Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

I agree that your data is valuable. I would charge the vendor companies the same fee as your foundation client as though you were developing the study from scratch.

Here is a caveat: I would not release it until after the final decision is made by your foundation client. And, I would offer the vendor companies the following deal - that you will subtract 1/2 the cost of this work from any future marketing projects they through your way.

There are a couple issues here.

What was the nature of your contract, if any, with your foundation client?

If there was none - then you "might" be free to resell the research. If there was a contract, it may be interpreted as work for hire (meaning that they paid for it, they own it), in which case you should get the foundation's permission to resell the study. If they are an on-going client, I would suggest getting at least verbal approval (preferably documented by your confirmation email) before you sell it.

Also - when you spoke to the vendor companies - did you indicate that the findings may be released to their competition? If you said it was just for an internal decision to make a purchase and then later sell it on the open market - well - that's a bit of misrepresentation. You need to be very careful, up front, about full disclosure of the use of any data or information obtained. I can't imagine they would have spent that much time with you unless they thought they would be making a sale.

Once you have these issues resolved - then here's some additional observations:

This kind of dedicated research is normally very expensive - so forget the dollars-per-hour pricing model.

I've see reports such as these go for $5,000 or more. Using your figures, I gather you charged the client about $1,400

I wouldn't offer it for less that $2,500. And as a general rule - don't make any discount offers for referrals or stuff like that - every project or service has to stand on its own merits.

If your client is not comfortable with you selling the work that they paid for - then ask if you can simply give it to the vendors or other third parties. (I have a "professional reference purposes" clause in my contracts, but then again, I also do a lot of public relations work.) You could use it as a sample of the type of work you could do for others.

Another approach to this is when this type of project comes up again - offer to do it for a reduced fee (say, $1,000 in this case) with the understanding (in writing) that you own the report. The client will get a reduced price and probably wouldn't care, and then you're free to resell it or do what you want with it. The key to remember is full disclosure with all parties up front. The large analyst companies (Forrester, etc) make a lot of money with these kinds of reports.

As an aside, I do a more sophisticated version (executive interviews on strategic marketing issues in technical verticals) of this kind of research on a routine basis (for many years) for one of my major clients. I wouldn't even think of trying to resell it. Too valuable a client. Food for thought.