We permanently make decisions in order to advance towards our goals, or to resolve situations, and take the actions that we consider to be the most appropriate in this regard.
In business, businessmen, entrepreneurs, directors and managers do it permanently.
The determining factor in the case is the successes and successes that arise from it, establishing the true benefit or cost of each of them, according to the results obtained by its implementation.
It is obvious and reasonable that such decisions are based on experience, on the domain of the variables that intervene and on the instinct developed up to the present and that surely led them to the level they currently occupy.
The risk that is usually incurred occurs when key and objective information is not timely available at the time of starting the process of analyzing each situation.
In business matters, and in such circumstances, the lack of objective information is usually replaced exclusively by the individual perceptions of those who must make decisions, thus generating unwanted circumstances and even difficult to return.
The first foundation of The Professional Selling refers to "Always get prospects and satisfied customers." However, when decisions are made where subjectivity prevails over objectivity, the results obtained are significantly uncertain and even irreversible.
When an entrepreneur is consulted about how he appreciates the satisfaction he provides with his product or service to customers and prospects in the highly competitive market in which he operates, he generally responds with his perceptions.
Expressions such as: "We are leaders in quality of service"; "Our positioning in the market is based on a long history of years where quality is our standard", etc., are some of the most common phrases.
In psychology there is a term that clearly defines this phenomenon, called "projection." Through this mechanism, a person transfers their beliefs and perceptions to the situation and people who intervene in each situation.
Even if he is the most successful and prominent CEO or Commercial Director of the company, these "designer" expressions do not impose satisfaction on customers and market prospects by their mere enunciation.
The only truth in La Venta Profesional is in the clear and express manifestation of current and potential clients. Only in this way can it be established whether what is decided by and for them has really been beneficial in appreciable terms.
Furthermore, when verifying the contrasting objective reality with respect to what is believed and can be projected, it not only allows correcting undesirable deviations caused and repeated for a certain time due to the lack of the most objective feedback that can be counted on. It also provides information about how you can further differentiate yourself from your immediate competitors in the niche markets in which you operate.
Market research applied to the issue of customer satisfaction is the key to this mystery because it provides valuable information for making correct and timely decisions in business.
Technological advances
The appropriate combination of the different advances in computing, telecommunications and software makes it possible to make accessible today, what until a few months ago would have been impossible for a microenterprise, SME and even for several large companies.
Today, market research can be carried out from a PC with an Internet connection, using free sophisticated Internet programs and very simple to use to develop, implement and obtain market research data.
The most important and valuable thing in this is the irreplaceable intervention of the professional specialist in market research. He is the one who designs each of the appropriate questions that will allow obtaining the most objective and accurate information from the customers or users surveyed.
It also collaborates in the correct interpretation of the data obtained.
But the field work destined to personally ask the questions with each of the recipients of the research, can be carried out through a call by e-mail or telephone.
By having the data of the target customers to be surveyed in our database, an invitation can be sent by e-mail or by phone to respond to the survey published on a specific website.
When they go to the site indicated (link) they will find the form that has been enabled for them to respond from their own PC. And the processing of the data obtained can be viewed "live and direct" as well as imported into common spreadsheets (ASCII, EXCEL or XML) to save it on the disk itself or forward it to others interested in closely following the results..
In this way, what before seemed out of budget to be carried out, today technology provides it to us in a more accessible and dynamic way.
With these effective resources, what is the point of taking unnecessary risks with an uncertain destination, when the objective and necessary information can be obtained to make the best business decisions?
© Copyright 2008, by Martín E. Heller
