Earlier this summer we fielded our annual corporate researcher survey – the results of which are compiled in this year’s Corporate Research Report – and one of the topics that drew the most, shall we say, passionate responses from Quirk’s client-side readers was their relationship to research vendors.
An article in the report goes into greater detail on some of the broader themes expressed in the answers to our open-ended questions about client-vendor interactions but some clear and specific guidelines emerged for vendors who want to secure new business and/or maintain long-term client relationships.
To be sure, respondents seem to understand that being a vendor isn’t easy. Clients can be demanding, have time and budget constraints and work in dangerous corporate minefields – all factors that strain the vendor/client relationship. But that didn’t stop them from opening up about some of the problems they have experienced.
Based on findings from our survey, here are some dos and don’ts for vendors, as expressed by these edited verbatims:
Do: Take the time to understand the client’s business.
“Need to have a more in-depth relationship and partnership to really understand the business needs and how to communicate them effectively. Project management is the better part of the relationship.”
“We are niche business in a larger traditional media marketplace, which too is evolving and it just takes time and patience to understand our business model to effectively consult.”
“Most often, vendors do not understand our business well enough to provide truly actionable insights and recommendations. Ultimately, my team has to rework the report before it can be shared.”
Do: Communicate clearly and effectively.
“Lack of communication is also an issue. If I have to reach out several times to you to get information that should be provided naturally, that is an issue. You need to return calls within the day, at least to acknowledge the call and that you are working on an answer.”
“I often receive reports that go deep into the weeds with presenting data, but the key findings are missing or too hard to find.”
“The biggest problem with some vendor deliverables we've received is often that their reports are basically data dumps with no compelling story or real insights. What is touted as ‘insights’ ends up really just a series of data points on a large number of slides without any cohesive or coherent story. We have experienced this on a number of occasions and have had to completely re-create their reports and start from scratch. We once received 160-page reports with nothing but data but no insights whatsoever. It was incredibly frustrating.”
“I've only encountered issues with one vendor and that was a communication issue. The sales person for the project talked too much and didn't want to listen. The project managers were not good at communicating; they would send messages out to the entire team and then get overwhelmed/confused with responses instead of allowing everything to be filtered through me.”
“Report-writing continues to be an ongoing issue. We rarely encounter research suppliers capable of writing insightful analyses and reports that can be shared ‘turnkey’ at an executive level in our organization. Substantial editing is typically the norm. While detailed reports are appropriate for research staff and select internal partners, the real challenge is the ability to extract the essence and present it in a short, easily digestible way to company executives who are not deep into the specifics.”
“There are bound to be issues on projects. I prefer vendors who communicate regularly during a project, whether there is a problem or not. I especially don't like when a vendor doesn't seem to believe me when I suggest there may be something wrong.”
Do: Take the time to understand the project’s needs.
“My most recent disappointment was with a survey a supplier had written that was completely missing the whole point and goal of the project. The supplier explained that it was an iterative process and we would make a few revisions, etc., which I always understand to be the case. But the first draft showed me that they didn't even understand our initial conversation. Please pay attention when I tell you about our business problem, what we need and our goals for the project.”
“If a vendor does not look at themselves as trying to partner with us, they will inevitably not learn our business well enough to deliver. The best vendor relationships are those where we both see our roles as partners. In these cases, there is very rarely overpromising, a lack of business understanding or being handed off to low-level staff.”
“Survey platform vendors mainly, but also some freelance analysts, tend to assume our needs couldn't be that much different from everyone else's. They are; we are in a peculiar niche. It is hard to get what we need when vendors only partially understand our needs. This results in false starts, rework and workarounds that are very inefficient.”
“A lot of vendors try to sell us what they have rather than what we need. I've also found vendors are not familiar with all the tools that are available, even ones they could take advantage of.”
Do: Make sure the quality of the data you deliver is top-notch.
“The biggest (recent) issue we had with a vendor is that we kept getting incorrect data. There is nothing worse than having to worry about each and every number of the report.”
“Data integrity issues are by far the most serious, since you have nothing without good data. Between suspect online respondents and poorly-trained telephone interviewers, it's a major problem.”
“I find too many mistakes in the reports – typos, inconsistent info in tracked data, etc. I'm not their quality-control. It should be pristine by the time it reaches me.”
Don’t: Over-promise and under-deliver.
“I had a vendor that did not manage his team and budget well and came back and asked for additional money. Wasn't our problem, in my opinion.”
“Only wanting to speak with upper management (people who aren't involved in the day-to-day operations of the project); over-promising tools and analysis we will have access to; not having 'research' people on the projects – dealing with project managers who do not understand research or statistics.”
“Unfortunately, we recently have seen an increase in over-promising and under-delivery as well amongst vendors, especially those trying to get our business for the first time.”
“Over-promising and under-delivering is a huge issue. If you are going to promise things, there is no substitute for delivering on those promises. I can't tell you how often this happens on recruits.”
Don’t: Use high-level sales execs to get the client’s business and then pass the actual work to low-level staff.
“We had major issues with a big name firm who seemed to give us a very inexperienced team. While we were able to salvage the project, it was painful.”
“Looking to minimize their costs, they substitute junior people and fail to deliver meaningful insights.”
“Awarded project due to good senior management at supplier – but they disappeared once the project got going.”
“Many times, a senior person sells projects and junior staff does the work and problems with data integrity and reporting arise. I have a vendor I work with now for data collection on a tracking project. They have done this study for probably 4-5 years with us and I still find errors in the reporting.”
“The vendor was working to train a junior-level employee and I realize everyone has to start somewhere but this person was too casual in how they treated us and our business – came across as not taking the work seriously and early on missed a few deadlines and offered excuses and in some cases, didn't respond in a timely fashion. Having worked on the supplier side and having trained hundreds of people, I did my best to work with them but ultimately had to request a personnel change on the project team.”
Not all bad
The news was not all bad. Several respondents said they’ve had few problems with their vendors and, to the contrary, have enjoyed solid working relationships with those on the supplier side. When issues crop up, they either get dealt with or both parties choose to move on. One researcher summed it up well with this observation:
“Haven't really had these problems in quite some time. Vendors don't get to make these mistakes very often before they become former partners.”