Most valuable: Kindergarden or Kellogg? Learning to ask the right questions.

Research serves to provide marketers with information that leads to actions that, in turn, lead to making more money. All other information is interesting, food for the thought, or good date conversation -but generally a waste of time and money unless it leads to action.

The challenge in getting the absolute most out your marketing project dollars, therefore, is in asking questions relating to areas where action is possible. The trick is, of course, knowing what questions to ask.

1. Don't play darts. Marketers (all of us) are amazingly sloppy when it comes to foundational activities. Throwing a lot of darts against the wall until you hit something is one approach. It's work to hone the process and determine which questions are most pivotal. Many people feel they get their money's worth when they receive long, expensive questionnaires. Sometimes the simplest approaches yield the data that will help you get the most out of your business.

When engaging in a research activity, getting lots of answers isn't itself the problem. Rather, it's knowing the ones to focus on, develop programs around and to focus your business on. A little bit of anticipation when planning your research projects will produce far fewer and far more meaningful questions.

2. Don't reinvent the wheel. Leverage speaks to the essence of meaningful research. Where is the greatest opportunity for growth in your business? Selling more to current customers? Recapturing lost customers? Targeting new ones? Is it in adding new products or services?

The most common answer is "Yes." So often, managers in big companies or small businesses want to do it all - at the same time. At some point, funding, resources and most importantly, sending a consistent message to your audiences will force you to prioritize. The most actionable research should focus on the one or two leverage points that will produce the most immediate sales results.

3. Less is more, or KISS (keep it simple, stupid). Asking the right questions only has meaning when you know where action is possible.  It's a waste of time to ask questions about customer service if you are not ready to make improvements to the service that you provide.

If you get the answer to just one question where you can and will immediately take action to improve your business, all you need to do is ask that one question. If there are two or more questions with results that will move you to action, ask those. If you want to cloud the issue by asking a bunch of other questions just in case you don't like the answers you get to the relevant ones, you always have that choice. But it will mask accountability. Think about this: One of the biggest reasons companies fail to get everything they can from marketing research is because they get analysis paralysis.  

4. Anticipate and listen (even if it hurts). It takes time and often mind-numbing work to anticipate the actions you'd take as a result of research. Sometimes research will tell you things you don't want to believe; you have to listen for themes.

For example:

1. If your intention is that your messaging (advertising or marketing messaging) communicates your product or service as high quality, and research shows that 33 percent of your customers feel that is in fact what is being communicated-is that good enough? If not, what would you do?
2. If you had the answer to one question that would grow your business in the next six months, what would that be?
3. What are the potential answers that you might get from digging more into question 1.
4. Write down three actions that you could afford to take for each answer you listed in question 2.
5. Sharethose actions witha colleague and ask them to rephrase your question. Get them to restate it from another point of view, using different wording.
6. Have your colleague write down the potential answers that he or she might get from research into question 4.
7. Then, referring to point 5, write down three actions that you could afford to take based on the questions and answers your colleague created.

This simple process will allow you to view your question from various points of view and look at action steps from various questioning perspectives. Realize that it is normal to ask a series of questions to generate information that will lead to action. The point? To narrow your questions to where the answers do, in fact, lead to clear actions that you are willing to take.

Caution: Getting one question answered leads to more questions. The need for more information is inevitable. Conducting research and then being non committal about what you learned is self-defeating and a waste of your time. Don't get lulled into conducting additional research to address the new questions that are raised. Research for the sake of research is not helpful, and the consultants are the only ones that make any money from it.

In each of these examples, you will have likely wasted your research dollars if you fail to anticipate action steps before the research results are available. It's far too easy to rationalize your to way inaction when you haven't set pre-determined action steps.

5. Don't sit in research jail. Over and over again, companies collect research data under the false assumption that data will dictate action. Some companies support a completely reactive style to marketing, constantly putting themselves in a position to play catch up to the leader. Think about a time when you thought, "How can I know what I'll do with the information until I see it? Once the data is available, then I'll know how much I can afford spend to address the situation."

This is self-defeating. There is little point in data collection without a thought to the minimal economic realities. If you learn you are losing customers because your telephone sales are too slow, but can't afford to hire additional salespeople, you've gained some strategic insight but wasted both time and money because you cannot take immediate action.   

6. Pick the right questions. The more you know about your customers and prospects, the better sense you'll have where that information could lead to action. When there is little information to help frame the questions, it is doubly important to anticipate possible actions.

Come up with a plan - it doesn't take a graduate from Kellogg or a $10,000 consultant to do it. Don't let yourself get intimidated or overwhelmed. Whether you have old data or starting from scratch, go through the paces below before your next marketing-related or research project:

1. If you had the answer to one question that would grow your business in the next six months, what would that be?
2. What are the potential answers that you might get from digging more into question 1.
3. Write down three actions that you could afford to take for each answer you listed in question 2.
4. Share those actions with a colleague and ask them to rephrase your question. Get them to restate it from another point of view, using different wording.
5. Have your colleague write down the potential answers that he or she might get from research into question 4.
6. Then, referring to point 5, write down three actions that you could afford to take based on the questions and answers your colleague created.
7. Repeat this process with other colleagues until you are crystal clear about which questions being asked are the right ones, what the potential answers might be and in what areas you can afford to take action.

This simple process will allow you to view your question from various points of view and look at action steps from various questioning perspectives. Realize that it is normal to ask a series of questions to generate information that will lead to action. The point? To narrow your questions to where the answers do, in fact, lead to clear actions that you are willing to take.

Caution: Getting one question answered leads to more questions. The need for more information is inevitable. Conducting research and then being non committal about what you learned is self-defeating and a waste of your time. Don’t get lulled into conducting additional research to address the new questions that are raised. Research for the sake of research is not helpful, and the consultants are the only ones that make any money from it.