Ivy Exec Reviews Market Research Recruitment Trends

Data and analytics are a top investment priority for many corporate leaders. Unfortunately, 51% of CEOs are not confident in their data, and nearly seven in ten CEOs favor intuition over data-driven insights, according to the 2018 Global CEO Outlook. This is a problem since data-driven intelligence has severe implications for business growth and success.

The good news is that quality market research can solve many of these problems. When used correctly, the collected data can be used as a fundamental tool for answering questions and providing qualitative results to back it up.

So, it should be no surprise that market research recruitment plays an important role at Ivy Exec. With our online community of over one million professionals—growing by 10,000 new professionals each month—we have access to a myriad of business professionals who we can tap into for a wide range of market research projects. This means that no matter if a client is looking for C-level, director-level, or senior management-level responses, we have quality candidates ready to help and share their expertise on research initiatives.

But, what exactly does market research recruitment look like at Ivy Exec? We interviewed Nadia Frigiola, our director of business development and B2B qualitative and strategic insights, to find out what’s going on in market research right now and how it works at Ivy Exec.

Ivy Exec Reviews Market Research Recruitment

What is your role at Ivy Exec and what does your team do?

I have a very exciting role in our market research division, one of the fastest growing verticals at Ivy Exec. We got our start around four years ago, when our co-founder, Alex Baranpuria had the vision to offer market research firms, corporations and consulting firms the use of our community of high-level executives for their projects. It’s taken off from there.

With over 20 years of experience in market research, working on this team is a thrilling prospect. I’m in charge of helping our market research division generate new business and expand client relationships. I work with large market research companies to connect them with business leaders, practitioners, and subject matter experts who can share their insights and expertise on qualitative research projects.

There are many different aspects to my role:

• I’m responsible for bringing in new clients and companies to our market research vertical. It’s my job to grow our revenue.
• I also oversee a range of operational elements from managing and coaching the sales research team at our New York headquarters to developing key growth strategies and action plans to attain success.
• I’m also a relationship manager. It’s my job to build new and strengthen existing client relationships, expanding larger accounts and key relationships as I can.

My team is phenomenal. There are currently five of us, including myself, and we work really well together. It’s exciting to see so many new strategies and ideas coming to the market research space. There are always new ways to dive down into business development; growing accounts, and finding new business.

How does market research recruitment for market research projects fit into Ivy Exec’s business model?

It fits really well in regard to our culture, and our foundation (which is our membership). Our community includes bona fide business executives and seasoned market research recruiters. It makes sense that when clients come to us for help, that we can leverage our membership community to offer this recruitment model.

The truth of the matter is that the core focus of Ivy Exec is to be a trusted resource for Executives focused on professional development. Market research fulfills this need. Also, having expert recruiters that are able to tap into a specific market segment for a particular project is incredibly helpful.

Who are the clients that you serve and which industries do they come from?

We work with over 300 market research firms around the world, including many large clients such as some of the top AMA Gold market research firms. In fact, we work with many of the top 50 and top 10 firms such as Nielsen, Ipsos, Lieberman Research Worldwide, and Hanover Research (just to name a few). We also partner with many well-known consulting firms and leading universities.

What are some of the audience trends you are seeing in the MR recruitment space right now?

Right now, market research is really heavy in the technology space. We’re seeing many clients come to us for market research projects in IT, software development, and engineering. This includes projects from top tech industry names such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Topics include new technology, cloud computing, and website testing.

We’re also seeing increased demand for market research in the health services, life sciences, retail, government, and the financial services industry. Companies are looking for solutions to their problems as well as new product ideas. So, that’s what we’ve been seeing a lot of lately.

What kind of recruitment projects does your team handle?

We handle a wide range of research projects. They can vary from recruiting experts that respond through an online dashboard, to in-depth telephone interviews and web video chats, focus groups, and blogs. Whatever market research project a client is looking for—even if the scope and target are very narrow—we can customize our recruitment efforts in that direction by taking advantage of our community membership and external network.

What kind of challenges are your clients currently facing?

Right now, we’re definitely feeling our clients’ pressures on meeting deadlines with the holidays around the corner. Everyone is trying to finish their projects and get in under their 2018 budget, so this time of year is really challenging and highly competitive.

The main challenges our clients are facing have to do with timing, cost, and quality. 99% of the time our clients come to us because of the quality that we deliver on our recruitment. Quality is their highest priority, but at the same time, they want the results now.

So, we’re here to solve their problems by providing a solution that breaks down their project into easily digestible pieces while also advising them on how to screen for the appropriate target audience and methodology. For example, we might explain that 30-minute interview sessions are better than an hour for getting the results they want. We might also advise them to open the scope of their market research project to better fit their target and provide moderators with open schedules.

Unfortunately, this can be a struggle when high-level clients want a very fast turnaround without any sort of compromise that impacts the cost and timing of the deliverables. Our goal is to strive to fit the client’s criteria while also accomplishing the project in a short amount of time, on budget and without compromising quality.

Why do clients come to you for support? [What can Ivy Exec do that others can’t?]

Clients come to Ivy Exec for the rich data profiles on our online community and 100% qualified executives that match the most difficult-to-find qualification criteria.

Ivy Exec is comprised of 20% C-Level, 30% VP Level, 30% Director Level, and 20% are in senior management. This means that clients can easily come to us for a particular target group and we can easily fulfill that need, which is critical in meeting our clients’ objectives on research projects.

Our technology-enabled, recruitment model allows for quick targeting. Our project teams can deliver very fast and highly qualified business executives that have already been vetted for accuracy and quality. No candidate is put forward for a project unless they’ve undergone a stringent verification and validation process to confirm their resume and current role.

Clients come to us because they want high quality recruiting, and that’s what we stand for. Our completion rates on projects are above average, and our recruitment methods are customized to every client’s needs. We also have a great project team that’s well known for delivering on the most complex research projects, which is phenomenal. They all have incredible skills and expertise, as well as the creativity and resources for finding the perfect candidate.

How do you engage with respondents that you recruit for research projects?

We have a very engaged community that really trusts in the relationship we have with them and are very receptive to participating in research projects. Our members come to us because they are serious about gaining access to resources, advancing their careers —such as networking, coaching, and content—that can help them achieve their professional goals. This makes our members very responsive when it comes to market research projects.

When we come to a member of our community with a market research project, we make sure it’s about a topic they really love and are passionate about. By protecting them from projects that don’t fit their interests, they’re eager to share their opinion when it actually matters. We’re careful to treat our members extremely well by providing them with research that they are interested in and compensate them well for their time.

What type of solutions are you having to create to meet some of the challenges you shared earlier?

In terms of improving the timing of our projects, our clients consult with us first and foremost. This allows us to give feedback on the screener design and make recommendations focusing on the respondent qualifications that are most important to meet the research objectives with the quality they want.

Most of the time, we advise them to keep the screening questions simple—less is better. Screeners that are too long and complicated don’t get the types of responses that clients are looking for. So, we try to keep everything short and simple while still providing the client with the information they need and want.

And when it comes to quality, we make sure that all of our respondents have already been vetted and we only choose candidates that are highly qualified.

Conclusion

The market research industry isn’t going anywhere. Over the last five years, market research in the US has grown 3.6% to reach $23bn in 2018, and there’s only evidence that it will continue to grow and play a significant role around the world. The key to its continued success is keeping the quality exceptional.

That’s how Ivy Exec market research recruitment stands out among the crowd. We combine our deep recruitment expertise with an engaged and rigorously vetted membership to provide world-class talent to the world’s leading companies in digital, technology, finance, and consulting.

If you’d like to get involved with a market research project, contact our Market Research Recruitment team today. We’d love to work with you on our next project and see you become a member of our community.