Introduction

Decision maker panels are a form of market research that allows you to get a better idea about your target audience by reaching out to their decision makers. In this post, we'll explain what these panels are, how they work, and the best ways to use them for your business.

What is a decision maker panel?

A decision maker panel is a type of online research panel that focuses on gathering in-depth feedback from consumers who are willing to make purchase decisions. This type of panel is useful when you want to get in-depth insights from specific groups. These groups could be your target audience or those who are interested in a particular product or service.

Decision maker panels can be used for qualitative research (such as focus groups) or highly-targeted survey research with a small number of respondents.

In a decision maker panel, you will typically recruit individuals who are in the market for a specific product or service. These panels can be used to gather information such as:

-How likely is this person to buy my product?

-What needs does my product fulfil? 

-Which features do they like least about it?

-How much will they pay for my product?

-What is the most important factor when choosing a vendor for this product or service?

-How often will they use it?

-What other products or services are they considering at the same time?

-Which types of communication channels do they use most often?

-How can I reach them with my marketing message?

-What features do they like most about it?

What does a decision maker panel look like?

Now that we know what kind of information can be gathered from a decision-making panel, let's talk about a real-life example of such a panel. Every year, the Bank of England conducts a quarterly decision-making survey. The survey draws information from CFOs of small, medium and large UK businesses. The survey is conducted to oversee any developments in the economy and to gather business sentiment. The latest of these surveys, conducted in Q4 2022, can be found here. Three key takeaways from this round of the decision-making survey are given below:

1. Realised output price inflation has flattened in the last few months. (This term refers to prices charged by businesses across the whole economy)
2. CPI inflation expectations (Consumer price index inflation expectations) remain elevated but have slightly dropped from September 2022. 
3. Businesses expect to have both lower investment and employment due to rising interest rates in the next year.

The entire survey can be found here on the Bank of England's website. In the next section, let's talk about how to use such a decision maker panel. 

How do you use a decision maker panel?

A decision maker panel is a tool that can be used to run qualitative research with your target audience. They are used to run surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

Decision maker panels can also be used to collect data from your target audience. Using a decision maker panel when you need to collect data for market research or when trying to get feedback from your audience will give you an idea of buyer behaviour. In addition, you'll get an idea of their thoughts on new products or services.

Decision maker panels are a great way to get feedback from your target audience. They can help you identify some of the most important factors that influence their decision-making process. This is a useful tool to use when you want to test out new products or services. You can even see how they will be received by your customers.

Why would you use a decision maker panel?

Decision maker panels can be an effective method to help you understand your target audience's decision-making process. They also help you understand customer requirements for your product or service and their behaviour and attitudes towards it.

You can use a decision maker panel to conduct focus groups with your target audience, and collect opinions and feedback from them. Alternatively, you can use panels to ask them specific questions about their behaviour and attitudes towards a particular product category.

A decision maker panel is a group of people who have the power to buy a particular product or service. These are individuals that have the authority over a company's budget, so they decide what gets purchased and what doesn't.

In addition to being a great way to understand your target audience, a decision maker panel can also help you understand your competitors. If you want to know what companies are doing right in order to gain market share, then this is a good way for you to do that. The panellists will be able to give you feedback on why they like or dislike certain products. Additionally, you'll get to know how they feel about their competitors, through a decision maker panel.

For more information on this topic, check out our latest blog post. The post titled 'Why should you use a decision maker panel for market research?' is a jam-packed guide containing everything you need to know about this topic. 

When would you use a decision maker panel?

A decision maker panel is a group of people who are selected because they are thought to be the decision makers in their organisations, and therefore qualify as potential customers. A good example would be a panel of C-level executives who have been selected as decision-makers for their respective organisations. If you need to collect data from these types of people, then a decision maker panel is an effective way to do so. Find out more about decision-makers in this post by Indeed.

If you need to collect data from specific audiences like CEOs, CFOs, or CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers), then using a DMP can help you reach those people without spending time contacting them individually. In addition, if your goal is to obtain data about the entire company and not just its leadership team members, using a DMP will allow you access to both groups simultaneously. Thus, a decision maker panel saves you time when planning out your research study design.

The bottom line on decision maker panels

Decision maker panels are a great way to get qualitative market research. They help you understand your customers' needs, purchasing process, pain points, and journey. They can even show you what consumers consider when making purchases. This type of research is especially useful if you want to understand why people buy your product or service.

You can also use them to find out what makes people change their minds about a purchase. Knowing this will help you create better marketing strategies and increase conversions.

Panel companies can help you find the right people for your research. They’ll ask you questions about your business. Thereafter, they'll match you with a group of people who fit your target demographic. Then, they'll send out surveys and collect responses from those consumers. You get access to this data so that you can analyse it yourself or hire someone else to do it for you.

If you want to get a better understanding of your customers, then you should consider using a panel. This is a great way to get qualitative market research. You can learn more about what people think about your product or service. In this way, you can create better marketing strategies and increase conversions.

Decision maker panels can help you run qualitative research with your target audience

The decision maker panel is a great way to get qualitative market research. Qualitative market research allows you to understand the needs and wants of your target audience. This type of research is useful for helping you determine what products and services will be most profitable.

In order to run qualitative market research, you need a sample size that represents your target audience accurately. You will also need tools like surveys or focus groups. Decision maker panels provide both of these things, making them an ideal tool for gaining insight into how customers think about your product or service offerings.

If you’re looking for a way to conduct qualitative market research, then decision maker panels are an excellent option. These panels allow you to get in touch with a variety of customers and potential customers who are willing to share their opinions on your product or service offerings. Decision maker panels can help you learn more about how people view your company and its offerings. Through the information provided by a panel, you can make better business decisions.

Let's switch gears to talk about quantitative research for a minute. A decision-making panel can be useful for quantitative research because it helps researchers collect data that is representative of an entire population. Quantitative research often involves large-scale surveys or experiments, which can be expensive and time-consuming. By using a decision-making panel, researchers can quickly get feedback from a large number of people without having to spend as much money or time collecting data. A panel can be used in any type of research, but it is especially useful for quantitative studies that require participants to make decisions based on some criteria. Decision-making panels are a good solution for this type of study because they allow researchers to obtain data quickly and at a low cost by using people who are already familiar with the product or service being studied. Compare qualitative and quantitative research in this post. 

Conclusion

Deciding whether or not to use a decision maker panel depends on many factors. You should consider your goals and the type of research you're doing before making any decisions. That said, if your company has an established customer base and you're looking for ways to improve their experience, then it's probably worth trying out this type of research method.