Q. There aren’t many people in the group of customers I want to talk to — only a few dozen. I would like to get the kind of information you get with Focus Groups from them, but they are scattered around the country. What would you suggest?

A. A. I have had several clients with similar situations. They want to talk to upper management level executives in a few selected companies or industries, or they want to talk to physicians who have a very narrow specialty, for example.

We have used two approaches successfully:

In-person or telephone one-on-one interviews — These are by-appointment interviews with a highly experienced interviewer (I do these myself for my clients) who has had intensive backgrounding in the subject being explored. A letter, fax or e-mail request would usually be Step 1, followed by a call with the potential respondent’s scheduler (assistant, secretary, office manager, etc.).

Focus Groups at National or International Conferences — Your customers may attend national or international conferences. These conferences can be an ideal place for Focus Groups. The potential respondents are there, they are not in their offices and they feel freer to come to and participate in the groups. They also tend to enjoy being with other participants who share their problems, interests, concerns, etc. (we carefully avoid having direct competitors in these sessions). This type of Focus Groups requires extensive pre-planning and the arrangements are usually made several months in advance.

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