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Converting Technology to Wealth Workshop Module 2 Market Research

Converting Technology to Wealth Workshop Module 2 Market Research. Define the Opportunity. You don’t know your customer as well as you think you do Ready, fire, aim is a sure way to find surprises, usually not good surprises

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Converting Technology to Wealth Workshop Module 2 Market Research

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  1. Converting Technology to Wealth Workshop Module 2 Market Research

  2. Define the Opportunity • You don’t know your customer as well as you think you do • Ready, fire, aim is a sure way to find surprises, usually not good surprises • Market validation is a continuous process based in direct connections to your customers and partners

  3. Validate the Marketplace • Market validation • Know your customer • Know what is important to the customer • Explore the pain • Envision the solution • Find the quality influencers, get the product right • Establish credibility

  4. Research Stages • Project definition • Project execution • Project analysis • Project results dissemination

  5. Project Definition • Understand the internal dynamics of the stakeholders • Understand the goal of the research • Understand what decision is being made • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the company • Understand the commercialization options

  6. Project Definition Exercise (30 minutes) • Define the goals of the research • List key questions to be answered or key information that needs to be gathered • Try to guess who will know or where you will be able to find the information sought

  7. From Lab To Business Market Research Methods

  8. Gathering Information • Primary Research • Internal Primary Research • External Primary Research • Secondary Data Collection • Internal Sources • External Private Sources • External Government Sources

  9. Primary Market Research • Creates data through interviews and other direct feedback mechanisms • Addresses the specific technology and information needs • Relies on the skill of the interviewer or questionnaire design • Delivers real-time feedback to the researcher

  10. Listen to the Voice of the Customer • Understand what is really important • Understand customer motivations • Understand the buying cycle and how decisions are made • Provide a sanity check to the internal perceptions of the technology

  11. Getting Feedback on Benefits • Expected level of quality of the product • Linear performance quality improvements may not be enough • Exciter qualities can be the real sellers • may not be the obvious ones to the technology developer • may become expected qualities over time

  12. Internal Primary Sources • Interview the inventor or analogue • Brainstorm with other internal technical experts • Brainstorm with the sales staff that have direct interaction with customers • Beta test the technology with internal customers

  13. Internal Primary Research • Benefits • Interviewees have a keen understanding of the technology and its possibilities • Research is fast and inexpensive • Researcher gains an understanding of how the technology fits into the internal goals and product mix • Drawbacks • Can be myopic and rely on unfounded market assumptions

  14. External Primary Sources • Collecting data directly from the marketplace through: • Phone Surveys • Mail Surveys • E-mail and Newsgroups • Focus Groups • In-depth Customer Interviews

  15. In-Depth Interview Advantages • Provides background data on the marketplace • Answers specific questions • Ensures the right experts are contacted • Examines corporate buying behavior • Identifies industry trends

  16. In-Depth Interview Advantages • Follows a theme with one respondent from beginning to end • Has a flexible structure that can be modified as learning occurs • Topics can be expanded upon • Identifies other industry players to contact

  17. Goals of In-Depth Interviewing • Use open ended questions and conversations to uncover: • perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes • Understand the motivating buying factors • Qualitative data that informs the quantitative research

  18. Interviewer Qualities • Good interviewing skills • good listening, clear communication • An eye for detail without getting lost in the trees • Ability to appear genuinely interested • Interest in the subject and the interview results

  19. Learn the Customer’s Language • Never assume you know what they are talking about • Question every nebulous term • Don’t be afraid of asking the obvious • They are the experts, acknowledge that and use it to your advantage

  20. Types of Responders • Yeasayers - only tell you the good • Ask them to pin down why it is good • What would a benefit mean to them? • Naysayers - only tell you the bad • Ask why a benefit or feature is not important • Ask for suggestions on how to make it better • Use them to identify barriers and improvements to the technology

  21. Telephone Interviewing • It can be the right tool when: • interviewing busy executives • your interview population is geographically dispersed • interviewing people for their knowledge • speed is important • You hear the voice of the customer

  22. Primary Market Research Tips • Techniques to get responses • Emphasize benefit to responders of their input • Know who you want to talk to • Offer pre-market use of the technology • Offer beneficial items for responding • Allow time for the research to be done • Conversations are good

  23. Elevator Pitches for Market Research

  24. The Introduction and Call to Action • Who are you • Where are you from, what are you doing • What are you talking about • SHORT technology description • Why do they want to talk to you • Benefit to the interviewee • Why do you want to talk to the interviewee • What expertise did you seek out • Call to action • Opening question

  25. Good Example – End User My name is Brett Cornwell and I have been working with the State of Texas’ Bioenergy initiatives. Texas A&M has developed a line of high biomass sorghums that can produce 15 to 20 dry tons of biomass per acre. Because Iogen is the leading cellulosic converter in North America, I would like to understand what Iogen looks for in a feedstock. As part of our effort to optimize the feedstock for the converter, would you share the general parameters of an acceptable feedstock in terms of moisture content and chemical composition?

  26. Bad Example – End User My name is Brett Cornwell, I am the Director of Commercialization Services for the Texas A&M University System. One of the Texas A&M components, the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, has developed a line of high biomass sorghums that produce between 15 and 20 dry tons of biomass per acre. The sorghums are brown mid-rib sorghums that have been bred so that they are photoperiod sensitive, meaning that they do not flower until the day length is shorter than 12 hours.

  27. Bad Example Continued These traits give good standability to the crop and ensure that during the growing season the crop puts all of its energy into producing biomass. In addition, the high biomass sorghums are drought tolerant so they can be grown with 25-50% of the water requirements for corn. I believe that this will be the premiere dedicated bioenergy crop for cellulosic ethanol and I would like to get some information from Iogen about your current feedstock requirements to see if high biomass sorghum could replace those feedstocks. What is the moisture content and chemical composition of your current feedstock?

  28. Example – Potential Licensee My name is Brett Cornwell and I work in the Office of Technology Commercialization at Texas A&M. Texas A&M has developed and patented a line of high biomass sorghums that are available for license. They can produce 15 to 20 dry tons of biomass per acre. The genome is completely mapped and a number of interesting traits such as drought and disease resistance have been isolated. As part of our effort to understand the cellulosic market, I am talking to a number of seed companies. Because Monsanto is a leading seed company in biofuels, I would like to understand what Monsanto sees as the need and opportunity for cellulosic ethanol. Does Monsanto see dedicated bioenergy crops as a growth area?

  29. Example – Technical Expert My name is Brett Cornwell and I have been working with Texas A&M researchers in understanding the logistics chain for a cellulosic ethanol feedstock. Texas A&M has developed a line of high biomass sorghums that can produce 45 to 60 fresh tons of biomass per acre. Our challenge is developing a harvest and storage system to deal with fresh biomass. I read your paper on cellulosic logistic systems and would like to tap into your and INL’s expertise in this field. Texas A&M is designing field trials this fall for harvest and storage of the high biomass sorghums. How would you suggest we design the trials and would you be willing to test some of our samples?

  30. Example - Supplier My name is Brett Cornwell and I work at Texas A&M on our bioenergy initiative. Luis Ribera, your local extension agent, gave me your name as a leading grower in the area. We have developed a drought resistant high biomass sorghum that could be used as an ethanol feedstock. Our goal is to develop crops that make money for Texas farmers. To that end, would you help me understand the kind of net returns per acre that would be enticing to you as a grower to plant a new bioenergy crop?

  31. Elevator Pitches • Short • Targeted • Make sure the benefit of them talking to you is in the pitch • Have a call to action as a door opener

  32. Ask Open-Ended Questions • Encourage speaker to talk at length rather than enable a “yes” or “no” answer • Who • What • When • Where • Why • Decrease the probability of asking leading questions

  33. Summarize and Paraphrase • Briefly rephrase the information given by the speaker in the listener’s own words • Shows you are listening and that you understand what the speaker is saying • Helps you make sure you do understand • Allows speaker to expand, but does not suggest the listener agrees • Gives the listener time to comprehendwhat was said

  34. Comparators: Better/Worst Under/Over Slow/Fast Early/Late Ahead/Behind Less/More Example: “Our software is better.” Response: “Better compared to what?” More Clarifying Needed!

  35. External Primary Market Research • Benefits • Tailored to company needs • Real time feedback • Answers specific questions • Feedback on specific products/services • Drawbacks • Can be expensive and time consuming • Strategy/product direction may be publicized

  36. Secondary Market Research • Collects information that already exists • Provides comprehensive data that can be further analyzed • Provides industry quantitative data • Provides general industry data rather than data specific to the technology or business proposition being researched • Provides historical or trending data

  37. Internal Secondary Sources • Mine past internal research reports • Collect secondary sources that are already in-house • purchased reports and subscription data • customer lists and contacts • collected competitor information • reports and directories of associations that the company belongs to

  38. Internal Secondary Research • Benefits • Fast and inexpensive • Internal secondary sources could uncover good internal primary sources • Information may already be tailored to the company or product line • Drawbacks • Data may be out of date • Sole reliance on past reports may compound past biases

  39. External Secondary Private Sources • Collect research reports that already exist on the web or in libraries • Purchase existing research reports from market research firms • Gather compiled company data, e.g. Dunn&Bradstreet (US and Europe) • Gather trade group compiled data • Visit competitor Web sites • Mine university libraries for sources

  40. Fee Databases • General sources can provide clearinghouses • Dialog, www.dialog.com • OneSource, www.onesource.com • Specific industry sources can provide difficult to find or unique information • www.vlsiresearch.com • www.imshealth.com

  41. Web Surfing Shortcuts • Use compiled Web resource lists from universities • Use compiled Web resource lists from organizations • http://computer.org/internet/links.htm • Use private search tools • http://www.delphion.com

  42. External Secondary Private Research • Benefits • May be inexpensive • Accumulates quantitative data • Gives a macro view of the market • May give insight into competitors’ market and financial positions • May answer specific questions about market share, demographics, and buying habits

  43. External Secondary Private Research • Drawbacks • Data can be out of date • Data categories may be overly broad • Information usually cannot address specific technology questions • The most interesting data can be expensive

  44. Surfing Tips • Develop a search plan • Who else would be interested in the information • If an agency regulates it, they probably collect information on it • If you think the information should exist, it probably does

  45. Searching Tips • Slow down and read what you find • Go to the source when you find interesting information • Pick up on new buzzwords and phrases and search using them • Bookmark when you find good sources

  46. External Secondary Government Sources • Trade bureaus for international trade assistance • Census Bureau for business and company demographic information • Federal agencies for data and reports on relevant industries • Patent databases for competitive technology information

  47. Trade Bureau Secondary Data • US International Trade Administration • Excellent source of industry information from across the globe • Country and region primers on business practices and opportunities • http://www.ita.doc.gov/

  48. Departments of Statistics • Source for demographic and business statistical information • Source for hundreds of compiled industry reports • Business reports are more prevalent than population reports • Most publications are free and on the Internet

  49. Individual Agencies • More than 70 US federal agencies collect data and issue reports in relevant industries • Identify agency interest areas and search the agency sites • Use the US federal clearinghouse site of http://www.fedstats.gov/

  50. Patent Office • Search for competitive technologies using advanced search capabilities • Download full text patents with pictures • Search the trademark database • Link to other nations’ patent sites • Link to international patent treaties

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