Strategic and Tactical Research and Implementation Studies

A clear understanding of what looms on the horizon is critical for today’s businesses, allowing them to make the strategic and tactical decisions necessary to:

Identify the competitive advantage or niche.
Defend against competitor attacks.
Understand and fulfill unmet customer needs.
Learn about alternative products or improvements to existing products in development.

ECC’s mission is to provide our clients with the information necessary to see the horizon and to assist them in preparing for it. What sets us apart is our unmatched ability to obtain in-depth business-to-business interviews with the following types of respondents:

Competitors
Customers and Prospects
Consultants
Trade Association Personnel
Editors and Reporters
Government Officials and Administrators

Our projects fall in the following broad categories:

MARKET ASSESSMENT

Clients interested in growing their business may consider introducing a new product, attracting a new type of customer, or entering a new geographical market. We can begin by performing secondary research about the growth opportunity–current and projected demographics and available information about the market and its “players.”

We can also interview management level personnel at these “players,” which may include such respondents as competitors, prospective customers, and industry experts. These individuals know the market, and our interviews can obtain strategic plans of competitors, pricing and purchasing issues, “hot buttons” for success, and unmet needs.

MARKET OR COMPETITOR INTELLIGENCE

As an outside, third party, we can legally and ethically interview our clients’ competitors about the issues they care about most. These interviews are conducted without misrepresentation of any kind, and the identity of the client never revealed at any time, unless the client requests us to do so.

SALES PROSPECT RESEARCH/SALES PRE-QUALIFICATION

Our skilled interviewers can determine what the client needs to focus on in order to obtain sales, exploring such areas as:

Product needs
Service needs
Pricing issues
Desired sales process
Strengths and weaknesses of current provider
Strengths and weaknesses of other vendors

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

We can anonymously interview customers to determine their opinion about clients, competitors, and the other suppliers. These interviews can vary from a simple checklist of specific concerns to in-depth probing about especially important issues.

COMPETITIVE SITUATION/LOST SALES ANALYSIS

When clients find themselves in a bidding situation or having just lost an important account, a third party can anonymously determine the answers to key questions, such as:

What criteria is used by the decision-maker to determine the winning bid?
Who makes the decision?
How can our client improve its position now or next time?

OUR RESEARCHERS

East Coast Consulting Group consists of project managers, researchers, and interviewers from a broad variety of backgrounds and technical skill sets. We find that interviews work best if the interviewer “speak the same language” as the respondent. Therefore we carefully select the interviewers best suited for each assignment.

Most interviewers have considerable experience in interviewing. Many have chosen to work from home due to life changes, such as caring for young children. They bring excellent technical skills to the interview process.

We encourage clients to attend at least one telephone conference with the interviewers present, so that the interviewers have the opportunity to directly listen to the client’s objectives.