MarcyPhelps.com

C-Suite Insights

Looking for insights from top executives to help guide your decisions? Several organizations conduct regular surveys of C-level executives that address the trends, issues and challenges they face - and how they're dealing with them.

Following is a list of some of these C-suite insights. Many thanks to fellow info-pros June Boyle, Amelia Kassel, and Pat Zang for their contributions.

• IBM Global CEO Study
• PwC Annual Global CEO Survey
• NYSE Euronext CEO Report
• The Conference Board CEO Confidence Survey
• Chief Executive Magazine CEO Confidence Index
• Business Roundtable CEO Economic Outlook Survey
• Deloitte CFO Signals: Quarterly CFO Survey
• Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey
• Cornell Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) Chief Human Resource Officer Survey
• Gartner CIO Survey
• TechAmerica Federal CIO Survey
• The CMO Survey
• IBM Global CMO Study

Do you have any C-level studies to add to the list?

Connect with Marcy

Graphic facilitation for visualizing real-time information

At the recent BMA conference in Chicago, I had the opportunity to experience first hand an information visualization technique that was new to me - graphic facilitation. During the panel session, Persuasive Technololgy: The Best B2B Marketer May Be a Device, artist/graphic facilitator Brandy Agerbeck captured the conversation in this mural:

After the conference, gyro, the company that brought in Brandy to capture this session, turned the mural into a an image file that they emailed to all attendees and posted to LinkedIn.

While it was facinating to watch Brandy create this beautiful work, like any type of information graphic, it's essential that it passes the "Why bother?" test. All graphics need a purpose, and why would you use something like this, instead of converying your message in some other way? In this situation, the info graphic definitely passed the test, and it was a win-win situation for all.

As a conference attendee, I appreciated something besides PowerPoint to capture the knowledge shared by a great panel of top B2B marketers. For gyro, it was a nice piece of content marketing for post-conference follow up. Much nicer than those impersonal - and useless - postcards I usually receive from sponsors and vendors!

Have you ever been a part of a group that used graphic facilitation for mapping conversations? I'd love to learn more about its implementation.

Google Reader Alternatives

Many people are looking for an alternative to Google Reader, which will be discontinued on July 1st. As someone who 1) manages feeds on a variety of topics of interest to me and my clients and 2) has never used Google Reader for finding and managing my RSS feeds, I offer my favorite Google Reader replacements:

Use a browser add-on - I like opening a browser and seeing my Sage feeds displayed in a pane on the left side of the window. I'm much more likely to stay up-to-date when everything is just a click away.

Download an app - On my iPad, I use Flipboard. I love how it helps me discover new content and the nice magazine format.

Create some pipes - OK, I admit that I'm geek-inclined, so I enjoy the programming and visualization aspects of Yahoo! Pipes. But, be sure to watch the How to Build a Pipe in Just Minutes video, because - as they say on the website - "Pipes only sound hard."

Try Twitter- Consider bypassing RSS completely and using dashboards, lists, and other tools for trapping and organizing valuable Twitter content. I use HootSuite on my laptop, phone, and iPad and find it's a great way to manage multiple feeds.

What do you use for capturing and managing RSS feeds?

This originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of ResearchNOTES, a monthly email bulletin with my top tips for online research.

5 Market Research Myths

After 13 years in the research business, I've compiled my list of what I consider the top myths about market research:

#1: It's all about my customers
Mention market research, and people immediately think about focus groups, opinion polls, and other consumer-oriented research. For a full view of your market, take a holistic approach and focus on what I call the 3 Cs: customers, including those who buy and those who don't; competitors; and category, the industries or segments in which you, your competitors, and your customers operate.

#2: It's just for B2C companies
While firms that sell consumer products and services have a long history of delving into customer motivation, preferences, etc., successful B2B companies know that learning from market research assures better outcomes for strategic planning, product development, marketing, sales, and more.

#3: Once is enough
Market research is not an event, it's a process. Especially in a world where change is constant and exponential, it's essential to continually stay up-to-date on changes in the marketplace. Running a business requires that we anticipate the future, and ongoing research provides a much better foundation for those predictions than what you think you know.

#4: My sales team does the market research
While there's much to be learned from the people whose jobs involve constant interaction with your customers and products, these insights provide just a piece of the big picture. Market research requires a multi-faceted approach from a variety of viewpoints. And, really - don't you occasionally tell your sales reps a little white lie or two?

#5: I can't afford market research
Not everyone has a marketing department at their disposal or the budget for high-priced custom research and syndicated reports. While it definitely takes time and must be considered a high-priority project, you don't have to spend a fortune in order to make better decisions.

What market research myths can you add to the list?

Add Impact to Your Insights With a Simple Word Table

Sometimes, it's not about what you find - it's all in how you present it.

Yes, the sad truth in the research business is that information is now a commodity. It's easy to find for just about anyone, and clients no longer marvel about how much of it you've found. More information? Specialized information? Forget about it - they're drowning in it.

But tell your clients what the information means to them, or - better yet, show them what it means - and you've transformed yourself from redundant to a valuable member of the decision-making team.

For example, for a recent project I gathered information about the different sides to an issue that's very important to my client and his organization. Honestly, I don't think I provided much in my report that he didn't already know. It's a topic he's researched quite a bit on his own, and he regularly monitors the press and other sources for updates. On top of that, not much had been published about this issue, and - due to the short time line for the project - we were able to conduct just a few phone interviews with industry experts.

When it came time to analyze and report the results of my research, I wondered what else I could bring to this project. I had already created my quick summaries and executive summary, but - given what I knew about my client's goals and how he would be using this research - I realized that it wasn't enough.

What this client really needed was a clear picture of all the arguments for and against the two proposed industry changes - something that would highlight the key points and make it easy for him to make his case for a third approach to the problem.

I decided to take the lists of pros and cons that I had compiled and put them into a simple Word table:

[Yes, I I know that Word offers lots of options for designing cool-looking tables. A simple table works best when presenting a complicated issue.]

The outcome? My client found the information in my report so useful, he sent it to several members of his team and flagged it as a must-read.

By displaying the lists side-by-side, and by using a visual format rather than a long list of bullets, the information I'd found became something more than a commodity - and it added some much-needed impact to my insights.

What tools do you use to add impact to your research?

Transform Information into Insights With a Simple Word Table

Sometimes, it's not about the information you find - it's about how you present it.

Yes, the sad truth in the research business is that information is now a commodity. It's easy to find for just about anyone, and clients no longer marvel about how much of it you've found. More information? Specialized information? Forget about it - they're drowning in it. But tell your client what the information means to them - or better yet, show them what it means - and you've transformed yourself from redundant to a valuable part of the decision-making team.

For example, for a recent project I gathered information about the different sides to an issue that's very important to my client and his organization. Honestly, I don't think that I provided much in my report that he didn't already know. It's a topic he's already researched on his own, and he regularly monitors the press and other sources for updates. On top of that, not much had been published about this topic, and - because of the short time line for the project, we were only able to conduct a few phone interviews with industry experts.

When it came time to analyze and report the results of my research, I wondered what else I could bring to this project. I had already created my articles summaries and executive summary, but - given what I knew about his goals and how he would be using this research - I realized that it wasn't enough.

What this client really needed was a clear picture of all the arguments for and against the two proposed industry changes - something that would make it easier for him make his case for a different approach to the problem.

So I took the lists of pros and cons that I had compiles and created a simple Word table. In this way, my client didn't have to pull those key point out of the report on his own.

I know that Word offers lots of options for designing tables, and don't think that it's worth putting in too much time and effort into something that might distort or distract from your message. A simple table presents a clear picture.

By displaying the two lists side-by-side, and by using a visual format rather than a long list of bullets, information became something more than a commodity or something your client could gather from Google -  and it adds impact to your insights.

Market Research on a Budget

Large corporations generally use in-house research analysts and customized reports from the big research firms. But what happens when you or your client don't have those kinds of resources for market research? What if you can't afford that $5,000 packaged report you found on the web, and you're not sure if - even at that price - it will answer all your questions?

Since I work with clients with all types of budgets, I've developed a strategy for gathering what I call "market research on a budget." Time is money, though, so I alway watch the clock and use a combination of trusted free and low-cost resources.

Here's how I approach market research to get the most value for as little time and expense as possible:

Step 1: Google it

I use Google - or any general-purpose search engine - for finding leads to sources, rather than answers. These searches help me identify press releases about market research reports, who's covering this industry, and some recent articles written by the experts:

"topic phrase" ("market research" OR "research report" OR "market study")

"topic phrase" (forecast OR trends OR outlook OR statistics)

It's easy to get lost following the bread-crumb trail, so I always set a time limit and stick to it.

Step 2: Use another search engine

I like Biznar, a business-focused search engine that sorts results by topics, authors, publications, publishers, and dates. I use the same searches that I used in Google, and I always get different results. Of course, there's always Bing, but - again - watch the clock. It's easy to spend too much time on web searching.

Step 3: Check some specialized sites

Reportlinker.com offers 2 million free documents and 400,000 fee-based market research reports and business news articles from the 1990s through the present. ReportBuyer.com provides free searching and fee-based documents only. When I need free research and data in handy charts and graphs, I head to Marketing Charts. 

Step 4: Tap into some government resources

I find the U.S. International Trade Administration's website handy for data and analysis on 16 global industries. Another great resource, from the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, organizes their market reports by industry and region. 

Step 5: Use low-cost options

Even when you're doing market research on a budget , it often pays to use fee-based sources. I look for low-cost resources that offer pay-as-you-go options, short-term subscriptions, and even free trials. As a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals, I receive special discounts from several information providers, including Factiva.com, Hoover's, and more.

What strategies and resources do you use for market research on a budget?

Five questions to ask about your survey questions

Question development is the most important - and time-intensive - part of survey research. After drafting a list of questions for your survey, that's the time to start asking the hard questions - of yourself. To help refine your list and make sure you get the answers you need, ask these five questions about each of your questions:

Why am I asking this? - Clarify what you expect to learn from this question. What kinds of responses would you like to see?

What am I going to do with it? - If you aren't going to act on what you learn, don't bother asking the question. It's rude to waste people's time.

Is it relevant? - Unless the question ties in with your over-arching goal, it shouldn't be included on your survey.

Is there a better way to answer this question? - Perhaps the question is better suited for another collection method, such as a quick poll through your LinkedIn group, some one-on-one interviews, or even a different survey.

Is this the best way to ask the question? - Decide whether multiple-choice or open-ended questions would provide the best insights. Make sure the wording is clear and the type of question matches the kind of answer you need (e.g., ranking vs. rating scale).

Invest some time in this five-question exercise - and you'll be surprised how much it helps streamline the question-development process.

The most important question in survey research

When creating a new survey, the most important question you will ask is the very first question. The most important question doesn't show up on the survey, and it's the one you ask of yourself - not the recipients.The most important question in survey research is this:

What's my over-arching goal?

The emphasis is on over-arching, since we often tend to think of the reasons why we're sending out a survey - but not about the ultimate goal. For example, I recently worked with my client, a volunteer coordinator for a large, urban hospital, and started the initial consultation with this question. Here's our exchange:

Me: What is your over-arching goal for this survey?

Client: We need to gather insights that will help with creating new resources for our volunteers.

Me: Why do you need to to that?

Client: To help our volunteers succeed.

Me: But why do you really need to do that?

Client: Then they'll feel better about what they do, and they'll stay with us longer.

Me: So your over-arching goal is to increase volunteer retention?

Client: Yes, it is.

So, why do I care whether my client's ultimate goal is to create new resources, help volunteers succeed, or increase retention rates? Mostly because it adds much-needed clarity to the project, which allows us to focus on what's important and not limit our options. My client really needed to learn what motivates volunteers to stay, and they needed to think beyond just a resource library.

Becoming clear about your ultimate goal is a valuable tool for question development, determining the survey recipients, the final analysis  - and for accomplishing your over-arching goals.

My new favorite sources for business information

For the upcoming Searchers Academy workshop in Washington DC, I've just updated my Best Business Sources presentation. Since it's really difficult to select the best business sources, I usually include some of my old favorites (like FRED), along with several "new" favorites. Here are some of my new favorite sources for business information that I'll be covering in my talk:

From consumer research firm Nielsen, Newswire offers a collection of press releases about the company's large-scale surveys and reports on media trends. These always include useful - and free - market data and insights. I find it easiest to drill down to what I need by clicking the All icon in the top right corner of the page. You can then browse the press releases by date and category, or search by keyword.

Reports from industry analysts used to be available only to those with big research budgets. However, more and more analysts are taking to the social web to share their insights. For example, Deloitte Insights for CIOs provides lots of valuable information relevant to all types of business professionals, covering topics such as security and privacy, mobile and wireless, big data, analytics, and more. I especially like their 2013 Industry Outlook reports, with industry leaders discussing top trends, issues, and challenges.

For information about mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, venture capital, and other investment-related information, try The New York Times' DealBook. Also check out Reuters.com: Deals. They cover the same topics, and - as an added feature - they organize their articles by industry and region.

What are your new favorite sources for business information?

This originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of ResearchNOTES, a monthly email bulletin with my top tips for online research.

7 Common survey mistakes - and how to avoid them

With the availability of SurveyMonkey and other easy-to-use tools for designing surveys and collecting and analyzing responses, it's no surprise that more and more companies are using surveys for gathering customer insights.

Unfortunately, in the rush to send out a survey, people often make one or more of these 7 common mistakes:

Moving too fast - It takes time to create a survey that will get you the answers you need. It takes time to test, revise, re-test, and revise again if necessary. You'll also need time to create messages that inspire people to take your survey and questions that motivate them to complete it. And you'll need time to review and analyze the results - and decide what to do with them. Make sure to plan for every step.

Not starting with the end in mind - Before putting any work into the design of the survey, software you're using, or even timing of the project, think about how you'll be reporting the results. Imagine the story you want to tell. Do you need to compare customer segments? Do you want to identify trends over time? Confirm what you think you already know? It's the only way to create questions that match your ultimate needs.

Not checking what you already know - Once you draft your questions, think about whether or not any of this information is already on hand. Perhaps you've surveyed another group a short time ago, or your sales team routinely collects similar insights. And don't forget to check your CRM for any data that might be worthwhile.

Trying to teach - A survey is meant for collecting information from the people whose opinions matter most to you. Always design your questions for listening, and use other methods for training or for promoting your point of view.

Asking too many questions - Just because you have someone's attention, it doesn't mean they've given you permission to ask every question that's on your mind. Stay focused, and only ask what you need to know right now and what you can't gather elsewhere.

Using too many open-ended questions - We want people to speak freely, but think of the nightmare involved with analyzing all that free text. Design questions in a way that enables insights, and include at most one question for open-ended responses. Make sure to use a word cloud or other specialized tool for analyzing text.

Tainting the waters - Consider the power of words when constructing your questions. Be careful that you're not inadvertently creating a bias or leading respondents to a particular answer. For example, instead of asking "What did you enjoy most?" - or even worse - "What did you enjoy least?," try just asking "Do you have any additional feedback?". I promise you will still learn what people liked or didn't like.

The tools may have simplified the process, but make sure you take time to do your survey right. This may be your only chance to ask those burning questions and get the answers you need.

With the availability of Survey Monkey and other easy-to-use tools for designing surveys and collecting and

analyzing responses, it's no surprise that more and more companies are using surveys for gathering customer

insights.

Unfortunately, in the rush to send out a survey people often make one or more of these 7 common mistakes:

Moving too fast - It takes time to create a survey that will get you the answers you need. It takes time to test,

revise, re-test, and revise again if necessary. You'll also need time to create messages that inspire people to take

your survey and questions that motivate them to complete it. And you'll need time to review and analyze the results

- and decide what to do with them.

Not starting with the end in mind - Before putting your efforts into the design of the survey, the software you're

using, or even timing of the project, think about how you'll be reporting the results. Imagine the story you want to

tell. Do you need to compare customer segments? Do you want to identify trends over time? Confirm what you think you

know? It's the only way to create questions that match your needs.

Not checking what you already know - Once you draft your questions, think about whether or not any of this

information is already on hand. Perhaps you've surveyed another group a short time ago, or your sales teamroutinely

collects similar insights. And don't forget to check your CRM for any data that can be analyzed.

Trying to teach - A survey is meant for collecting information from the people whose opinions matter most to you.

Always design your questions for listening, and use other methods for training or promoting your point of view.

Asking too many questions - Just because you have someone's attention, it doesn't mean they've given you permission

to ask every question that's on your mind. Stay focused, and only aks what you need to know right now and what you

can't gather elsewhere.

Using too many open-ended questions - We want people to speak freely, but think of the nightmare involved with

analyzing all that free text. Design questions in a way that enables insights, and include at most one question for

open-ended responses. Make sure to use a word cloud or other specialized tool for analyzing text.

Tainting the waters - Consider the power of words when constructing your questions. Be careful that you're not

inadvertantly creating a bias or leading respondents to a particular answer. For example, instead of asking "What

did you enjoy most?" - or even worse - "What did you enjoy least?," try just asking "Do you have any additional

feedback?". I promise you will still learn what people liked or didn't like.

The tools may have simplified the process, but make sure you take time to do your survey right. This may be your

only chance to ask those burning questions.