This high-security platform for web conferencing is used by fewer than 1% of all accounts. ZoomGov was specifically designed to serve sensitive areas of the US Government. We use this same technology for all our online qual research: online focus groups, virtual IDIs and online dial groups.

Why we use it – Using the same encryption as the Pentagon gives peace-of-mind to our clients. In addition, the video and audio quality is far superior.

How is this different from the standard, commercial web conferencing – ZoomGov is built on a different technology platform, GovCloud, which is used by US intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, the CDC, and many more. ZoomGov is also compliant with FedRAMP, HIPAA, & Dept of Defense security guidelines. 

Why it’s good for our clients – Through us, our clients can confidently and securely conduct any form of online research—including for projects which require a high level of security or confidentiality.

• • • • • Sensitive advocacy and political message testing
        • High-profile litigation and jury research
        • Patient healthcare research interviews
        • Pre-release media research (movies, TV pilots, CEO speeches)
        • Testing of sensitive or copyrighted materials

This robust level of security and encryption is your safeguard. It ensures clients and stakeholders that the important content you are testing will remain under your control.

Do you use the commercial version of Zoom? We have some best practices for you to ensure you are leveraging their security features. Check it out here➤

About FedRAMP

FedRamp is the security standard required across the US government for sensitive information.

It is required by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, the CDC, intelligence agencies and the Justice Department.

Learn more about FedRAMP security and encryption compliance.

About Amazon GovCloud

AWS GovCloud  https://aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/?whats-new-ess.sort-by=item.additionalFields.postDateTime&whats-new-ess.sort-order=desc

Learn More:

➠FedRAMP compliance for online research https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2019/05/07/zoom-achieves-fedramp-moderate-authorization/

➠HIPAA compliance for online research tools https://zoom.us/docs/doc/Zoom-hipaa.pdf

➠DoD SRG (Security Requirements Guide) https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/dod/

➠Zoom security whitepaper https://zoom.us/docs/doc/Zoom-Security-White-Paper.pdf

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If you are receiving this email it is because I consider you a friend or I greatly respect you and your work.

I feel as a nation we are facing two very dangerous curves that if not checked will create a crush with devastating long term consequences. The first we are addressing with #SocialDistancing.

This is helping us to not overwhelm our healthcare system, limit contagion and allow our healthcare workers to methodically help those in need.

The second curve, the one we are not addressing, is the current blow to our economic system and our own financial lives. Obviously, there are some businesses and industries that will have a difficult time no matter what. If you are in the travel industry or work in a restaurant or hospitality, you will have to wait for a recovery. However, in my colleagues’ clients, I am seeing a lot of people ceasing to do business out of fear or just holding to see “where this is going.” I am comparatively insulated from this, unlike many working Americans who are living completely check to check. I was raised in extreme abject poverty but also graduated from the London School of Economics, spending a full year studying the 1929 global economic crisis––the Great Depression.

Here is the issue. If we fall into the category of businesses that are “holding off” out of fear––the majority––I am exceedingly nervous about the domino effect we are setting up economically. If we all shut down––even though most of us offer products and services, remotely deliverable, that are still vitally needed by all––we shut down the economic system. If our economic system shuts down, the long term effects of this will have severe, even longer-lasting effects on our physical and mental health. Many will perish if there is a global economic crisis, as they did during The Great Depression. We cannot wait for our national governments or hope that a stimulus package will solve this.

We must do what we can, together, NOW. The economy is a human health issue.

This weekend David Paull, CEO of Engagious, posted across his social media his thoughts about turning the “economic curve.” The writer Michael Lewis did an interview on CNN echoing the same. If we want to take our lives into our own hands we need to make #DoBusiness relevant in the world as a message, share what is working, discourage paralysis created by fear, and ensure we all––as a collective––prevent an economic crush that could destroy lives. This is the most, yet relatively unexpressed, truth in the world right now. Obviously, supermarkets and toilet paper manufacturers do not need to be “holding” in their efforts to do business. Many of us are still offering vital products and services that we all need, but are holding out of fear. Let’s STOP holding and turn the curve, freezing the domino effect that comes from holding––by DOING EVEN MORE BUSINESS REMOTELY––for all of us who can. The world must go on, the world will go on and, as it does go on, commerce needs to go on––to save lives and prevent any more suffering. We need to work together––#DoBusiness––to stop the domino effect.

You can help by SPREADING #DoBusiness

1- POST the #DoBusiness graphics below (3 JPEGs attached) to your social media. Pin them to the top of your feed and make them your cover pages.

2- Post these once a day and then, with the below images, share content that expresses your thoughts in your field, in your life, and what you are doing to TURN THE ECONOMIC CURVE.

3- Make the sentiment of us continuing to provide each other the vital products and services we still all need––#DoBusiness––as popular a notion as #SocialDistancing so that we can all start addressing the second curve that is equally vital to our global physical and psychological well being.

Here are three assets for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn created by me and a local industrial designer.

PLEASE COPY/SAVE THEM AND POST URGENTLY REPETITIVELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY––AND PUSH OUT TO YOUR NETWORKS––ASKING THEM TO POST REPETITIVELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY.

To download: Right-Click > Save Image As…

We do this all day long. Here are our learnings for making that critical connection with your prospect.
Remember: they are human just like you. So channel THAT.

“What you think is intuitive may actually be counterintuitive to your audience.  So you need to test and test again.”

1)  Question assumptions – ask yourself what are the assumptions you are making about your offering and your customers? How have you validated/invalidated those assumptions?

“There were aspects of the product that we thought would be, by far, the most impactful and effective, but the way in which we presented them turned them into a negative. And one of these instances was right at the start of the presentation, which turned people off from the start.”

2)  Customer, you are not (repeat in Yoda voice) – where do businesses often go wrong with how they communicate with their customers? Typically, it’s thinking that what you think about your company and your offering is the same as what the customer thinks.

“You’ve got to understand that you and the people that create these products are not your audience. What you think is intuitive may actually be counterintuitive to your audience. So you need to test and test again.”

The client also found that a do-it-yourself calculator tool, was too complicated for most people to use. A more effective alternative was creating a personalized statement for each contributor that clearly laid out all the financial details in a more visually understandable layout. The feedback from the testing directly fed the development of a “document on demand” tool that generated the type of personalized statements that effectively made the case for the contributors.

3)  Don’t simply rinse and repeat – how many times have you fallen into the trap of doing something just because that’s always how it’s been done. Well, if sales are through the roof, then it’s probably good not to muck up the works. But if you’re not seeing results, then it’s time to buck convention.

“Retirement services groups, like ours, fall into the trap of getting too comfortable with how things have been done in the past—even when we know what we do is not working. Here’s a situation where we decided to try something completely unorthodox and see how it measured up to the status quo.”

The other was a test approach that utilized an unconventional meeting, incorporating elements designed to create a relaxed environment with a focus on helping participants better understand the need for retirement planning and create a vision of what their retirement could be.

4)  Get “testy” – If you’re asking yourself if now would be a good time to test your sales pitch and messaging, then the answer is yes. Products and services evolve. Your customers’ needs change. The market is dynamic. So, regular testing of your sales presentations, pitches and messaging is the only way to keep pace.