Why Engage an Outside Marketing Research Supplier?

Outsourcing has proved a valuable resource in many industries for delivering on short-term, specialized projects without stretching internal staff to the breaking point. Marketing research is certainly no exception.

Even companies with internal research staff frequently need to use outside experts to get answers. Reasons vary, but generally revolve around:

• Scope of the project (large sample or multi-region research)
• Overload of internal staff
• Avoiding bias
• Requiring expertise beyond what you or your staff can do internally (extensive modeling or specialized methodologies)

While the outsourcing option makes plenty of theoretical sense, the true key to a successful project completion is still a question of staffing. Hiring the wrong outsourced research firm can be as disastrous as hiring the wrong employee – and often more expensive.

With some planning and advance work, however, hiring an outside vendor for certain projects both makes for better research and better business.

Set Expectations First

1. Familiar: Either from previous professional contacts or through referrals
   
   
   • Have they done prior work for your company?
   • Do they meet deadlines?
   • Do they provide quality deliverables?
     
2. Able to provide one main point of contact
   
   
   It can be annoying as well as detrimental to the project if you are passed to three different people every time you call.
   
3. Willing to stick to the budget
   
4. Willing to disagree
   
   
   You do not want 'yes-men' who tell you only what you want to hear. The answers you want the research to generate may not be what the results show, and it's better to find that out before the big product launch.

Unless your project is one that is ongoing, such as customer satisfaction or advertising tracking, have several vendors submit bids. This will not only enable you to consider pricing options, but it often can provide you with insights about different methodologies you could use.

The cheapest proposal is not always the best option. Likewise, an expensive one does not always mean that the supplier is a research guru.

You should also bear in mind that some suppliers have strengths in certain areas and not in others. Try to get a picture of their specialty so you can select the vendors that best fit your project.