What do you typically expect from a training workshop? Better skills? That would be a start, for sure. But what if you could run a workshop that did much more than that? What if the training workshop built skills? And drove massive additional sales revenue? And profit? What if the workshop delivered a huge return on investment? What if it changed how different teams worked together, delivering a measurable change in cross-functional collaboration levels? What if (and I quote the Sales Director of a recent client here) “This workshop has basically guaranteed that we’ll hit our targets this year”. Would you like that? You would? Well, we have it. It’s called Actionable Insights. And it does all this and more. Read on and I’m going to show you exactly how it works.
What I’m sharing here isn’t my view. This is direct feedback from the client. I asked them to share the key learnings for them, and what were the main elements that helped them create such amazing value for their company from a series of workshop. The answers themselves are really insightful, so I have summarized them here. Each of these learnings could help your team discover multi-million dollar insights too!
Actionable insights: Don’t start with the data
I know. It’s totally counterintuitive isn’t it? Insights = data right? Well, sure, data will play its part. But over hundreds of projects across the world in virtually every category you can think of, we’ve learnt the best way to create Actionable Insights. And it doesn’t start with data.
Insights start in the heads of people. The seeds that will ultimately germinate through our insights process are in your head already. The process will maybe take some weird twists and turns. And the final insight might be a long way from the seed of an idea in your head. But that’s where it starts. Trust me.
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And the reason it works? I’m sure there is some deep psychological stuff, but what I see in practice is far more simple. An idea or a thought gives you a starting point. A place to begin. Without it, your just cruising through the data. And for most of our brains, looking at data is a turn off.
Within five minutes, someone just ‘looking at the data’ will get bored and drift. But give them a purpose, a focus, an idea, and you’ll go deeper into the data. And you’ll look at the data differently.
And if you have a lot of ideas, that means you’ll look at the data from a lot of different angles. And that way, with a little bit of our ‘secret sauce’ insight process, you’ll start seeing different things in the data.
How to create actionable insights: Go see the real world
As I’ve just argued, Actionable Insights aren’t usually found in the data. They are found by getting away from the desk, and touching the world of the people you want to understand. If you are looking for shopper insights, that is about going to stores, spending time in stores, and connecting with the shoppers there. Desk work has its place, but big ideas don’t usually lie in your data. They lie beyond that, and that requires going out interacting with the world you are hoping to understand.
How to create Actionable Insights: Focus on the “why”. And the “why not”
Data is fabulous, don’t get me wrong. But data, in my experience (and the experience of this particular group) is rarely the starting point of a great insight. Why? Because data usually gives you lots of what, when, where and who information. While this is interesting and valuable, big insights lie in the ‘why’. Actually, that’s not strictly true. The really big insights lie in the ‘why not’. By understanding why consumers or shoppers DON’T do something, we get a deep understanding of the situation, but also a big clue as to what the solution is too. Unblocking the ‘why not’ is key to unlocking the value that lies behind the insight.
How to create actionable insights: Take your time and be persistent
Insights don’t usually announce their presence – they take a bit of time to uncover. The insight process isn’t a simple, linear beast: it has iterations and blind alleys. Its frustrating, but when you get out at the other end and you’ve found something genuinely new, and valuable, its worth it. But you won’t do it in an afternoon. But over a few days of focus, magic begins to happen. If you extend it to two workshops, separated by a week or two, the effect is magnified.
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It takes a little bit of preparation in advance (from us as well as your team), to make sure we all hit the ground running. And there might be a little bit of work after the workshop to finalize the details and confirm some of the details. But our experience proves that with the right people, focused on the task, magic can happen and huge value can be created.
How to create actionable insights: Be insightful
One of the benefits of taking our time with the program, is that we are able to introduce the team (and allow them to practice) The Zeroth Step of the insight process. Not many people know it, but it is by far the most powerful. By allowing the team to consistently practice the behaviours that will make them more insightful, the chances of high value increases.
How to create actionable insights – Remember that consumers and shoppers are different
I know I’ve said this many times (and blogged about it a fair amount too!) but it is a message which has yet to be received by many, is less understood than you’d think, and is absolutely critical. Consumers and shoppers are different. When you find a great consumer insight – don’t stop! Look at the shopper angle too. Shoppers and consumers see the world differently. They see your brand differently too. Driving growth, and making your insight actionable, will require changing both consumer and shopper behavior. And that often means that there is a shopper element to your insight that you might have missed.
How to create actionable insights: Remember that consumer and shopper go hand in hand
Whether you want to create an insight into consumers or shoppers, its sometimes hard to separate. This makes sense when you think about it. After all, actionable insights are likely to need changes in both consumer and shopper behavior to actually create value. So the big secret in finding shopper insights is to NOT go looking for shopper insights. Go looking for insights, period. Explore consumers, shoppers, and retailers.
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What you discover will inevitably have a bit of shopper and a bit of consumer in it (after all, shoppers buy to meet consumer needs, so we can hardly understand shoppers without understanding consumers too!) I guess what I’m saying is to free your brain to explore whatever. Don’t pen your brain in with instructions and filters.
Think consumer, shopper and retailer all the time
Whether building consumer strategy, shopper plans or retail customer plans, we need to keep each ‘customer in our minds’. Even when we are focusing on the consumer, keeping one eye on the shopper and one eye on the retailer (I know – too many eyes!) is a valuable skill.
Work as a team (And with an outsider) to create actionable insights
Insights is about changing paradigms. And the best way to change paradigms is to listen to other people’s points of view. We all see things slightly differently after all. Other people from other functions is great, but if you can bring in people from outside your organization (like us for example!) the paradigm shifts are likely to be greater. We see the biggest value creation with attendees from across marketing, shopper, category and sales teams. And this has lasting benefits, as everyone begins to realize that together they can achieve things that are almost impossible alone. A recent client told us ‘This is amazing, you have literally changed the way we work. You’ve changed the language of the business.’
These key steps create commercial value and build long term capability – and change the way the business works
Insights approaches like this are powerful. They create commercial value by identifying opportunities to deliver growth AND by making sure that these are implementable. They build capability too: these processes and techniques are replicable and sustainable. But what I like most about this approach, is that it changes the way people work together. To quote another client: “you’ve somehow changed every conversation in this business. Meetings are different. Presentations are different. People are having different conversations. People are asking different questions”. I’m pretty sure the value of that shift in behavior is worth a lot more than the value of the specific insights we delivered.
This isn’t designed to be a guide to creating actionable insights (I’ve written countless posts on the topic so feel free to check them out here and here). But it is (almost) verbatim from a group of consumer and shopper marketers, who have just seen that this approach to creating actionable insights really makes a difference. Applying just some of this will help you on your insight journey. And of course, if you really want to create millions of dollars of value and build your teams capability then check here to find out more details (note that every program we run is designed specifically for you). Alternatively get in touch and we can discuss your specific situation and see how we can help. No obligation, so feel free to reach out now.
Image by Luisella Planeta LOVE PEACE 
from Pixabay
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