Business Analytics for Sales and Marketing Managers: How to Compete in the Information Age

GROWTH CAMPAIGNS BASED ON QUESTIONNAIRE DATA AND WORKSHOPS

If you used the decision tree in the beginning of this chapter (see Exhibit 5.1), you were directed to this section because you do not have a useful data foundation. You should now consider which of the different analytical approaches presented in this chapter you would prefer if you could get data from a DW. When you have identified this, the next thing you should consider is whether you can recreate the same or a similar data foundation via a survey and make the presented analysis? If yes, you should consider doing so. If not, you are likely to be better off interviewing subject matter experts, skipping the statistical analysis and going straight for the conclusions. At the end of the day, the source of your decision support is not as important as the fact that it is right.

Chapter 4 discusses what you should consider when designing a questionnaire and presents an example of a questionnaire that is useful primarily in industries selling complex products in a competitive market. That chapter also presents some good advice on how to manage a workshop with subject matter experts, which can help you identify a needs-based segmentation model, possibly avoiding the need for a survey or possibly as preparation for one.

If you choose to launch a questionnaire and use some of the analytical techniques presented in this chapter to sort the data, you should read the section about what to consider when creating a questionnaire in ...