Sales is essentially a human-to-human process that often happens through written or spoken communication. In the absence of automation, this can make data-driven strategies hard for sales teams to embrace since it requires a continued effort to manually enter data into the CRM (without human error). The resulting data quality issues also mean it’s hard to build the kind of predictive models that are available to other departments in the organization. But there’s hope since market research methods like secondary research, competitive intelligence, and qualitative interviews can be used to reach quick data wins and identify leads that convert at higher rates and higher values This Lecture Will: -TEACH THE POWER OF MARKET RESEARCH FOR SALES. -SHOW SECONDARY & QUALITATIVE METHODS FOR SALES TEAMS. -EXPLAIN HOW TO USE BEHAVIORAL DATA TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS. You can watch this lecture here: https://youtu.be/ZY3_jEXsc9E

1. Dawn of the Data Age Lecture Series
Interpreting Data Like a Pro

2. Hi. I’m Luciano Pesci…
Founder & CEO, EMPERITAS
● Team of economists and data scientists delivering bi-weekly Customer Lifetime Value
intelligence so our clients can beat their competitors for the best customers.
Founder & Director, Utah Community Research Group, Univ. of Utah
● Teach microeconomics, data science, applied research, & American economic history.
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3. Today’s Lecture Outline
● Teach the power of market research for sales.
● Show secondary & qualitative methods for sales teams.
● Explain how to use behavioral data to increase conversions.
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4. 4Power of Market Research

5. Market Research Perceptions
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● The perception is that market research is boring.
○ Couldn’t be more wrong.
● Provides an experimental environment where you
can learn about the world in explicit detail.

6. The Power Source
● Market research gives you access to
information you don’t otherwise have.
● Could be information everyone has
access to (public) or it could be
something only you know (proprietary).
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7. Public Information
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● Information that’s available to anyone through:
○ Government
○ Academia, Think Tanks, & Journals
○ News Media & Public Domain (social & slack channels)
● It isn’t info you create; you just consume it.
○ Best way to get this info is secondary research.

8. Proprietary Information
● Information you generate and don’t sell.
○ Typically done through observation, surveys, or
qualitative interviews.
● Qualitative research is fast & efficient for
uncovering large trends and focusing
quantitative research (like surveys).
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9. Systematized*
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● When completing secondary research
& qualitative interviews you need a system.
● Any system, no matter how flawed,
is better than no system at all.
*The Agile Research System Explained: goo.gl/yzfkuX

10. 10Secondary & Qualitative Methods

11. Secondary Research
● There’s a mountain of existing public
knowledge to help your research.
● Focus your attention on learning:
○ Market trends including your competitor’s
product, price, messaging, & channel mix
○ Customer chatter (reviews, social, etc)
○ Similar research that’s been done in the past
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*Product Manager Secondary Research Sources: goo.gl/CY53fg

12. Qualitative Interviews*
● This should be a natural conversation
between two humans, not a survey.
● Prepare topics & questions, but probe
and be willing to go off script.**
○ A $50 incentive helps participation rates.
○ Solicitation takes a lot of time.
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*Customer Conversations (00:09:05): youtu.be/CO_JlBDZgNs
**Product Manager Conversation Script: goo.gl/69YWVw

13. Interviews By Sales Stages
Interviews can be done for each of the sales
stages outlined in the last lecture*:
● Lead Qualification
● Outreach
● Customizing Pitch
● Nurturing Lost Deals
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*Data-Drive Better Sales Conversions: goo.gl/GZLdtk

14. Qualification Interviews
● These need to be done by your team, or a highly
qualified & reliable 3rd-party partner.
● Should be hyper-focused on getting info that
predicts a deal will close (and at what value):
○ Clear (time-constrained) need & budget
○ Try selling a “power hour” in place of doing an interview*
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*Dennis Yu’s Power Hour: blitzmetrics.com/powerhour-dennis-yu/

15. Outreach Interviews
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● Your customer fits a predictable pattern,
find others like them to interview.
○ They may question your intentions, solve this by
using a 3rd-party to conduct these interviews.
● Learn their product preferences, price
sensitivity, messaging preferences, and
the channel mix that reaches them.

16. Observing the Pitching
● This is something you need to do yourself.
○ Can’t use a 3rd-party for this one.
● Unlike the other stages where you’d ask
questions, you just observe and report back.
○ Watching for behavioral signals like body language.
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17. Nurture Interviews
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● Not every deal will close, understanding why one
failed is extremely important information to collect.
○ An equivalent later in the customer journey is when
an existing customer (aka former sale) churns out.
● Has to be done by a 3rd-party to get
accurate information, and should
be very short & very focused.

18. 18Using Behavioral Data

19. Behavioral Motivations
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● Signaling is real & most communication in nonverbal.
○ Yet most sales data only captures written/spoken text.
● Behavioral approaches have been well validated
by extensive economic experimentation.*
○ It’s because humans are creatures of habit, and the
world is predictable (to an extent given our knowledge).**
*The Power of Being Watched: goo.gl/kzd6BS
**The Master Algorithm: youtu.be/B8J4uefCQMc

20. The Circular Flow Approach
● Economics can be boiled down to 2 groups:
○ Customers (households)
○ Companies (firms)
● Circular flow shows the connections in the
market and gives you information targets:
○ Customers (all types), competitors, & the marketplace.
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21. Customer Personas
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● Representative Agents = Personas
○ The most important is the Pareto Persona*
because of Customer Lifetime Value.**
● Using data to create customer personas
is the focus of the next lecture.***
*Pareto Principle (00:04:16): youtu.be/pyNrxUB-tBc
**Calculating Your CLV: goo.gl/rpu7iV
***Lecture Registration: emperitas.com/lecture

22. Gaming With Intelligence
● Competitive intelligence (CI) is the information
you can legally collect about your competitors.*
○ Without feeling gross about yourself inside.
● The reason this information is so powerful is
because you can use it for game theory.
○ One of the “best” uses is to create best response curves.**
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*Free & Paid Tools for Digital Marketing CI: goo.gl/j5F9RE
**Best Response Curves: goo.gl/ijkw6W

23. 23What We Covered Today

24. What We Covered Today...
● The power of market research for sales.
● Secondary & qualitative methods for sales teams.
● How to use behavioral data to increase conversions.
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25. 25At The Next Lecture...

26. Thursday April 12th, 2018
emperitas.com/lecture