Grow My Revenue Business Cast

The most recent presidential election in the United States proved that predicting – or as my guest today calls it, ‘probability calculation’ – is a dangerous way of reading an audience. It essentially amounts to throwing darts at a board, he says. If companies want to create products and services that best meet the needs of their ideal customers, they need to have solid research to support their business objectives – otherwise they might wind up guessing at the wrong outcomes. On today's episode, I talk to Tom Webster, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Edison Research, the organization behind exit polling for national elections in the U.S. For more than two decades, Tom has conducted political polling for some of the most contentious elections in U.S. history, as well as market research for some of the top companies across the nation. What he’s learned about the role of research in business decisions may surprise you. “You need the input,” Tom says. “There’s no such thing as a perfect study. The