Q. We have decided we need some research and I have been told to “get some proposals” for the project. How do I prepare for this? What do I need to tell the research companies I talk to?

A. Different companies may have different ways of going about this, but all of them (or at least the good ones!) will ask you a series of questions about what you need. Here are some basic questions I would probably ask:

• What is the situation? Why do you think you need research and why now? What will the research be used for?

• What are the questions you need to have answered? (This is not the survey questions — those come much later — these are the management/ product development/crisis situation questions you need to have the answers to.)

• Who can answer these questions? (Give all the detail you can about the target audience — this is key to developing the price estimate for the proposal)

• How many of these people are out there? (This is also called the incidence — the % of the population that is qualified as your target audience)

• Have you researched this question or this audience before? Were there any concerns or problems I should know about? (If my company is selected for a project and there is previous research, I will ask to see it…until then, it is useful to know if there have been previous discoveries that can be used or mishaps that can be avoided.)

• Do you have any unusual circumstances for this project? (Deadlines and money are always tight — are they tighter in this project for any reason?)

If you are seeking competitive proposals, you may want to write up the answers to these questions as a Request for Proposal (RFP) and send them along with your contact information to all of the companies you intend to solicit for bids.

Next Time — Evaluating Research Proposals

Do you have a comment or research-related question? Send it to me for future FAQs!