipation to see the survey results.

PHASE II: Survey Implementation
After Phase I, a survey is developed and implemented using whatever research method is most appropriate (e.g. telephone, online, focus groups, direct mail, intercept, etc.). Much of the information gathered during the implementation stage provides valuable insight into your market's perception about your organization. This information enables the management team to define key opportunities and threats that exist in their competitive arena that will help to properly aim the marketing campaign.

PHASE III: Analysis and Reporting
DATA à INFORMATION à KNOWLEDGE à WISDOM

These are the four levels that form the basis of our model for effective information-gathering. Intelligent and meaningful interpretation is required beyond simply communicating data. The data needs to be interpreted and converted into easily understood information that will help a management team make confident, smart decisions. This is the job of the research firm. When done correctly, the anticipation that exists among management team members is met with answers that fuel strategy development. The research provides the wisdom needed to guide the organization into the future, with a strong marketing campaign leading the way.

If you are looking for research that can provide insights, ideas, and inspiration for your next marketing campaign, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). We will help you Know More so you can Do More.

The Five Sources of Cost Advantage

There are five commonly recognized sources of cost advantage – people, material/supplies, processes/systems, facilities, and capital. It is not necessary to focus on all of them in order to experience the benefits of being the lowest cost producer in your industry; any one could be enough. However, by achieving a true cost advantage in more than one source, you further ensure your company’s success.

 

Now, let’s explore each of these five sources and determine the relationship it has on your business.

 

People

 

Many organizations boast that their people are their most important asset. While this may be true, people can also represent the most significant cost to a company when you shift from the balance sheet to the operating statement.

Companies do not become the lowest cost producers by paying their people the lowest wages and benefits possible. They become the lowest cost producers by leading and managing their employees to performance levels that exceed those of their competition. To do this, they continuously focus on enhancing the skills of their people. They create highly flexible employees who are capable of meeting the demands of an ever-changing marketplace.

 

Lowest cost companies create highly disciplined teams who understand their real competition is outside of their organization, not inside. They: 

• tell their people what to do
• support them in their efforts to do it
• measure how well they do it
• reward and/or discipline based on their measurements

Materials/Supplies

All companies use materials and supplies to produce their products or perform the services that their customers buy. Lowest cost companies do not simply focus on the lowest unit price of materials or supplies, they establish purchasing practices that result in the lowest total cost for these materials and supplies.

 

This distinction is essential because the lowest unit price for a particular purchased product may not be the lowest total cost for the same material. Lowest cost companies identify and separate their strategic purchases from their low-risk purchases. They then align their purchasing resources to ensure that strategic material purchases receive the level of attention they deserve. They understand and track their total purchasing costs and work hard to continuously reduce them.

 

Processes/Systems

 

Everything that a company does is a process. From the way it hires to the way it fires, from entering orders to collecting receivables, from manufacturing products or delivering services to the way you ensure their quality, everything that an organization does can be reduced to a series of definable steps. Processes that are linked together become a system. Lowest cost producers design their processes and resulting systems to be highly efficient.

 

Organizational processes and systems can be classified into four basic categories:

• Sales processes – positioning your company and products, generating leads, converting those leads into orders, and entering those orders into your operations
• Operational processes – engineering and manufacturing your products, and ensuring the quality of your products/services
• Distribution processes – getting your products or services to your customers
• Support processes – human resource activities, management information systems, financial management, administration activities (to name a few). Support processes are essential for your sales, operational, and distribution processes.

As a company grows, these processes and systems tend to evolve with it. Lowest cost companies recognize that evolution does not always yield efficiency, and they constantly evaluate and re-engineer their processes to ensure they are performed in the lowest cost way possible.

 

Facilities

 

After people and materials, the most significant cost center for companies is often their facilities. Facilities include physical plant (offices and factories), equipment and technology hardware.

 

Lowest cost organizations work hard to ensure their offices and/or manufacturing facilities are designed to produce the most cost-efficient performance. They invest in the most effective capital equipment to do the essential work of their business. Increasingly, lowest cost companies look for ways to use technology to increase their productivity and reduce their costs.

 

Capital

 

The last (but not least) source of cost advantage is capital. Capital falls into two fundamental categories, money that you have (cash on hand and equity) and money that you don’t have (receivables and credit availability). Lowest cost companies recognize and maximize the advantages that come from effective capital management.

 

What does this mean for your business? All of these sources are just the first piece of the puzzle. The rest is actually performing them. Once all of these pieces come together, the picture it paints will be one that customers can’t look away from. But how does one figure out if all of the pieces are working together? It’s easy; conduct an employee perception survey. This survey is designed to allow you to get into the minds of your employees. It helps you recognize areas that are and are not working. Most importantly, it instills the fact that you care about your employees and the success of both them and the business.

 

If you’re wondering if an employee perception survey is right for you, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).Today, sit back and allow us to do all the work, and help you figure out the perfect picture for your company. No one can guarantee certainty, but market research can guarantee clarity. You will Know More, so you can Do More. 

Market Research and Strategic Planning: Tools for Strategic Management

Over the past several years, much has been written about the value of teams and the positive impact a successful team culture can have on an organization. We believe that to be true, and conduct employee surveys all the time to assess the health and climate of organizations. Greater levels of involvement and empowerment have resulted in statistically supported levels of enhanced productivity. But what about at the leadership level? That is a different ball game. Balancing traditional executive leadership behavior with the elements of successful teaming can be frustrating. A number of actual case studies show that team failures can result in detrimental effects to an organization's overall competitiveness. Where do these initiatives often fail? Typically, they are flawed from the start. You cannot approach a management team the same way you approach a project or functional team. The level of responsibility is obviously different, as well as the nature of the work for which the team is responsible. Successful management teams are created with these differences fully understood from the start by all team members.

A model for high performance teams at the management level is essential because a strong management team "at the top" can be a tremendous source of competitive advantage. In addition, a strong management team is extremely enabling to an organization looking to leverage leadership from a designated individual to a natural team. It takes time, but starting correctly can improve the probability of success.

Developing a game plan
When it comes to strategic planning, it is hard to avoid sports analogies. This is perfectly logical. Business, like sports, requires scouting, planning, skill and execution – all performed in a competitive arena. You could never imagine a professional team in any sport sustaining a winning tradition without a well-constructed, well-executed game plan. A strategic plan is your organization's game plan for winning. When the management team has defined its primary role as providing effective guidance and leadership for the organization, it recognizes strategic planning as the tool. The following are three basic actions that need to be taken in order to develop winning organizational "game plans."

#1 – Involve your management team in discovering what is truly going on in your competitive arena.
Perform a meaningful market analysis that includes a significant level of customer input. This is critical for two reasons: 1) you can't develop a sound plan based on intuitive hunches alone; and 2) your management team needs to develop a consensus relative to what is going on out there. In order for a management team to perform its primary role, the elements of market awareness and urgency will be essential. A purposeful information gathering activity will help address this requirement.

#2 – Develop long-term objectives and define strategies to accomplish those objectives.
It is critical to know where you are heading. Are you looking for a 20% growth in sales with a minimum 12% net profit? Are you looking to increase market share by 50% in a specific area? Are you determined to establish a dominant position in a given market? Whatever you determine, make it a stretch, but attainable. Defining the strategies to get you there depends upon your organization’s source(s) of market advantage. The five sources of market advantage are low price, product differentiation, unrivaled service, niching, and partnering. Upon which source(s) will you base your organization’s growth? In order to determine your organization’s sources(s) of market advantage, you will need to reference the findings of your market research and your team’s assessment of your organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses.

#3 – Communicate the plan and implement the strategies.
Communication is key for successful implementation. Winning companies have a large percentage of employees that understand the mission, vision, values, and strategies of the organization. This common understanding directs their actions. It is extremely important to work towards making communication a more efficient process. Keep in mind that effective communication is an ongoing process which takes discipline.

Bringing it all together
Implementing a strategic plan is an ongoing effort, one that involves the alignment of people and processes behind defined objectives and strategies. We believe this is the responsibility of the management team. Successfully addressing this issue will require your management team to make (and truly believe) the assumption that the large majority of people in the organization (if not all) would rather do a good job than a bad job. People need direction, guidance, feedback, and appraisal in order to work in an effective and efficient manner. Providing this ongoing support should be the responsibility of the management team, and the process and appropriate skills should be developed in order to provide this support effectively. This aspect of managerial performance is often overlooked. Professional management behavior does not naturally evolve, it is developed purposefully. Accountable organizations are those that recognize and act on this principle.

Conducting research and developing a strategic plan is not as daunting as it may appear. If you believe it has merit, it is probably best to talk to someone who has experience in helping similar organizations through the process. Doing this will help you increase your level of awareness and understanding about the requirements, benefits, and potential pitfalls. As you and the people of your organization approach the end of 2013, ask yourselves whether you are ready to make a significant change to take your business to the next level. If the answer is yes, then you will need to do something significantly different, and we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). We would be glad to share our experiences with you and help you decide the right plan of attack for your organization.

A Metric by Any Other Name...

By Al Weber, President, Tweed-Weber, Inc.

 

For some time now, I have become increasingly aware of the use, or perhaps I should say misuse, of the word “dashboard” among managers and executives. I suggest misuse might be the more appropriate description because, as I think back to the first time I heard the term, it had a very specific meaning. That meaning defined the metrics on an organization’s dashboard as leading indicators for the organization. Much like the gauges and warning lights on an automobile’s dashboard, they would communicate what was going on within an organization in (relatively) real time. And as important, they would be immediately actionable. You could do something about them, in short order, to change them. More and more, however, I hear virtually ALL metrics being described as dashboard metrics, and when I look at dashboards, often proudly presented, I find them to be outcome measures or lagging indicators.

 

While outcome measures have value and should represent an effective rear view mirror look at an organization’s performance, they are not always helpful in generating short-term, quick response reactions to the current circumstances going on within that enterprise. Imagine how helpful (or perhaps unhelpful) it would be if, instead of a fuel gauge on your car, you received an automatically generated report stating you had run out of gas four times over the past calendar month. Even if this report had a cumulative year-to-date column and multicolor graphs and charts, you wouldn’t be any better off. Or what if you received a regular report letting you know that you exceeded the posted speed limit 308 times over the past 30 days? While that may only be and average of 10.26 times per day, how many of those events might have resulted in a long conversation with a state police officer?

 

Both a fuel indicator and a speedometer are perfect examples of dashboard instruments. Their jobs are to tell you when you are having a problem, not that you had one. If you know you have a problem, you can apply corrective action. If you don’t know you have a problem, and worse yet, you won’t know if you are having one in the future, all you can do is count the number of speeding tickets you have received and pay your fines in a timely manner to avoid additional penalties.

 

As you look at the metrics you are currently using to run your organization, you need to ask two key questions. 

1. Is the information your metrics provide real time (or as close as possible to real time) data?
2. Is the data actionable?

If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you really aren’t looking at true dashboard indicators. You are looking at some form of outcome measures. You can call them Key Result Areas, Critical Measures of Success, or Key Performance Measures, but don’t confuse them with the dashboard indicators that precede, and often predict, your outcomes.

Creating Long-Term Sales Growth

Whether you make widgets or sell a service, sales growth is always a major issue affecting your company's long-term success. But if you are like many other organizations, how you go about creating long-term sales growth is a daunting challenge. Sell harder? Advertise more? Modify your product or service? What's the most effective path to take, AND how can you do it without spending an inordinate amount of money?

In order to understand how to go about creating long-term sales growth, it's best to get back to fundamentals. The first fundamental understanding involves general market dynamics. If you want your market to buy more from you than your competitors, you need to give them a reason to do so. Is your price consistently lower? Do your products/services better meet their needs? Do you provide better service during and after the sale? Do you understand their business better, or have you established better relationships with their people?

The market is very difficult to predict in many areas. But one area that is predictable is that the market will, by itself, vote for the company that is perceived as meeting their needs the best. And the market votes for the winner with dollars. 

The second fundamental understanding is more specific to your market(s) and your company. What is the nature of your market, its current and evolving needs, and what is your company's perceived ability to meet those needs relative to your competition?

The reason to gain this fundamental understanding is undeniable. As is common with most of us, our perception of the forces and trends affecting our markets and our companies is based on a combination of issues. It is based on our interpretation of various events and situations over time, as well as our many experiences in dealing with those events. Sometimes our interpretations closely match our market's interpretations, but many times they are off base, either by a little or by a lot. If you believe your perception of the market is closely aligned with the market's perception of you without testing that assumption, then you may be in trouble.

Setting sales growth strategies based primarily on subjective perceptions will probably result in something less than what you desire. Furthermore, if you want to get your people behind a strategy, you need to support it with something better than just your good thinking and intuitive prowess.

Obtaining that information is critical. It will serve as the fundamental basis for a strategy to create long-term sales growth. But how do you go about getting that information and what do you do after you've gotten it? That's where research strategic planning comes in and the use of an outside, integrated consulting firm proves its value in helping out.

Research/Information Gathering

Determining market dynamics and your company's competitive advantage is a result of learning your customers' perceptions of their industries, their current and evolving needs, and their interest in companies that are vying to fill those needs (including yours). Normally, this is accomplished through intensive surveying using a number of proven methods. This is best done by an expert, third-party consulting firm. By combining this information with internally generated data, (e.g., sales history, financial performance, etc.) the dynamics of the market and your position within it can be viewed and discussed objectively by your management team. As a result, a consensus can be achieved as to the starting point for determining the sales growth strategy that is right for your company.

Long-Term Sales Growth Strategy Development

Determining the correct sales strategy for your company is the result of combining the work done previously with the fundamental understanding of general market dynamics mentioned earlier. The market embraces the company that meets their needs better than the others. Determining your company's long-term sales strategy will involve defining what those needs are and what you can do to stand-out in meeting those needs in the marketplace.

Think about the affect the activities described previously would have on your company's ability to create long-term sales growth. Your people would see the logic that was involved and be more enthusiastic in supporting and contributing to the company's new and/or revitalized direction.

If you are trying to establish long-term sales growth, we can help. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). Tweed-Weber can help you include your market(s) and their perceptions as a foundation for your continued success.

Problem Solving and Continuous Improvement

The most important tools you will use to improve the total quality of your organization are the problem solving and continuous improvement process that your organization has adopted. Notice that there is a clear distinction between problem solving and continuous improvement. Each process has a specific definition and a specific application, and it is imperative that you use the right process in the right situations.

Problem Solving Defined
Webster's defines a problem as “a question, matter, situation, or person that is perplexing or difficult.” That definition is fine for grammatical purposes, but it doesn’t help us much with problem solving in an organizational environment. A more functional definition of a business-related problem is “a deviation from the normal or expected for which the cause is unknown and for which one would like to determine the cause and find a solution.” Let’s look at an example to clarify our definition. Suppose, at the end of work today, you get in your car, you put the key in the ignition and turn it. The normal or expected result would be that the engine would start and you would be able to drive home. Today, when you turn the key, nothing happens. That’s a problem. A deviation from the normal or the expected. Do you want to find the cause and determine a solution? Of course. Something happened to cause the problem. Some kind of change took place. By finding what changed, you will find the cause of the problem. The cause of a problem is always found in some kind of change. Find the change, and you have found the cause. Put the situation back to the way it was, and you have solved the problem.

Continuous Improvement Defined
Continuous improvement is defined as “the ongoing process of making small changes in order to improve output or performance.” Continuous improvement is the opposite of problem solving. You are purposefully trying to change the normal or the expected in a positive direction. You are trying to make a change in the system that will cause a change in the outcome. Let’s use the automobile example again. Let’s say you are averaging 19 miles per gallon of gasoline, and you want to increase the fuel efficiency of your car. You begin to look for ways to improve your mileage. Each time you come up with an idea, you make a change in the process of how you maintain or drive your car. This change causes improvement. A series of small changes can result in a big improvement and give you increased fuel efficiency.

There are many different models for problem solving and continuous improvement, but the following are examples of the seven-step processes that your organization can choose to adopt, which are highly effective.

The Seven-Step Problem Solving Process

1. State the problem. What is the deviation from the standard?
2. Specify the problem. Describe what the problem IS and IS NOT. The more specific you make your problem description, the closer you will be to finding the cause.
3. Find the differences between the IS and the IS NOT.
4. Brainstorm possible causes. What are some changes that could have caused this problem?
5. Test the most likely cause. Which of these possible causes is most likely to be the cause of this problem?
6. Validate the cause. What can we do to prove that the most likely cause is the real cause of the problem?
7. Develop the solution. What action(s) can we take to undo the change that caused this problem?

The Seven-Step Continuous Improvement Process

1. Select the condition to improve.
2. Define how to measure the condition. Before you can improve a condition, you must be able to measure it.
3. Set a target.
4. Gather facts to define the condition as it is now.
5. Generate improvement ideas.
6. Select, test, and adopt improvement ideas.
7. Establish, document, and discipline new procedures.

Problem solving and continuous improvement are very similar. In both cases, you are trying to understand how change affects results. In problem solving, you are trying to find the change that caused a negative deviation from the standard. In continuous improvement, you are trying to cause a positive deviation from the normal by introducing change. In either case, it is essential that these processes become standardized or “institutionalized.” When these processes are institutionalized,

• everyone on your team is taking the same approach to solving problems and improving processes;
• everyone is speaking the same language;
• anyone from your organization (even if they are not members of your team) can study the solutions or improvement steps you are planning and understand how you arrived at them; and,
• people feel empowered because they are using a method that has been sanctioned by the organization.

Most importantly, you will give your business a competitive advantage when the people in your organization genuinely recognize that problem solving and continuous improvement are simultaneously opportunities and obligations. The opportunity is the empowerment that comes from having a tool, recognized throughout your organization, for solving a problem or improving a process. The obligation is the requirement that the tools be used to improve the total quality of your organization.

If problem solving and continuous improvement could benefit your business, our research and strategic planning professionals can help you. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, email us at mail@tweedweber.com, and/or visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com. Also, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber). We’re ready to work for you in a way that will enhance the way your business operates today and in the future.

The Conversation: Al Weber

Dan Fink, Editor of the Reading Eagle Business Weekly, recently sat down with Al Weber, president of Tweed-Weber, Inc., to discuss the business of data collection. The conversation below was published in the July 30, 2013 edition of Business Weekly. The original, along with additional content, can be found here.


Al Weber has been in the consulting business since the early 1990s. His company, Reading-based Tweed-Weber, has scratched out a niche as one of the go-to firms for strategic research and planning. He’s something of a wise old hand at making sense of huge piles of data. Weber, who just turned 61, sat down recently to talk about trends in the data-collection business.


Business Weekly: How long have you been doing this? How old is the company?

Al Weber: Tweed-Weber was founded (around) 22 years ago. I had a private consulting firm. Steve Tweed had a private consulting firm, and we merged them together in 1991.


BW: What was your background?

Weber: I worked for a company that sold and implemented management and supervisory sales training programs.


BW: So you come from the planning background, but it sounds like more of the work now is the research piece.

Weber: We started out as a planning company that did some research and over time morphed into a research company that does planning.


BW: How does that work?

Weber: In the typical year, I read maybe 80 research reports and really know what to look for in those reports and how to assess them and to pull the information that matters out of them. Not everybody has the opportunity to spend that much time with reports. While they’re certainly capable of reading it and understanding what is said in the report, they may not know how to take it to the next level, and that is to determine how it’s useful to them. That’s another big step.


BW: In health care, there’s all this effort now to do things like improve patient satisfaction and to gather and convert to electronic medical records. What does that do for somebody in your business in helping health care clients?

Weber: Information has become an essential component to delivering high-quality care. So health care impacts a wide range of organizations, and it does so in many different ways. Some segments are incredibly competitive. The home health care industry as a good example is a very competitive industry right now, and others are less competitive just because the nature of that segment within a marketplace isn’t quite as demanding.


BW: Do you have an example?

Weber: Hospitals compete, there’s no question about that. But they don’t compete in the same way the smaller organizations compete. Reading Hospital (and) St. Joseph’s: They’re both great organizations, and they do compete, but it’s very different than some of the segments in which the barrier to entry is much lower. It’s not easy to say we’re going to start a new hospital today. But someone could say we’re going to start a new home health care agency today, and it could be in operation very quickly, maybe not tomorrow, but within 30-60 days.


BW: One last question. Data gathering has been in the news recently, with Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks. What’s your thought about all of that?

Weber: I can tell you, when it comes to data, we have to realize that the level of privacy we might have thought we had simply doesn’t exist anymore. I don’t know how many cameras there are on Penn Square, but let’s start by saying several and count up from there. Every time you walk into a Wawa to get a cup of coffee, six or seven cameras are taking your picture. Every time you go to an ATM, smile because you’re on what’s a really a not-so-candid camera.


BW: Well, we saw all that through the Boston bombing investigation. Those guys were tracked on cameras throughout.

Weber: They were. You are … somewhere in the world probably on a hundred different cameras in the course of an average day. In 2012, we stored more bits of information than we did every other year put together in the history of man. That should tell us that every time that you walk anywhere, there’s someone out there watching you.

— Interview by Dan Fink

(This conversation was posted in the July 30, 2013 edition of the Reading Eagle Business Weekly.)

The Numbers and the Words: Methodologies in Market Research

What research method is right for you? Quantitative research categorizes information collected through experimental means that is expressed and evaluated numerically. In other words, when asked to use a rating scale to evaluate factors such as employee satisfaction or one’s work environment, a survey participant is participating in quantitative research. Isabelle Albanese, in the May 2013 edition of Quirk’s Marketing Research Review (“Qual, meet quant,” pp. 70-74), sums up the benefits of quantitative research quite nicely: “[q]uantitative research does provide the date and data analysis to make marketing decisions with a comfortable degree of certainty.” Analysts are able to measure performance (and provide comparisons to a baseline if available) and, to a degree of certainty, offer clients the data necessary to make sound strategic decisions.

Qualitative research, by contrast, focuses on the significance of observations made in a study rather than the raw numbers themselves. A survey participant is part of qualitative research when he or she is asked a question such as “What is the main strength of XYZ Company?” Albanese notes the benefit of qualitative research as providing insight, understanding, truth, and inspiration. After all, perception is reality and reality is, well, truth.

Combining these two methodologies into a sort of “qual-quant” methodology has been a hallmark of Tweed-Weber’s research capabilities for the better part of two decades. This sort of cohesion can yield the deepest, richest, and most action-oriented results, speaking truth to numbers and backing up employees’, customers’, and the market’s perceptions with data. Adding a qualitative component to quantitative research, says Albanese, will reveal emotional connections and underlying motivations to the data and will put “emotion ‘meat’ on the rational ‘bones.’” Adding a quantitative component to qualitative research will help in validating and confirming insight on an emotional level and, ultimately, in providing confident recommendations.

The insights, understanding, truths, and inspiration we can glean from our clients’ employees, customers, and stakeholders is truly rewarding as we know that information, coupled with the hardened numerical data we will undoubtedly gather, can be used to truly make a difference in the organization’s, its employees’ and its customers’ lives. Whether it’s through telephone interviews, online survey instruments, or focus groups, Tweed-Weber’s trained researchers are able to build a nearly immediate rapport with our interview subjects and get them to think, “Someone actually cares enough to ask me what I think.”

Tweed-Weber has the track record to assist your organization with all research functions, both quantitative and qualitative. From marketing to sales, customer service to quality, research can be vital to every organization. Why? Every organization, whether for-profit or nonprofit, is interested one of, or a combination of, three things: profit, revenue, and strategic improvements. Any organization that requires any data or knowledge about themselves or their market will use some form of qualitative, quantitative, or qual-quant market research.

If you find yourself questioning what your employees, customers, or stakeholders are thinking, contact us today to learn more. Our office is centrally located in Reading, PA, just about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Call us toll-free at 1-800-999-6615, visit us on the web at www.tweedweber.com, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (Tweed-Weber, Inc.) and Twitter (@TweedWeber).