These suppliers make their living by understanding their market and can be excellent informants. In our work on small, metal product fabricators we found the best Key Informant to be a regional sales representative with a major Midwest metal supplier. Many small business managers we interviewed had named this supplier as the most trusted, high quality supplier in the business. The sales representative knew many of the shop owners. He knew what technologies they were using and their interest in new innovations.
Most industrial sectors have similar suppliers.
Initial interviews with the business managers will usually reveal these potential sources of Key Informants. For example, we found that most auto repair shops named a single tool supplier as their most trusted source of information on tools and new repair technologies. All such companies can make good Key Informants Key Informants may not understand the language of the Innovativeness-Stages Matrix. It is best to translate the Matrix into common industry language. A good tool supplier, even if they don't sell paint guns, can often provide a good estimate of the percentage of shops that have adopted the technology, and how many other shops are talking about it.