There is tremendous value in market research. But that value is premised on the idea that the audience is correctly identified and approached. There are many types of market research –– about competitors, the ideal prospect, current customers and of course industry trends. And it’s super easy and fast to push out a, for example, SurveyMonkey questionnaire. But I’ve found the best data comes from brief live 1:1 interviews. If the goal is to understand more complex scenarios — for example, why clients are leaving, you have to go deeper and go live 1:1 either via phone or in person. Questioning should use a good mixture of both qualitative and qualitative and incorporate a rationale component to each question. It’s just not as useful to have the answer “Yes” or “No”; responses with supporting rationale help explain the response and help marketers to leverage it in a meaningful way. When planning your next market research project, get the illusive “why” with each response.