What if we managed our listening like we manage our other assets, the same way we manage our equipment and our people? What if we invested in it – appropriately – not too much and not too little?
Yes, you know your KPI’s. You are doing a great job monitoring those. I’m not talking about that.
I’m talking about the big questions you ask about your organization, your constituents, and your marketplace.
Questions like, “What does the world most need us to do? What are we doing that we shouldn’t? What do our customers buy us to do in their lives?”
How often do you ask those questions? How much do you invest in them? What do you do with the answers?
Or are you like one of my clients who once said, “I know I should be doing research, but it feels like such a luxury.”
Don’t be that person.
Be like Goldilocks. Ask the big questions. Invest in knowing the answers. Make decisions based on what you learn. Not too much, and not too little.
What’s too much? Spending even one dollar on research that doesn’t get used. Don’t ask questions if you aren’t willing to make the difficult changes based on the results.
What’s too little? Relying solely on your gut instinct. Research consistently shows that about 60% of executive decisions are wrong. Why? Because executives don’t consider all of the options. In other words, they don’t back up their gut instinct with research. Can you afford to be that wrong?
What do I advise my clients to spend on research?
There are two questions I ask when we are considering how much to invest in research.
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How much will it cost you to be wrong? If you are spending $100,000 on a new product design, use 10% of that for research.
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How much is the ROI of being right? If you think that new product will generate $1 million in sales over the next three years, spend 10% of that revenue on research.
The right investment is somewhere between those two numbers.
And like Goldilocks made her way through the three bear’s house one room at a time, don’t spend all of your research dollars at once, or on a single method. Spread it around.
The point is to test your gut instinct at every stage of the decision-making, and adjust your strategy as you go. Just like Goldilocks.
How are you investing in the big questions you are asking?