B2B Research: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Get It Right

Marketing to businesses is no longer a matter of simply understanding what the procurement manager or end user needs. Today the typical B2B buying decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers, according to Forrester; another report says the average B2B buying cycle lasts more than 11 months, with buyers nearly 70% through the process before they even speak with a salesperson.

To keep up with the complexity of B2B marketing, B2B research needs to be increasingly sophisticated. Anecdotal feedback and generic questionnaires don’t provide the in-depth understanding of markets and buyers necessary to make a sale today.

Below you’ll see what today’s B2B market research entails, which methods deliver the greatest strategic advantage, what to look for in a research partner and more.

What Is B2B Research?

B2B research is the process of gathering and analyzing insights from business buyers, stakeholders and other decision-makers to inform strategy, product development and go-to-market execution. It addresses everything from market size and brand perception to competitive intelligence and pricing strategy, and it incorporates qualitative interviews, quantitative studies and other approaches.  

Conducting business-to-business market research requires getting input from current and lapsed customers, end users, procurement teams, executives and anyone else involved in purchase decisions. Failing to understand, for example, the role of IT in decision-making could lead to IT leadership vetoing a purchase because the vendor never addressed their concerns. 

B2B Market Research vs. Consumer Research

B2B and consumer market research share some methodologies. But because the B2B customer journey is typically more complex than the consumer journey, the process of gathering and analyzing relevant B2B data is significantly different from consumer insights work. Challenges specific to business purchases inform every step of a B2B research program. Some of those challenges include: 

• Smaller, harder-to-reach audiences. B2B organizations often target highly niche markets where the total addressable audience consists of thousands rather than millions. This means sample sizes are smaller and the input from each respondent carries more weight. 

• Multi-stakeholder buying committees. Several dozen individuals across multiple departments typically influence B2B buying decisions. So, while consumer research requires getting feedback from prospective buyers and users, B2B research needs to capture perspectives from individuals in an array of roles.  

• Higher stakes and longer cycles. The average buying cycle for a car, one of the biggest purchases consumers’ make, is two to six weeks. The average buying cycle for a B2B expenditure is at least eight times as long — not surprising given that purchases of B2B equipment, software, services and other products can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, adding significant risk to these decisions. 

• Recruiting challenges. Finding the right participants for a B2B market research study takes significant time and investigation. Senior decision-makers typically don’t respond to generic survey invitations the way consumers do. Enlisting the correct B2B participants requires a more consultative approach that includes specialized recruiting and appropriate incentives.

Types of B2B Marketing Research and When to Use Them 

There are many approaches to B2B research, with each serving different strategic goals. The most effective programs combine multiple methodologies to provide accurate, comprehensive insights. 

Brand and perception research 

How brands want to be perceived often differs dramatically from how audiences actually perceive them. Brand and perception research identifies these gaps and defines how organizations are viewed relative to their competitors.  

This approach consists of: 

• Brand awareness and positioning. Are target audiences even aware of your brand? If so, does your reputation match your intended positioning? And how do they perceive your brand vis-à-vis others in the marketplace? 

• Competitive benchmarking. This approach seeks to understand what matters most to potential buyers — price, trustworthiness, innovation, service, specific product features — and how your brand compares to competitors in these areas. 

• Brand health tracking. Perception research needs to be more than a snapshot of sentiment and competitive positioning at one particular moment. Brand health tracking monitors key metrics such as awareness, buyer preference and marketplace dynamics over time so that you can measure the effectiveness of your strategy and adjust it when necessary. 

Customer experience and satisfaction research 

Insights into how current, recently lapsed and prospective customers experience and interact with your brand can eliminate pain points and improve satisfaction among future buyers. 

• Satisfaction and loyalty drivers. Net Promotor Score (NPS), a loyalty metric that helps predict growth, is relevant, but it doesn’t measure specific dimensions of customer experience and satisfaction — including customer care responsiveness and account management effectiveness. Knowing which of these factors is most important to your audience and tracking them can help you make improvements necessary for increased retention and advocacy. 

• Journey mapping. From awareness to post-purchase, the customer journey consists of many touchpoints, each of which can cause enough friction to end the journey before the purchase can occur. Customer experience consulting, which includes CX journey mapping and creation, ensures you provide your audience with what they need at each stage of the road to purchase and advocacy. 

• Churn and win/loss analysis. Understanding why customers leave, as well as why prospects choose competitors instead of your brand, is key to minimizing churn and increasing customer acquisition.

Market landscape and competitive intelligence 

For most prospective buyers, the choice isn’t whether to buy from you or not; it’s whether to buy from you versus one of your competitors. That’s why defining the entire marketplace is a critical element of B2B research.  

Ways of exploring the competitive landscape include:  

• Market sizing and segmentation. This entails quantifying the opportunity and using firmographic, behavioral and needs-based criteria to identify the most valuable segments to pursue, as well as how best to address them. 

• White space analysis. Sometimes segments considered the most valuable are also the most crowded. Uncovering underserved segments or unmet needs enables you to differentiate yourself amid appreciably less competition, gaining a first-mover advantage in the process.  

• Competitive positioning. Understanding competitors’ strengths and vulnerabilities enables you to define how your brand stands apart. Research ensures that solid data, rather than assumptions, shape your strategy and messaging. 

Product and concept testing 

Even when you’re confident you understand the marketplace, testing can prevent you from investing resources in a product or concept destined to fall short. Concept testing can help you: 

• Validate your concept. Testing products or services with members of your actual target audience ensures you’re building what the market wants. Their feedback enables you to fine-tune your concept before it goes to market. 

• Test your messaging and positioning. Your product may be a winner, but its launch may fall flat if your value prop, messaging and creative approaches don’t resonate with potential buyers. Testing sets your campaign up for success well before it’s launched. 

• Research pricing. An optimal pricing strategy consists of more than covering costs and adding a flat percentage for profit. The Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, conjoint analysis and other research tools can help you understand your target buyers’ willingness to pay, so you don’t price yourself out of the market or leave potential profits on the table. 

How the B2B Market Analysis and Research Process Works 

Because markets, brands, audiences, concepts and goals differ, so do B2B market research programs. The program for a new entrant into the warehouse equipment market trying to solidify its positioning will look very different from that of a well-established medical software provider trying to reduce customer churn.  

That said, most B2B research follows a similar arc — especially carried out by experienced researchers who know the most efficient and effective way to progress from objectives to activation. Here’s what the process should look like: 

• Define objectives and business questions. “We want to increase sales,” is a worthy goal, but not a well-defined one. A better objective would be something like, “We want to understand why win rates fell 10% during the past year.” A research partner can help you get specific about these objectives. 

• Identify the right audience. In B2B research, targeting the wrong audience undermines the entire study. Determining which stakeholders, decision-makers and end users you need input from is essential. 

• Choose the methodology. Your research partner can determine the best mix of research methods based on what you’re trying to learn and how you’ll apply those findings. They’ll likely suggest both quantitative research (like surveys and conjoint analysis) and qualitative research (like interviews and focus groups). 

• Recruit and field. This might be the most challenging step. Recruiting senior decision-makers requires specialized outreach, appropriate incentives and careful screening to ensure participants are genuinely qualified. 

• Analyze and activate. Raw data is meaningless if it can’t be transformed into strategic, actionable recommendations. Your partner will ensure that your research findings feed directly into your brand strategy, product roadmaps and go-to-market plans.  

What to Look for in a B2B Research Partner 

Choosing the right research partner matters as much as any of the steps above. Not every firm offering market research/B2B services has the depth of methodology, recruiting capabilities and strategic orientation to handle complex, enterprise-level studies. When selecting a partner, the following qualities are essential. 

• Methodology expertise. Your partner should be well versed in numerous research methods, so they can design studies tailored to your needs rather than to their limited capabilities. 

• Access to real decision-makers. Ask potential partners how they recruit research participants. If they rely on general consumer panels, that’s a big red flag. Specialized networks and proprietary databases are among the ways credible B2B research partners ensure their participants are qualified.  

• Ability to strategically frame the data. The right partners don’t just deliver a report of their findings. They connect their insights to business decisions and provide clear recommendations for next steps. 

• Cross-functional experience. B2B market research typically needs to serve marketing, product, sales and leadership simultaneously. Your partner should understand what to deliver to each stakeholder and the best way to do it. 

• Track record with complex B2B markets. Ask for examples of potential partners’ work with enterprise buyers, multi-stakeholder committees and niche verticals. 

Better B2B Research Starts with the Right Partner. That’s Material 

In the current B2B marketplace, buying decisions can involve dozens of people across a variety of roles. The path to purchase typically takes months, and the stakes are high for buyers and vendors alike. Brands need actionable intelligence to succeed. The right B2B research program is well designed, rigorously executed and connected to business decisions and outcomes. It more than pays for itself. 

At Material, we’ve enabled many B2B organizations to make informed, profitable decisions about their market, audience, products and positioning. If you’re ready to turn insight into action, connect with Material today to discuss how B2B research can inform your next moves.