“Can you say that again?”.
“Yes,” I laughed, uncomfortable. I had wrecked this question on every single phone call. “If you could create an instagram account with only the content you wanted what would the content be? Basically, if you could only follow one instagram account what content would they share.”
“Oh, that’s a good question. I like that one,” my friend explained.
“Yeah, me too!” I laugh, only took till the last phone call to get it right, “Think I’ll keep it.”
For any market research call I have four main goals:
Appreciate
Listen
Clarify
Pitch (next weeks blog post will go into this in depth)
APPRECIATE
The first business call I remember being on was a business owner calling me to get my feedback and answer my questions. He was two minutes late and apologized profusely. I felt like the most special person on the planet, that a business owner like him would apologize for being late and care that much about my time. After many calls for myself and my clients, I’m positive that saying thank you and telling someone why you chose them for the phone call can’t be over-rated.
LISTEN
More than anything this is a reminder to NOT TALK. When you’re on a call with a like-minded person you want to talk - at least I do. It’s just so fun! But this call is supposed to be short and about them. “Listen” is your cue to limit talking to asking questions (wondering what it takes to craft an effective question? Check this out!) as much as possible.
CLARITY
Follow-up questions are key for clarity, especially when it comes to wording. When you’re on a phone call with someone you’re not just looking for answers and ideas, you’re actually looking for precise wording. What phrases do they use? What words do they use to describe their pain and their solutions? Don’t be afraid to go off script to follow an interesting tangent or a thought they seem to be passionate about.
PITCH
Being on the phone allows you to take all their answers and suggest something that you think would suit them. To be fair, I had already had an idea in the back of my head for re-branding, but I was coming to these calls with the open-ness that it might get pulled out from under me.
In order to make a successful pitch you need to:
Take good notes
Find the common thread
Communicate a clear idea (it doesn’t have to be a finished idea, just clear)
For the rest of this post, we’re gonna talk about good notes and finding the common thread. Next week we’ll discuss pitching and I’ll even let you vote on a piece of the rebranding!
TAKING GOOD NOTES
Taking good notes on a market research call boils down to writing down as much as possible and recording their words. It’s easy to want to convert what you’re hearing into words you would use or a summary easy to remember, but you miss out on their lingo, which is critical!
FIND THE COMMON THREAD
Here’s a summary of the questions I asked, answers I received, and the final decision (selecting categories)...
How often would you like to receive that content? About what time?
Daily
Frequent and consistent, but not all the time.
Three times a week
Here’s my formula:
“What my audience wants” + “What I want” + “What my business needs” = Xs/week you post
Obviously, my audience leans towards the side of not-daily. In this rebrand I have made a personal commitment to excellence: only posting content that is worth reading. From a growth and business perspective, visibility is required. So, while my experience as a social media manager strongly points to posting daily this formula is leading me to post 3Xs a week. Does that make sense?
Do you want to hear about other brands to follow and engage with?
Everyone said, “yes.” One friend even asked for inspiring stories about people pursuing their passions!
What do you want to do better in your life? & What encouragement do you most want to hear?
One of my friends emailed me her answers and she summarized everyone’s answers so well I’m just gonna quote her, “I love practical encouragement on how to manage time well, draw closer to God, and live a full and creative life.” (Liked this thought? Here's more).
PRACTICING GRACE: After the first phone call I realized that these questions weren’t answer-off-the-top-of-your-head kind of questions. My friends wanted to give me good answers, so they appreciated receiving them about a day before so they could think through them before chatting. Some of them even emailed be back their response so I have a direct record of their wording. Sidenote: sending questions ahead of time isn’t a normal practice for me because I want the call to be the least-work possible for those helping me out.
I’ve decided to post three times and week, so I’m choosing three categories to give direction to my posts and structure to my brand (this will also give me flexibility to add event, life, and product updates as we grow).
Devotion
“Rebrand content” (make sure you catch {Week 3} Road to Rebranding)
Inspiration/Other brands to follow
Here’s what I hope you walk away with: Go with the flow. Get on the phone. Listen like it’s your job. Laugh at yourself when you mess up a question. Follow the tangents. Find the common threads. Take expert advice then align it with your goals and what feels right for you.
Instead of being intimidated by market research, be inspired by it as a journey of discovery of ideas and how to serve your audience with more depth and intention.
If you have a question I didn’t cover, please leave it in the comments!