Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to tell a client: “I know you know the answer to this question, but we really need to hear it from the customer to see what they actually know and understand.”
In fact, in my experience, this has been the single, largest impediment to market research when it comes to “selling” the service to a client. They just don’t want to do it because they don’t think they’ll learn anything new. The fact is, usually, just the opposite.
But let’s take a look at the objection and figure out the best way to make your case:
First off, clients are often in the position of having all the answers when it comes to dealing with account managers – especially new ones. Decisions and requests made by the client often go unchallenged early on in the relationship which may be respectful but often creates a bias that can work against the AE later on in the relationship.
The best thing to do is to concentrate your questioning in three specific areas – at least early on in the relationship with a new client. Keep them focused on the three areas where they have the most influence and, as you’ll soon see, concern: project scope, budget and deadlines. If a new account manager is to get off on the right foot with a client, the AE has got to become a “credible expert” when it comes to making and keeping promises related to what work will be done, when it will be done and how much things will cost.
These three things are vitally important to a client for one, simple reason. Failure in any of these areas reflects directly on his or her ability to manage the account manager and the agency. These are, in effect, personal performance standards. Failure to perform could be cause for termination – of the agency, the AE or the client!
As an account manager, you have to establish your credentials and credibility in these areas first before you can start digging in to the issues that will lead to opportunities for insightful market research that could make a difference to your client’s brand.
Once the client is comfortable with your ability to perform on the things that matter most to their job security, you’ll find you have an opportunity to start thinking “proactively” about their business. And that, eventually, leads to a realization that both the client and the agency need to know more about the client’s customer than what is readily available at the client’s office.
In fact, it’s during this second step – getting to know the customer –where an account manager can create a long-term bond with a client and make the move from “supplier” to “counselor.”
Start first by investing some time and effort of your own into getting to know the people your client needs to convince. If you’re working on a consumer product, use the product yourself or visit the retail locations where the product is sold. Once you’ve seen the kind of people who use the product, find some friends, family or neighbors who “fit” the apparent demographic of the customer. Ask them why they would consider using that product, what it does for them, how it makes them feel.
Similar insights can be gathered on B2B clients, as well. You might not be able to spend time with members of the target market, but you can certainly call trade associations and magazines and talk to people who are intimately involved with the business. Take notes and try to put yourself in their position. Try to understand and identify the possible obstacles that might stand in your client’s way when they try to convince the customer to buy.
These insights, no matter how crude, are vitally important to your long-standing relationship with the client. Because you took the effort to get to know their customer, your stock will go up with 99+% of all clients. (The other 1%, we’ll deal with in another blog post.) The quality of the insights you share will have an effect on the client, too.
If you’ve been an astute, observant student, you are bound to make some observations that are valuable to the client. This breaks the ice so you can enter the third, and final, piece of your argument in favor of market research.
As soon as the client realizes that you might know more about his customer than he does, his attitude will change (usually for the better). If you can show how this knowledge can be used to create both a manageable project (where you have already established your credibility) and an expected result (to determine “return” on the marketing investment), you’ll be a star.
More importantly, you’ll be at a place where both you and your client have a better understanding of the value and importance of market research.