The Research Brief That Saves Six Months: How to Commission B2B Market Research Correctly
Updated: 1 day ago
The most expensive mistake in market research is not the research itself it is commissioning the wrong research because the brief was wrong. A poorly constructed research brief produces a technically correct study that answers questions the client didn't actually need answered.
Brief failure mode 1: Outputs specified instead of decisions
A brief that says "we need a customer satisfaction report with NPS scores by segment" has specified an output. A brief that says "we need to understand why our renewal rate in the automotive segment has dropped from 87% to 71% over two years, and what we need to change to recover it" has specified a decision. The second brief produces research that is useful. The first produces a document.
Brief failure mode 2: Hypothesis avoidance
Many companies deliberately avoid stating their hypotheses believing this makes the research more "objective." In practice, hypothesis avoidance means the research design is built without understanding the specific assumptions that need to be tested. Good research makes hypotheses explicit, not to confirm them, but to test them rigorously.
Brief failure mode 3: Wrong target respondents
In Indian B2B, there is frequently a gap between the person the client most easily accesses and the person who most directly experiences the service quality. A customer satisfaction study that interviews procurement managers about technical service quality is interviewing the wrong person. The plant maintenance engineer who calls the helpline at 2am when a pump fails has the relevant experience.
Talk to BPMBC about designing research that answers the right questions:
BPMBC Marketing Research India | Pune | www.bpmbc.com
