Market research analysts are concerned with the potential sales of a product or service. They gather and analyze statistical data to predict future sales. Their methods may include telephone, personal, or mail interview surveys to assess consumer preferences, or they may bring in a group of potential users for focus group interviews. Trained interviewers, under the market research analyst’s direction, usually conduct the surveys. After compiling the data, market research analysts evaluate it and make recommendations based on their findings. They provide information you need to make decisions on the promotion, distribution, design, and pricing of products or services, among other things.

To help judge the quality of a market research consultant’s work, use these questions, in addition to whatever questions you might ask when selecting any consultant:

* What is your cost?

* Can you provide examples of past work and previous customers?

* How will the respondents be recruited? Ideally, you want responses from consumers who fit your target market profile. If you are early in the market development stage, you may want to have a survey of the general population. Responses from only one demographic group are unlikely to be helpful unless your marketing strategy focuses heavily on a particular demographic segment.

* How accurate have their sales forecasts been in other projects? A significant amount of research shows that responses to hypothetical phone/mail surveys constructed to measure purchase intent often perform poorly at actually predicting sales behavior. You will want to get a feel for how confident the consulting firm is that your customers will act in the way described by the survey questions when they are actually shopping.

The best results would be a range (highest possible and lowest possible) of revenue and/or sales that might be achieved if different assumptions are made. Often, consulting firms only provide a single estimate of sales forecasts. To get a feel for the potential variability in income that might be achieved, you should ask how sensitive sales forecasts are to the:
- way the survey questions were framed,
- study method (phone, mail, focus group, etc.),
- particular sample of study participants, and
- time of year/day the study was conducted.

* How will your work help me identify and reach my target customers? High-quality marketing plans will include information on the types of advertising, promotion, positioning, and distribution strategies that will be most successful in reaching your target customers.