Day 18: Do I Need Research?

Day 18:  Do I need research?  The other day I was doing work for a client that had hired us to do an executive search for them.  One of the candidates asked me a question I had never been asked.  Does the organization have a researcher on staff?  Great question!  If you look at the really successful organizations you will see they do invest in research.  It makes a huge difference if you can provide the answers to a prospects question quickly.  There is an organization made up of chamber and ED researchers, C2ER.  They have a wealth of information for researchers.  If you can show how many people have the needed skills to do a job for an existing business or a prospect you will be a hero to that company.  Owning good data is like gold.  Sure, most site selectors purchase data and sadly know more about your community than you do.  But we all know site selectors do a very small percentage of the site selection that happens.  So, it is a huge advantage for you by collecting your own data.  It can actually help the site selector by confirming what they may already know, or your information could be more current or relevant than what they are using.  There are several companies that provide this data.  We do.  EMSI, ESRI are the two biggies.  Also, there is a lot of free data out there on the www.census.gov and www.stats.indiana.edu  While it is not always fun to collect this information or you have zero interest

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