Nov. 9, 2020

Our Unique Approach to Original Research

In this episode, James Carbary shares his unique approach to original research.  

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Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.950 Welcome back to another solo episode of B two B Growth. My name is James 2 00:00:08.950 --> 00:00:12.810 Carberry on the founder, Sweet Fish Media and one of the co host of the 3 00:00:12.810 --> 00:00:17.800 show. And today I'm gonna be talking about original research. I've been 4 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:22.730 hearing guys like Andy Crest, Adina. Guys like Ian luck talk about the 5 00:00:22.730 --> 00:00:26.920 importance of original research for a long time. If I'm honest, I've wanted 6 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:31.040 to do it for a couple of years now. But the thought of sending out a survey toe 7 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:35.840 500 to 1000 people in our market and trying to get them to fill out that 8 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:42.030 survey just was not was not something I wanted to Dio. Quite frankly, I don't 9 00:00:42.030 --> 00:00:45.060 like filling out those surveys. I don't like being asked to fill out those 10 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:49.000 surveys. And so I started trying to think of what our different ways that 11 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.130 we could do this, and the approach that we ended up taking is really 12 00:00:54.130 --> 00:00:57.230 interesting. I haven't heard of anybody else doing it this way. And so I wanted 13 00:00:57.230 --> 00:01:00.980 to share it with all of you listening to this. And so instead of doing a 14 00:01:00.980 --> 00:01:08.090 survey, we actually decided to have people answer questions off the cuff. 15 00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:13.070 So instead of forcing people to answer a question in one of four ways or one 16 00:01:13.070 --> 00:01:18.310 of six ways like a typical survey response instead we said, Well, what if 17 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:24.150 we just ask them a question and then have them share their response on video? 18 00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:28.570 And so we can pick up nuances and different the why behind their answer, 19 00:01:28.570 --> 00:01:32.240 as opposed to just their answer? Now this is going to produce a much 20 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:37.340 different type of research than what you typically see from the folks that 21 00:01:37.340 --> 00:01:42.870 send out the surveys. But I think it's going to be incredibly helpful content 22 00:01:42.870 --> 00:01:49.100 not just for us, but for our entire market as well. And so we're reaching 23 00:01:49.100 --> 00:01:53.770 out to 100 B two B marketing leaders, and we're asking them to either send in 24 00:01:53.770 --> 00:01:58.240 videos or jump on a quick 15 minute zoom call with somebody from our team 25 00:01:58.250 --> 00:02:02.860 so that we can ask them a set of 15 questions. I'm going to read the 26 00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:07.120 questions that were going to be asking, or that we have been asking to give you 27 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:11.100 an idea of what we're collecting. So the first question is, what's your most 28 00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:15.540 successful marketing channel the next one is. What are the marketing KP eyes 29 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:19.740 that your CEO is looking at regularly? The next one is what is your marketing 30 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:23.310 team's biggest challenge, then what's your all time favorite book on 31 00:02:23.310 --> 00:02:27.140 marketing? What's a recent book on marketing that you've loved? What 32 00:02:27.140 --> 00:02:31.090 marketing podcast delivers the most value to you? Who's the marketing 33 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:35.160 influencer that you're most influenced by? Where do you hear from that 34 00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:39.860 influence or the most? What's the most overrated? B two B marketing trend. 35 00:02:40.340 --> 00:02:44.570 What's the most underrated B two B marketing tactic? If you could ask one 36 00:02:44.570 --> 00:02:49.440 question to 100 of your peers and BDB marketing leadership, what question 37 00:02:49.440 --> 00:02:52.800 would you ask them? That one is a gold mine, By the way, I want to come back 38 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:56.300 and talk about why that one is so strategic. This next one is. What kind 39 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:59.860 of data would you like to have access to as a B two B marketing leader? 40 00:03:00.640 --> 00:03:03.830 What's a commonly held belief in BB marketing that you passionately 41 00:03:03.830 --> 00:03:08.080 disagree with? What technology are you looking to add to your tech stack, if 42 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:12.220 any, and what's the last resource? You gave up your email address to get 43 00:03:12.220 --> 00:03:17.730 access to So these 15 questions we've now asked about 59 people. I do my 59th 44 00:03:17.730 --> 00:03:23.720 interview for this today, and it's been fascinating. Some people have very 45 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:27.670 similar answers, and then there's some questions where we get a different 46 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:33.320 response for every single person that we ask. But what we're planning to do 47 00:03:33.320 --> 00:03:37.940 with this content whenever we're done with 100 interviews, is we're planning 48 00:03:37.940 --> 00:03:43.180 to take time stamps for each person's answer to each question. And then we're 49 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:47.600 going to take all of the responses for a given question and roll it up into a 50 00:03:47.600 --> 00:03:52.240 single video so that video might be 30 minutes might be an hour, and we're 51 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:57.400 gonna have multiple people from our team, likely Dan Logan and myself watch 52 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:01.830 these videos, and we're gonna watch 100 B two B marketing leaders answer a 53 00:04:01.830 --> 00:04:05.770 single question over and over and over again. So we're gonna get the 54 00:04:05.770 --> 00:04:09.780 perspective of 100 different B two B marketing leaders answering the same 55 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:14.230 question in a single video. While we're watching that video, we're gonna be 56 00:04:14.230 --> 00:04:17.660 taking notes to ourselves. What are common themes? What do we hear? 57 00:04:17.660 --> 00:04:21.050 Multiple people saying over and over and over again. And then we're gonna 58 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:28.050 qualitatively extract insights from these videos so that we can start to 59 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:32.260 see, like, Okay, what? As we compare notes, what are you seeing? What I'm 60 00:04:32.260 --> 00:04:36.000 what? I'm gonna hear different things and what Logan's gonna hear. Dan's 61 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.270 gonna hear different things. That what? Then what I'm gonna here. And once we 62 00:04:40.270 --> 00:04:44.810 compile our list of insights, we're then going to start to develop points 63 00:04:44.810 --> 00:04:49.430 of view around these specific insights. And if you've heard us talk at all 64 00:04:49.430 --> 00:04:53.620 about our P. O. V discovery process, you know that having a point of view is 65 00:04:53.620 --> 00:04:56.560 critical. If you want your content to stand out, if you want people to 66 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:59.610 actually follow your thoughts, everybody wants to be a thought leader. 67 00:04:59.610 --> 00:05:04.220 But they don't want tohave thoughts. Well, doing original research gives you 68 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:08.620 these insights so that you can start to build content out around these specific 69 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:12.290 insights. Now there's other things we're gonna be able to do with this 70 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:15.560 information as well. We're gonna make sure that we're documenting the answers 71 00:05:15.560 --> 00:05:19.610 to every question, and we're gonna be able to do some original, some of what 72 00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:22.470 you would typically see in Original Research report. So we'll be able to 73 00:05:22.470 --> 00:05:27.420 say things like, You know, 57% of marketers are looking to invest. Maurin 74 00:05:27.420 --> 00:05:34.690 A B M, or 74% of marketers are the KP is that they're measured by our revenue 75 00:05:34.700 --> 00:05:39.530 focused. We're gonna be ableto come up with stats and things like that on. I'm 76 00:05:39.530 --> 00:05:42.660 really excited about that type of content that's going to come from this 77 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:47.540 original research. But what I think I'm more excited about is the insights that 78 00:05:47.540 --> 00:05:52.290 we as an organization are gonna be able to pull from asking 100 of our ideal 79 00:05:52.290 --> 00:05:54.770 buyers the same 15 questions. 80 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:00.160 Josh, what do you think is the most irritating thing for B two B buyers 81 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:03.660 right now, man? Logan, I love talking to you about this. You know that the 82 00:06:03.660 --> 00:06:08.250 number one challenge right now is that many customer facing teams in the B two 83 00:06:08.250 --> 00:06:12.860 B space right now are forcing their potential buyers too, by the way that 84 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:16.610 they want to sell. Buyers don't wanna buy that way right now. They wanna, by 85 00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:21.260 the way they want to buy. We need to enable those buyers. We call this buyer 86 00:06:21.260 --> 00:06:25.060 enablement at sales reach. We need to enable those buyers to make better 87 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:29.570 decisions quicker in a comfortable environment that's more personalized 88 00:06:29.570 --> 00:06:32.640 for them to move forward with that process. Dude, that's awesome. I 89 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:36.120 couldn't agree more. Since I've been using sales reach in my own sales 90 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:40.610 process, it's allowed me to really enable the buyer to move more quickly 91 00:06:40.610 --> 00:06:44.210 in really two ways. One, they don't have to download a bunch of attachments. 92 00:06:44.210 --> 00:06:48.440 Aiken send them toe one page with the proposal. Case studies Different 93 00:06:48.440 --> 00:06:52.190 resource is because, let's face it, the proposal is just one part of the sales 94 00:06:52.190 --> 00:06:56.330 conversation and probably Onley one sales enablement piece of content that 95 00:06:56.330 --> 00:07:00.370 you're sending so it makes it easier on them. And then the other thing is, you 96 00:07:00.370 --> 00:07:03.830 know, we're selling to our champions, and then we're making them have to re 97 00:07:03.830 --> 00:07:07.420 give our pitch to the entire buying committee. So one thing I do is put a 98 00:07:07.420 --> 00:07:11.710 custom 2 to 3 minute video on the top of my sales reach page that says, Hey, 99 00:07:11.710 --> 00:07:14.790 here's all the resource is tie it back to the conversation. Here's the 100 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:18.230 proposal. Let me know if you have any questions and it allows me to give a 101 00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:21.470 little bit of kind of a mini pitch to the rest of the buying committee. 102 00:07:21.640 --> 00:07:25.480 Introduce myself, which helps me build trust and credibility and helps the 103 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:30.310 buyer not have to repeat the entire pitch from scratch. So if anybody is 104 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:33.550 looking to do the same thing in their own sales process, I'd highly suggest 105 00:07:33.550 --> 00:07:36.790 they reach out to you and the team over its sales. Reach for anybody listening. 106 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:43.050 Just go to sales reach dot io to talk to Josh and the team. Now I want to go 107 00:07:43.050 --> 00:07:48.130 back to one of the questions that I said earlier, and that question is it 108 00:07:48.130 --> 00:07:53.000 was, I think, the 11th question that we ask. It's if you could ask one question 109 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.860 to 100 of your peers and BDB marketing leadership. What question would you ask 110 00:07:56.860 --> 00:08:02.630 them? And so if you start doing this style of original research with your 111 00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:07.120 prospective customers, make sure you ask some version of this question. 112 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.730 Obviously, you're not. You know, if you're listening to this, you might not 113 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:13.880 be selling to B two B marketing leaders like we are. But cater this question to 114 00:08:13.880 --> 00:08:19.180 your audience and ask them if you could ask one question to 100 of your peers. 115 00:08:19.190 --> 00:08:23.070 What question would you ask them? Because this essentially gives us 116 00:08:23.080 --> 00:08:29.100 unlimited fuel for Maura original research projects. So our first round 117 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:34.990 of research, we came up with these 15 questions ourselves. But our next round 118 00:08:34.990 --> 00:08:40.240 of research, I would argue, is going to be even better than the insights that 119 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:44.280 we pull from this the first round of research, because our next round of 120 00:08:44.280 --> 00:08:48.120 research is going to be driven by questions that the people that we asked 121 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:53.090 in our first round are actually curious about. So when we go and take some of 122 00:08:53.090 --> 00:08:57.340 those questions and we do our second round of research with them, we know 123 00:08:57.340 --> 00:09:01.870 that those the answers to those questions are going to be top of mind 124 00:09:01.880 --> 00:09:05.750 for our market because they actually told us what to ask. They told us what 125 00:09:05.750 --> 00:09:10.430 they were curious about. And so I think that every B two B company should be 126 00:09:10.430 --> 00:09:15.000 creating some sort of a system around creating original research whether you 127 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:18.650 do it the traditional way and you send out a survey and have people ask, you 128 00:09:18.650 --> 00:09:22.600 know, give you, you know, one of six different canned responses or if you're 129 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:26.970 doing it our way, and it's more more free flowing and you're asking people 130 00:09:26.980 --> 00:09:31.170 ah, set of questions and then collecting the responses. Either way, I 131 00:09:31.170 --> 00:09:36.910 think original research should be a huge, huge, huge part of your content 132 00:09:36.910 --> 00:09:41.210 marketing strategy. As you go into 2021 I think the insights that you're gonna 133 00:09:41.210 --> 00:09:46.610 pull from actually asking your ideal buyers questions that your team is 134 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:50.090 curious about questions that you think your market is going to be curious to 135 00:09:50.090 --> 00:09:55.640 know the answers to, and you get to be the central source off those insights. 136 00:09:55.650 --> 00:09:59.180 So if you have any questions about this, feel free to reach out James at sweet 137 00:09:59.180 --> 00:10:03.210 Fish media dot com. And if you're not already signed up for the B two B 138 00:10:03.210 --> 00:10:06.750 growth newsletter, make sure to go ahead and do that. It's just sweet fish 139 00:10:06.750 --> 00:10:11.900 media dot com slash newsletter. Go and sign up in every single email I sent 140 00:10:11.900 --> 00:10:15.560 about on Thursday mornings. I talk about something that you can do to love 141 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:20.130 your team. Well, toe, hone your craft, the craft of marketing and to grow your 142 00:10:20.130 --> 00:10:24.510 leadership. So if you are a B two B marketing leader, your leading a team 143 00:10:24.510 --> 00:10:28.840 of usually 3 to 10 people. This newsletter is something you're 144 00:10:28.850 --> 00:10:32.500 absolutely going toe want in your inbox again. We talked about how to love your 145 00:10:32.500 --> 00:10:37.090 team. Well, how to hone your craft, the craft of marketing and how to grow your 146 00:10:37.090 --> 00:10:42.450 leadership. So anyway, I love you people a ton. Thank you so much for 147 00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:46.070 listening for subscribing. Hope you have a fantastic day. 148 00:10:47.540 --> 00:10:51.520 Are you on Lincoln? That's a stupid question. Of course you're on LinkedIn 149 00:10:51.530 --> 00:10:56.060 here. Sweet fish. We've gone all in on the platform. Multiple people from our 150 00:10:56.060 --> 00:10:59.890 team are creating content there. Sometimes it's a funny gift for me. 151 00:10:59.900 --> 00:11:03.920 Other times it's a micro video or a slide deck, and sometimes it's just a 152 00:11:03.920 --> 00:11:08.010 regular all status update that shares their unique point of view on B two B 153 00:11:08.010 --> 00:11:12.230 marketing leadership or their job function. We're posting this content 154 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:16.530 through their personal profile, not our company page, and it would warm my 155 00:11:16.530 --> 00:11:21.250 heart and soul if you connected with each of our evangelists, will be adding 156 00:11:21.250 --> 00:11:25.920 Mawr down the road. But for now you should connect with Bill Reed, R C 00 157 00:11:25.930 --> 00:11:30.110 Kelsey Montgomery, our creative director. Dan Sanchez, our director of 158 00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:34.460 audience growth, Logan Lyles, our director of partnerships, and me, James 159 00:11:34.460 --> 00:11:38.050 Carberry. We're having a whole lot of fun on linked in pretty much every 160 00:11:38.050 --> 00:11:40.370 single day on. We'd love for you to be a part of it.