Market Research Recruiting Hiring Advice: Filling Market Research Jobs

Methods of Consumer Research and Reasons It is Important for Your Business

As a business owner, you may have heard about consumer research. But have you given it a lot of thought? Learning what your customers are looking for is a necessary part of your business. And since that is such a large part of any business, you shouldn’t be surprised that there are numerous people searching for consumer research jobs.

Consumer Research – Reasons It is Important for Your Business

Consumer Research: What is It?

When you take the time to identify the different behaviors, preferences, and even attitudes of your target audience, you are conducting consumer research. Most businesses perform this task, so they can improve their products. However, it is also done to ensure that proper marketing strategies are being implemented. After all, there is no sense in considering marketing to a group of people who end up having no interest in your products!

Methods of Consumer Research

There are many methods of conducting consumer research. You may think you can do it all on your own, but most methods take quite a bit of time. Therefore, it is best to post that you have consumer research jobs available within your company. This way you can have an expert do the research and the can simply relay the results to you.

Interviews

Interviews can be lengthy and time-consuming. Many consumer research jobs are available when these interviews are being completed for those reasons. It is best to have specific questions to ask before any interviews begin. This will ensure you collect the same type of information from everyone that is interviewed.

Surveys

Surveys are easy to set up and implement. Once you send the survey out, or post it online, you won’t need to do anything until it is time to go over the results. A survey can be more time-consuming if you decide to call people individually and have them answer your questions.

Most people will post surveys on social media, but they can be sent through email or placed on websites or apps as well. Some surveys are even sent through the mail.

Analytics

When you decide to look at your analytics for consumer research, you will be checking to see exactly what all your customers are doing. You can learn a lot from your analytics. You can see which products people are clicking on the most and how much time they are spending on your pages.

Reasons Consumer Research is Important for Your Business

We could probably sit here for hours sharing why consumer research is a necessary part of your business. We won’t though. Instead, we will focus on the main reasons why consumer research is important for your business

You always want your customers to feel like they are number one in your business and consumer research does just that. Finding out exactly what your customers are looking for is the best, and easiest, way to ensure you are giving them everything they are searching for.

• Always Puts Your Customers First

You always want your customers to feel like they are number one in your business and consumer research does just that. Finding out exactly what your customers are looking for is the best, and easiest, way to ensure you are giving them everything they are searching for.

• Determines Your Target Audience

When you decide to create a marketing strategy, it is always much easier when you know who your target audience is. A little consumer research may conclude that older people are not looking for your products, but younger generations are. Once you know your target audience, you can focus your marketing efforts on them and avoid the others.

• Keeps Risks Low

No business likes to take risks, especially ones that will cost the company a lot of money. If you are considering creating a new product, or changing a current product, you can conduct consumer research first to see how your customers will react. If you get positive feedback, you will know it is a risk your business should take. And if the feedback is negative, the risks may be too high for you to justify what you want to do.

• Determines Your Target Audience

When you decide to create a marketing strategy, it is always much easier when you know who your target audience is. A little consumer research may conclude that older people are not looking for your products, but younger generations are. Once you know your target audience, you can focus your marketing efforts on them and avoid the others.

• Keeps Your Business Focused

It is so easy to go in tangents when you run a business. You spend hours trying to find ways to move your company forward and every idea seems better than the last. It doesn’t always matter that those new ideas might not be as good as they sound. When you do consumer research, it can help you stay focused on your goals with the path you are currently taking.

• Keeps Your Business Relevant

In the year 2021, there is probably very little need for typewriters since most people have computers or tablets in their homes. A company that continues to focus on typewriters will find they are no longer relevant in the writing industry. Yes, some people may still use them, but not enough to keep a company in business. If you want your business to stay relevant, you must make sure you are keeping up with what consumers are looking for. The easiest way to do this is by conducting consumer research. This research will allow you to stay relevant with your customers and continue to thrive as a business.

These are the methods of consumer research and reasons why it is important for your business. You should never discount the wealth of information this type of research will provide your business. And since there are so many people qualified to do consumer research jobs, you will always have someone to do the detailed work for you. That way, you can easily focus on the results and keep your business moving forward.

We at Reeve & Associates continue to innovate to provide creative recruitment ideas like our cost-saving Budget Recruiting. Give us a call and let's talk about Budget Recruiting: 203.968-2773. Relax and let us do the heavily lifting.

Interview Regarding the State of MR Hiring and Staffing

Phil Reeve is interviewed by Bob Lederer of RFL Communications to discuss the current state of staffing and hiring in the market research industry. Phil shares his insights and suggestions for hiring companies and researchers searching for career opportunities.

https://rflonline.com/2019/05/15/phil-reeve-on-mid-2019-state-of-jobs-mr-hiring-rbdr/

7 Steps to Earn What You're Really Worth

As the interview process winds down, an offer of employment may be extended. How you react to the offer can impact your future with your new employer or your reputation within the industry. Based upon decades of matching companies and candidates, we suggest the following to help you earn what you're worth.

1. Know your real market value before beginning the job search process. Be objective and use current industry salary statistics from reputable sources. It's vital that your expectations are reasonable and based upon your experience, skills and geographic location. Your value is not what you want or what you need; it is based upon what other professionals with the same skillsets are currently earning.
2. Only seek jobs that match your salary expectations. Even if you're the best candidate a company has ever seen, they rarely (never) extend offers beyond their stated salary range. In fact, you should expect companies will extend offers toward the lower end of their salary range.
3. Allow your recruiter to pre-negotiate on your behalf. Share your salary requirements with them and allow this information to help shape the offer before it is written. Once an offer is written it is more difficult to change numbers.
4. Express gratitude to whomever extends the offer; they are inviting you to join their team.
5. Take a breath and review the offer in detail. Discuss the offer with your family and then contact your recruiter. Share any concerns or shortcomings -- and identify what you'll need to accept the offer. Your recruiter can help structure (including salary, bonus, benefits and vacation time) a deal that works for you -- preserving your relationship with your future boss. Then, they will "get to work" negotiating on your behalf with the hiring manager.
6. Make a definitive decision. When the details of the final offer have been determined, decide if the job is for you. There is no harm in saying no -- but say so quickly. If accepting, do that even more quickly to build excitement with your new employer.
7. Build skills and acquire experience. Working hard and looking toward the future is the best way to increase your value and your earning potential.

If you have questions about your next career step or any of our jobs, please contact me.

Calculate the Cost of Delayed Hiring

If you're trying to staff or re-staff your MR organization, time is money.

• The sooner you hire a Sales Executive, the sooner your revenue and profits can grow.
• And if you're looking to hire a Research Manager, the sooner you fill the position the sooner you can reallocate workloads and support additional business -- generating more profit.

Too often organizations focus upon the expenditures of hiring rather than the true cost of delayed hiring -- which is foregone profit or opportunity.

Example 1: Sales Executive - Growing the Topline

• Consider an MR Account Executive with an annual quota of $1.2MM or $100K per month.
• If the position remains unfilled for six months, the organization loses $330K in sales and $270K in profit given a traditional ramp-up period.
• With a base salary of $120K and a 25% recruiting fee, the cost of hiring is $30K.

Conclusion: It's a wise business decision to spend $30K to earn $270K.

Example 2: Research Manager - Supporting Clients
The impact of speedy hires is even more dramatic when the candidate "hits the ground running" requiring little time to meet their target workload.

• In the example below, each month the Research Manager position remains unfilled costs the organization $26.7K.
• Over the course of one year the organization would miss the opportunity to support $320K in additional business.

Conclusion: Quickly locating and hiring the right person can relieve overworked professionals and support growth.

Interactive Calculator
We encourage you to enter your own numbers within our interactive calculator so you can see how delays impact your company.
 

The True Cost of Delayed Hiring

Just as money has a time value defined as interest, the impact of delayed hiring is your company’s opportunity cost. Whether it’s borrowing money or hiring, the least costly approach is to pay off the loan or staff the position as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, most companies focus upon the staffing expense (salary, sign-on bonuses, recruiting fee, etc.) rather than the benefit the candidate brings to the organization—which is why companies seek to hire in the first place.

Consider a company’s need to hire a Market Research Director:

• Objective: Support additional or keep $480,000 worth of client activity—or $40,000 per month
• Expense: Annual salary of $100,000—or $8,333 per month

Every month the position remains unfilled, the staff continues to be stretched—forgoing additional tasks.  So, the monthly opportunity cost is $40,000 minus the unpaid salary of $8,333 or $31,667 per month. The impact is compounded every month the job remains unfilled.

Even in just three months, the lost opportunity associated with an unfilled position dwarfs any additional salary, sign-on bonus or recruiting fee. As we typically fill jobs in two months, we save our clients tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars on each hire.