When should I consider engaging with Silicon Valley Research?
We provide strategic market research services to help inform decisions across a company's entire product cycle, as illustrated in the flow chart below:
How much time and resources will we have to devote to Silicon Valley Group when we engage them?
- Pre-engagement preparation so we come prepared at project kick-off to ask you ALL the questions we need to minimize future interruptions
- Quick to market project on-time and on-budget completions. Data to help you move forward with decisions is time critical, so we move with break-neck speed while still maintaining the highest standards on data accuracy and integrity.
- Final reports and workshop style presentations that include not just data, but strategic implications to your firm and recommendations conveyed via ready-to-implement actionable strategy maps.
Most project cycles range from three to four weeks for quick market landscape studies to six to eight weeks for more typical client engagements. Some contacts for brand tracking longitudinal studies and competitive monitoring services are annual engagements.
What are the end deliverables of an engagement and what happens after completion?
- A 45 minute executive encore presentation summarizing top must impacting and actionable findings from our research for your leadership team
- A two-hour working session with your implementation team approximately 2 weeks after completion at your request to provide additional context to assist the team in implementing the recommendations contained in our strategy map(s)
- Up to six months of "query support" after project completion allowing you and your team members to ask questions as they implement the findings
- "Reboot" session if needed. In case there is a personnel change, we will present the data to new hires or newly assigned personal to provide them with an orientation to the data so they may continue with implementation.
What types of people at your end will work on our engagements with you?
Are there any hidden charges beyond the fees you charge for a client engagement?
Never! Once the scope of the work has been agreed to and signed off on, we will stick to the contract for both budget and timing. Some things may be more challenging than anticipated but we understand client-side budgeting processes and realities. Once you have secured budget for an engagement with us, we will not put you in a tough spot to have to provision for additional funds.
Is Silicon Valley Research Group an outsourcing service to replace our internal customer data gathering function?
Is engaging you an alternative to hiring a consultant?
We do not do with typical consultants do. We are much more cost effective than the major consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG and Bain Consulting. If you are a large enterprise undertaking radical change to how you operate with far-reaching global implications, then the McKinsey's of the world or a consultant with deep roots in your industry are the right fit for you to provide advisory and guidance. They may or may not conduct formal research. If they do, they will typically farm that portion out to firms like ours (we have been engaged by consulting firms and agencies many times in the past) or as we have seen typically, the data they use to form recommendations is typically based on talking to a few people typically your employees and select customers. While this type of input is useful and may also create feeling of inclusivity among employees and key customers, we do not believe it is either sufficient or unbiased enough for strategic decisions with serious business impacts and consequences.
Who are the ultimate users of the data you will provide to us as part of an engagement?
- The stakeholder team directly responsible for implementing the initiative(s) that we have been engaged to support
- The management or leadership team directly responsible for the results of the initiative and their impacts on business objectives or KPIs they impact
- Last, but not least, the executive leadership team. To this end, we offer a high-level executive briefing presentation as a standard feature of our client engagements. These encore sessions are delivered approximately one to two weeks after completion of the fo client engagement.
How do I ensure I get the highest and best return from my investment with you?
Our company's bedrock principle is to always deliver more in value than what is called for; and ensure our clients are getting more in value from our work than what they invested. To do this successfully, we place the burden on our shoulders. However, our 20 years of experience and results follow-up conversations with clients had revealed that there are client-side practices that ensure that return on investment from engaging us is maximized. These include:
- Ensuring timely provision of information we need from you to proceed
- Involvement from day one of the implementation team. We do our best to facilitate this by being "engagement leaders", providing timely and frequent progress updates and ensuring all client stakeholders feel included and engaged
- Keeping leadership team members apprised of the strategic impact of the work being done, so that they are primed to dedicate resources for effective implications of our findings and recommendations.
- Keeping the research agenda brief and to the point. Sometimes there is a tendency to want to throw everything and the kitchen sink into a project making it difficult to obtain quality data and insights on the prime objectives of the research
-
Not conducting research for research's sake! This happens occasionally. Where possible, we will guide you during our pre-engagement discovery conversations with you if the data you are seeking is available elsewhere or we don’t believe we can add value to what you are trying to accomplish.
When and why should I use you versus other research vendors?
There are many firms out there providing primary and custom market research services and we are not alone, so the good news is you have plenty of choice. We do, however, lead the field in B2B research for technology companies with our strong roots in Silicon Valley and some the most innovative companies in Silicon Valley and around the world work with us including many promising start-ups taking bold journeys into new previously uncharted areas. We ask our clients to consider the following seven critical success factors before deciding to move forward with us:
- Have we sufficiently demonstrated our ability to be successful in obtaining the external market intelligence you need?
- Have we successfully demonstrated our experience in our technology domain area and/or experience dealing with similar companies or solving similar problems?
- Is our timeline for completion in alignment with your team's needs and their internal timelines to implement the initiative(s) for which the market intelligence is sought?
- Is our quoted budget in alignment with the business value you expect to derive from our work?
- Are you comfortable and in agreement the scope of work and do you feel certain that the methodologies and approach we have recommended will fit your needs?
- Are you certain you need this intelligence and that it does not already exist elsewhere in your organization?
- Last, but not least, do you feel a positive energy and chemistry with our team, an important ingredient for our mutual success?
