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Dana Stanley
Greenbook’s Chief Revenue Officer
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Hiring a Market Research Agency: Managing Your Budget
(part of Chapter 5: Planning Your Agency Relationship)
Before you select a market research agency, think carefully about the type of relationship you want, especially when planning your budget. It’s important that the agency you choose can work with your team in a way that will truly meet your needs.
There are hundreds of agencies out there; they do not all have the same styles or collaboration approaches. Read on to learn how to build a great relationship with your chosen agency.
As you plan to hire a research agency, think about the potential for a broader context: Are you looking for somebody who you can have on call over a long period of time, or somebody with whom you’re going to have a very project-oriented, short-term relationship? Do you want the agency to be a consultant on call because of their area of expertise?
If the type of work you need is truly for a particular project or a series of projects, that’s how the fee arrangement should be arranged. It will be priced per project.
However, if you have an ongoing need for the agency to be part of your MR process, including ongoing research strategy planning, the type of relationship you are more likely to want is a retainer arrangement.
Full-service agencies often offer retainer options, which provide two important benefits:
- You can negotiate for guaranteed access to a specific staff member or team for a minimum number of hours per month. Once you have a relationship with a firm, it gets acquainted with your company’s unique culture, context, budget sensitivities, and needs. Keeping it on retainer ensures you get access to the right people.
- A retainer ensures fast response to any time-sensitive questions you might have. Remember that research firms are consultancies—their senior people can be handling two to five projects at a time, if not more. If you don’t have a retainer, and call during a period of heavy deadlines, you are unlikely to get a timely or thorough response.
| Which of these columns best describes your agency needs? Self-Quiz | |
|---|---|
|
A |
B |
| Will implement a methodology I specify. | Will give me insightful recommendations about what methodology will best meet our needs. |
| Will stick to my specifications for sample and quota requirements. | Will have strong recommendations about screening criteria and quotas based on relevant experience. |
| Will send me raw data as it becomes available. |
Will conduct various analyses on the data collected. |
| Will send me a factual report—with few or no recommendations. | Will write a detailed report, with recommendations. |
| Will give me the information I need to do a final project presentation to my internal audience and play a secondary role in that meeting (if any at all). | Will credibly present findings to an executive-level audience at our location. |
If your preferences lie mostly in column A, you should seek out and send your RFP to data collection firms, or MR freelancers. If your needs are more closely aligned with those in column B, you are seeking a full-service research agency.
This is an excerpt from the book, "How to Hire & Manage Market Research Agencies," which is available on Amazon. Published by Research Rockstar LLC. Copyright © by Kathryn Korostoff. All rights reserved.
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