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b"The most recent presidential election in the United States proved that predicting \\u2013 or as my guest today calls it, \\u2018probability calculation\\u2019 \\u2013 is a dangerous way of reading an audience. It essentially amounts to throwing darts at a board, he says.\\n\\nIf 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 \\u2013 otherwise they might wind up guessing at the wrong outcomes.\\n\\nOn 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\\u2019s learned about the role of research in business decisions may surprise you.\\n\\n\\u201cYou need the input,\\u201d Tom says. \\u201cThere\\u2019s no such thing as a perfect study. There\\u2019s no perfect piece of input. But it\\u2019s a lot better to fly with instruments you can correct, than to fly with no instruments at all.\\u201d\\n\\nTom and I talk about President Trump\\u2019s surprising victory, the need for diverse points of view in boardrooms across corporate America, and what to do to really have your finger on the pulse of your audience. I know you're going to love this discussion, and you're going to learn a ton on this edition of Grow My Revenue!\\n\\nListen to this episode and discover:\\n\\n\\xb7 How you can gather and distill insights about your audiences.\\n\\xb7 The misconceptions people had about the most recent U.S. presidential election.\\n\\xb7 Why President Donald Trump is what pollsters call a 'black swan'.\\n\\xb7 How bias plays a role in different types of polling.\\n\\xb7 How to get the right type of qualitative and quantitative information to \\xb7 really have a finger on the pulse of your audience.\\n\\xb7 And so much more!\\n\\nEpisode Overview\\n\\nAs a polling expert and survey researcher, Tom Webster is the man companies go to when they want a snapshot of what\\u2019s happening with their clients today, and the data trends that have happened over time. There\\u2019s a big difference, he says, between forecasting outcomes and predicting them.\\n\\n\\u201cOnce you start getting into the business of, \\u2018Here\\u2019s what\\u2019s going to happen in the future,\\u2019 you get into a very different business,\\u201d Tom says.\\n\\nThat's why he\\u2019s not a fan of \\u2018probability calculators\\u2019, and why he says business owners and executives should never make decisions in a vacuum. Today you'll learn:\\n\\n\\xb7 What \\u2018bias\\u2019 is in polling, and why it exists in every survey conducted.\\n\\xb7 How a \\u2018social desirability\\u2019 bias among voters played a part in Trump\\u2019s surprising victory.\\n\\xb7 Why it\\u2019s dangerous to surround yourself only with people who think and act like you.\\n\\xb7 What the difference between qualitative and quantitative research is and why you need both.\\n\\xb7 Why companies need solid data to ensure they're meeting the needs of their customers.\\n\\nWhen you listen, you'll hear how pollsters in the most recent presidential election didn't get it wrong. Rather, it was the interpretation of the data that lead to all the confusion. On this edition of Grow My Revenue, you'll also hear how consumer behavior has radically changed over the years with advances in technology, yet the reasons why customers buy remain the same.\\n\\nAlso on today's show, Tom and I talk about how content marketers need to take on the role of trusted advisor, rather than the more traditional salesman. Tune in for all of that and more on today's Grow My Revenue with Tom Webster.\\n\\nFor full show notes and other resources, please visit: http://www.ianaltman.com/podcast/tom-webster/"