An Entrepreneurial Approach to Delivering Customer Insights

Priscilla: If you listen to this podcast, then you know the name of the game when it comes to moving a company forward is knowing your customer. Enter market research. But what if that customer is hard to reach? Is a patient, is a patient with a rare disease? Enter rare patient voice. Not only can you find patients, but also bring the voice of the caregiver or health advocate to the table.

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Priscilla: I trust these guys and I want to make sure that they are your first call to access this audience. And when you talk with them, you can thank them for sponsoring this podcast.[00:01:00] 

Priscilla: Hello and welcome to Pondering from the Perch, the Little Bird Marketing Company podcast. I'm Priscilla McKinney, CEO, and Mama Bird over here at this Wonderful Nest. Today I have an. Awesome friend of mine. Wow. We had an amazing experience together last year. We're gonna talk a little bit about it. We're gonna make you jealous.

Priscilla: I know you're gonna love it, but you are gonna love my guest today. Today I have Suzy Hassan. I feel like we need to start vacationing together. It's really good. Suzy, welcome to the show. Thanks, Priscilla. 

Suzy: Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. 

Priscilla: It is funny about women in research, and we're gonna give a couple of plugs through this, but wired women in research.org.

Priscilla: Ps it's free to join if you are anyone in research, not just women. You can join, you can come to these events. It's basically their two support women in research. And we met, but this is the magic of women in [00:02:00] research, is that you just don't have a mask on or your guard up. You get to immediately really connect with people meaningfully.

Priscilla: And so Suzy and I did that at the wire exec retreat last year in Barcelona. I told you. We were gonna make you a little bit jealous, but let me introduce Suzy and then we are gonna hear from her just some powerful stories, some really cool experiences, and it just goes to show you people listen to this podcast.

Priscilla: They want a little bit of a pull the curtain back and understand how it is that people did it. It can be, you can experience success. Let's hear from a couple of other people, their story and just how honest they are about the story and help you maybe take the next best step. So Suzy is the managing director and.

Priscilla: Co-founder Attia Insight and for a lot of you thinking, Hmm, could I go found something myself? Yes, you probably can. So listen up. But she runs this consultative data collection company in the market research industry, and she began her career over at GFK. Then she moved on to [00:03:00] Tono. But this is what's a lot of experience here.

Priscilla: She really did a lot of kind of big moves over at to Luna. So she was heading up the operations team and over the co course of eight years, she ended up. Just the amount of learning I'm sure was absolutely crazy. But then she got the opportunity to set up her own agency Alligator that was within a larger group, BDRC, and then she decided to open up her own agency with co-founder Colin.

Priscilla: I. So this is what's crazy and this is really why I wanted to have Suzy on and just to have this wonderful, approachable conversation and let you hear her story because they have grown get this in just two years to 43 people and with a growth of over 6 million pounds. So slow clap for Suzy. I love it.

Priscilla: So Suzy, please tell people a little bit about your mindset. Like that's a huge jumping off point to say, okay, I've had all of these large companies [00:04:00] I've worked for, that's a lot of stability. I'm gonna make this leap. Tell us about what like mindset you needed to have in order to make this jump. 

Suzy: Oh, when you say it like that, it sounds pretty scary.

Suzy: I think the growth has been, it's felt very consistent. I think for me, it hasn't really felt like we've jumped up from nothing to 6 million, but absolutely, that is exactly what's happened. I think from my point of view, I was. Within a larger agency. I think that was quite a nice step for me because it was setting up my own business with the backing of a larger agency so I could do it comfortably.

Suzy: Like a little bit of, there was a, like a safety net there, a safety blanket, and I guess within that we proved that we could do it. So we knew we could do it. Myself and my co-founder, and actually I went off. On maternity leave with my second child, my son, who did not sleep at all when I got back. He was seven months old.

Suzy: He's actually still not sleeping, by the way, he's three. But yeah, that's another story. And I was in a complete sleep deprived haze and Colin was like, I think we should go for it. I think we should do this. And [00:05:00] funnily enough, at the time I was kind of like, this was crazy. It's not good time. The economy's not great.

Suzy: You know, there were a lot of reasons not to do it. But equally, we knew that the business was going really well. Alligator, we knew we could do it. We'd like the proof was already there. And I think from our point of view, it was kind of, let's set up, let's hire a very senior team. I think in our industry there are a lot of larger organizations who have quite large teams, but who are potentially.

Suzy: Like when a client works with you, they work with multiple people. And this is from my experience at larger panel companies and stuff where you work with 6, 7, 8 people on a project. And I think from our side, we were realizing that clients actually want that one-on-one connection. They wanna work with like a single point of contact who takes their project from start to finish and they feel really looked after.

Suzy: That's how I feel as customer in day to day life After.

Suzy: We really saw an opportunity to do that with [00:06:00] potential. So we hired a very senior team. Initially it was quite small, well, I say quite small. We started with up to 10 people, I think in the first six months. And very much the focus was consultative. Very senior, senior team focusing on consult for clients and really delivering a really high quality product.

Suzy: So I think from our side it was like bringing things right back to basics. We use technology as much as we can. I think it was more adding back that human element that I think sometimes is a little bit lost. Now, in our day and age of technology, everything is all like automated and oh, you don't need to speak to somebody.

Suzy: You can do that yourself online. But it's like actually sometimes you just wanna speak to someone and have them do it for you, you know? 

Priscilla: Yeah, I agree. And you bring up an interesting point. You've had a long career in data collection and you have seen. Data collection evolve from traditional to digital and increasing every year we're increasing the amount of technology that's in there.

Priscilla: It's no big aha for anybody. But what [00:07:00] is actually working for you as far as what I'm hearing you're saying is that the way you're growing your company is not really digital. It must be pretty hands on. So what is working for you and Colin in terms of legion that is not digital in that sense? 

Suzy: I think it's definitely the human relationships, the human rapport.

Suzy: So Colin and I are still very much involved in the business, of course, like it's our business, but we will attend pitches with clients. We go for lunches with clients, we meet with suppliers regularly. We really try and maintain that closeness to our staff, first and foremost, our clients and our suppliers.

Suzy: It's really important for us, and I think in some organizations you wouldn't necessarily see the founders because they're not really that. Involved in the day-to-day. So we still are to a certain extent. Of course, it's getting harder now. I think as time goes on and as we grow, it does become harder to do that.

Suzy: There's a lot of juggling going on in my life, for sure. And Colins. [00:08:00] But yeah, I think it's definitely that human touch, and I think that's really critical and important. And going back to basics sometimes, like having a. Phone conversation with a client meeting for lunch and having a good old chat and sometimes not even chatting about what's going on at work.

Suzy: It's like having a personal relationship really, and I think that's key for us. So it doesn't feel like work either. It feels like fun. It really does. Yeah. Let's 

Priscilla: take a quick break so I can tell you about this. Show's sponsor. 

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Priscilla: Well, I don't wanna put you on the spot with this question, but you know, a lot of people are interested in going out on their own, but you have a co-founder and that really scares a lot of people too. So can you give us some practical advice about that with a [00:10:00] co-founder?

Priscilla: I mean, obviously in your story you had the added benefit that you had. Really already set one up. Yeah. With him. And so you had a track record, but any like warning signs you would be looking for or some wisdom you could impart to anybody thinking about working with a co-founder? Why does it work for you and Colin?

Suzy: I think my first tip would be to make sure it's somebody that you trust, like implicitly, Colin and I really trust each other. I mean, we're friends. I'd say for first and foremost, before business partners. We are of course business partners. But I think the other really key thing is that our. Strengths and weaknesses really compliment each other.

Suzy: So I'm much more of the sort of administrative or operational, and he's much more on the commercial side of things. So although we both cross over and help each other out on that, I think we definitely have our kind of areas of expertise and we allow each other to flourish with those areas. And I think that really works.

Suzy: I would hesitate to go into business with anybody that you've got any concerns about in terms of trust, I think [00:11:00] trust is so important when it comes to setting up for your own business, but I think for me, setting up with a co-founder, I dunno, at the time, I dunno if I would've done it on my own. There's been periods in my career where frankly, you know, I've lacked confidence.

Suzy: I've been like, I'm not sure I could do that. I if I do that. Okay. Yeah, I've seen. Signs that I could, but I'm not a hundred percent confident on that. And you know, you don't wanna necessarily throw away your mortgage and you've got your family at home and stuff and it's like, oh tadda, I'm gonna start a business.

Suzy: It's quite a scary thing to do. I think for a lot of people it's very scary. But I think having a co-founder to like Lean on has been really great for me. And I think Colin would say the same. We've been able to like help each other out, support each other through that sort of setting up business.

Suzy: There's been times where we're a little bit nervous about how things are gonna be. I mean, certainly because of the economy and things that are going on in the world, like we're like, where's what's gonna happen next month? There's periods where it's a bit up and down and it's like really having that kind of cheerleader there, so we cheerlead each other on, which has been [00:12:00] really helpful.

Priscilla: I wanna point out too, speaking of cheerleading and loving this idea about how Colin supports you, but also I see you turn around and just a big thank you for potential sponsoring so many wire events in London, and so obviously. You believe in this idea of doing it together with people. So tell me a little bit about why you're putting that money and sponsoring in that way.

Priscilla: And also feel free to share like what you thought of that Barcelona retreat, because you and I obviously just loved it, but what do you feel you get from that? It's so cool. You have support from your co-founder, but then also you've got some other networks. 

Suzy: Absolutely. I think wire, for me, fundamentally, I think it's really important to support other women in our industry.

Suzy: I know in my career as well, it's been quite male dominated, certainly in more senior positions. So for me, the Barcelona retreat, which was obviously a senior leadership retreat, that was fantastic to meet other senior female leaders and like I hear all the, the same thoughts and concerns and comments [00:13:00] that I have, which I.

Suzy: Really incredible. And as I think I said to you on the retreat, like everyone's so open, the mask is all dropped. And it was my first retreat, so when I went there, I had my bio prepared, like written out. What I was gonna say, it's almost like my interview pitch, if you like. But actually when it got round to me, I realized this is not what this is about.

Suzy: This is about being open and honest and we can talk about the difficulties that we face in business. That's absolutely fine as well as the triumphs, like both things are fine. So yeah, I absolutely love wire. I've always loved it. And I did go to a few events like when I was younger, a lot younger, and I always found it very inspiring and I love.

Suzy: To be in a room where everybody's lifting each other up, supporting each other, you know, I part, so Colins very, been very, very supportive of involved in Proud. 

Priscilla: I love that. And just if you're listening, then just go out and give Suzy and her team a shout out and a thank you for doing that. 'cause that's how those things happen.

Priscilla: It's [00:14:00] no mystery. You just have to put the money down. So let's talk just at the end, I'm gonna ask you a little bit more advice. 'cause I do think a lot of people listen and want to know a little bit about some journey. But real quick, let's just talk about potential insights real quick. It's no secret that brands are out there.

Priscilla: They need market research. Insights. They wanna make data-driven decisions, and they're looking for that customer insight that's gonna make a difference. But tell me what specifics data collection do you offer? Is it research panels? You talk, tell me what exactly you guys do day-to-day. 

Suzy: Yeah, sure. So we have, of course there's several large global panel companies that cover the market on lots of different areas like consumers and across pretty much all countries of the world now.

Suzy: So what we've really tried to do is focus on some niche panels. So we've set up some audiences where we think actually. These people are really hard to find. A good example of that is farmers in the UK very difficult to find, very difficult to interview, and [00:15:00] so we've recruited those qualitatively in partnership with a company called Field Mouse.

Suzy: We work very closely with them, so we have set up. In Partnership Opinion Harvester, which is a panel of farmers. And actually if you look around, there are no other places that you can go to speak to farmers in the UK online, for example. So that's where potential, I think is filling a gap. So we're really focusing on like niche panels.

Suzy: We've got other ones. So we've got a tradespeople panel, which is just recently launched. We have a landlords panel as well. We also into setting up B two. Panel, which would be very high quality B2B sample, because again, we see that as a gap when we're looking for a B2B sample through various providers.

Suzy: It's quite difficult to get high quality verified B2B sample. So. That's the kind of the areas that we're focusing on. And then I guess day to day we run surveys. That's our bread and butter, so we run online surveys and deliver data dashboards back to [00:16:00] clients. We also run communities for our clients and bespoke panels.

Suzy: So if they have customer lists that they want to panelize or like put onto a community, we help them do that so we can support them with those kinds of things. I was going to say last year, but actually it's coming up to two years ago, we acquired a company called s Diff, who are an advanced analytics company.

Suzy: So they support us with anything in terms of advanced analytics, conjoints, MaxDiff, et cetera, and it's great that they sit alongside our operational team, so we're delivering it together. 

Priscilla: I love that. I love that. And here at such a young company, an acquisition. So that's just one other piece of advice to people.

Priscilla: Maybe don't think the acquisitions are just, were much later in the game. So I love that. Suzy, let's end this on some brass tacks because you and I straddle the world of marketing and market research because we're the business owner, so we have to be concerned about what we're doing in marketing. And obviously with a very quick growth [00:17:00] in the last two years, you've not only had to have a.

Priscilla: For growth, but you had to do some things. So can you give us a little bit of an idea of what you feel has been consistently filling your pipeline and why you think it's working? 

Suzy: So we do quite a lot of posts and things on LinkedIn through our company page. We've really tried to grow our followers on there, so we've been consistent in followers on.

Suzy: Boosting that as much as we can, posting as regularly as we possibly can. Obviously like sponsorship I think is really important. The sponsorship for Wire has been great in terms of boosting our profile because potentially we weren't known two years ago. So actually coming into the market as a new player, it was quite important for us to get the name out there.

Suzy: So we've sponsored various events. We sponsored the MRS operations awards last year, for example, we sponsored an MRS award at the main ceremony as well. So I think those kind. Of have been able to support us in [00:18:00] boosting our brand, like visibility and also our credibility because we were very new. A lot of clients were a little bit like, oh, you haven't been around that long.

Suzy: I'm not sure about working with you. But actually all of us in the team have been around, I gonna say for decades. That's a bit unfair, but for quite a while. And then personal outreach has been really important. So we don't do any sort of blanket. Email marketing or anything like that, we actually shy away from that and keep away from it because that's not really on brand for us.

Suzy: It's very much the personal touch, the human touch. So it would be emailing campaigns, I guess, but they will be very personalized and getting in touch with people that we know. 

Priscilla: I love that. And you hear you're in a very digital business, and yet you know the success is coming from being incredibly human.

Priscilla: Okay? I cannot wait to see you at the next event. Suzy, you are just so approachable. If you're listening to this and you think, gosh, I really could use some support or some advice, I'm telling you she's the real deal, reach out to her. It's SUZY. Hassan, H-A-S-S-A-N. Easy to find her on [00:19:00] LinkedIn. She's just told you she loves to post there, so you're welcome.

Priscilla: Here's your new favorite colleague, but I'll get to see you out at Wire. Thank you so much for sharing your story and some of the wisdom that you've learned along the way. Priscilla, thank you so much for having me. From all the peeps here at Little Bird Marketing, have a great day and happy marketing.