“A key skill related to empathy is research. Marketers with empathy have an ability to put themselves in their customers’ shoes. But marketers with research skills have the ability to dive deeper into their hunches about customers and leverage much more than their opinion.

A study from Hinge Research Institute suggests that research is a key marketing skill that separates high-growth firms from no-growth firms.

Hinge conducted a study of 1,293 professional services firms ($270 billion combined revenue, almost 1 million employees) to determine what differentiates high-growth companies. High-growth firms are defined as having a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% or greater over a three-year assessment period. In the study, high-growth firms had a median growth rate of 31%. No-growth firms languished at a median growth rate of -1%.”