Recently a fellow LinkedIn member posed set of questions in a market research forum about what criteria might be used to select market research suppliers. Having responded to these questions there, I have revised and refined nine criteria that could be used to choose quantitative market research firms.
First, full disclosure: My business is as a market research supplier. I conduct both qualitative and quantitative market research studies for my clients. No doubt, the criteria that follow are influenced significantly by having been a supplier for some fifteen years.
I also have almost fifteen years’ experience as a purchaser of market research services, in positions of both market research management and product management for my employers, mostly notably one of largest telecommunications firms in the country. So I have much experience dealing with market research vendors from a client perspective.
In these positions, I developed several criteria and areas of inquiry for selecting market researchers for quantitative projects. (As a manager for a very large company, you might imagine how many solicitations for business I received.) Several of these criteria I learned to employ based on years in the school of hard experience.
All the criteria will be discussed in the next few posts.
Comments welcome.
Dr. Bob
