I’m sure you all receive some set of research reports on a monthly, quarterly and/or annual basis. Even if you don’t you know what they are – those text and pie chart heavy documents that go through the macro trends of a particular topic. In real estate, everyone puts out their own version with a different level of detail and slightly different metrics. Apparently canned research reports are an area of sales differentiation.
However, research reports always start with one thing in mind (which I don’t believe to be true otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this):
The researcher knows what the reader needs to see.
If anyone has ever stumbled over a build-it-yourself research report I’d love to see it. In my mind that’s where things should be going. That way we can take the same data set the researcher used and begin to understand the report’s bias. What spin are they using, which metrics are they leaving out, what supports their case and what breaks it down. There are two sides to everything and research is no different.