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…Aaron Grossman, the “Research Marketer”
My mother never understood me. No, I don’t mean in the New York, Woody Allen neurotic way. I mean she never really understood what I do for a living. Truth be told, outside of the market research / advertising / marketing world, I rarely run into business professionals who “get” what I do immediately. Like a fine vintage, I need to grow on you.
…Aaron Grossman, the Business Writer
Nowhere has this realization been more apparent than in the business networking circles I’ve been haunting lately. In these networking sessions, one gets to stand and give a 60-second elevator speech. The idea is to convince the assembled group of NYC business professionals to refer business to you.
In my first of five years as a member of the popular networking organization BNI, I looked around the room after my 60-second commercial and was greeted with polite, blank stares. I found out in subsequent one-on-one coffee appointments that this is not because I’m inarticulate — these realtors, financial services professionals and people from all stripes of the solo-practitioner universe are not used to being pitched by a market researcher. They say: “I’d really like to refer business to you, but I don’t really understand what you do.”
For this world of non-advertising, non-marketing, non-market research professionals, I’ve come to Jesus. I’ve become their fluent business writer, ready to ghostwrite a bio, craft text for their websites or create a LinkedIn profile. I came to this epiphany when I realized that, for decades, I’ve been churning mountains of survey data into tiny PowerPoint nuggets of competitive gold for the C-Suite. These high-level executives have no time, nor do they care to hear what I do for a living. After they’ve come to trust me, they care about one thing: how will this information make my business more profitable?
…Aaron Grossman, the Brand and Corporate Identity Specialist
Happily for me, there are brilliant, Third Wave smarty’s that DO get me. People who understand that it’s not just marketing research; it’s really fodder for branding and identity creation. For you strategists / designers / small business owners / digital agencies: I still ply my craft and churn awareness and product usage into the current language of views and engagement. I help make you edgier than your competition.
Grossman Consulting: Insights Will Transform You