Developing a research survey sample

Most firms have a restricted “universe” – the total number of possible clients – and survey samples will be small and specialised. Therefore small samples can provide meaningful strategic information for the researching firm.

It is also possible that there is a need to speak to more than one person in the target companies being interviewed. Firm sampling can require multiple contacts rather than one.

Small samples and restricted budgets mean that large scale quantitative research using complex proportional sampling frames is not practicable – but despite this firm research can still be effective.