What is B2B market research?

Let’s kick off by defining B2B market research. Essentially, B2B market research is the process of collecting information about what your business’ consumers need and what they want. This could range from a host of topics such as customer pain points, perceptions, marketing strategies, product or market fit, brand awareness and many more. 

The internet is being more and more used for B2B market research. Thinkwithgoogle reports that 89% of B2B market researchers use the internet at some point during the research process. Marketers are often major stakeholders when it comes to B2B research. For example, brand research can help them design the best marketing strategy. Or through customer feedback, they can understand people’s perceptions and figure out how to target those individuals. With the help of data on customer purchase decisions, product managers can figure out how to modify the product to best fit their needs. They can also find out which geography to target next.

Due diligence surveys are just a short part of a bigger picture of B2B market research. Due diligence surveys are used to gather the maximum amount of information possible for taking a major decision. This decision could be entering a new market, acquiring a new company or expanding to different lines of products. Sometimes, due diligence surveys may not even be a part of B2B market research. But most of the time, due diligence surveys serve as a tool to gather data in B2B market research.

How to conduct B2B market research

Let’s circle back to B2B market research for the time being. Below are the various steps that outline how to conduct B2B market research:

1. Finding Respondents

As a rule, B2B respondents are much harder to find than B2C ones. They do not have as much free time available as B2C respondents, coupled with the fact that they are already a niche audience. Additionally, there’s the fact that people change careers all the time, making them harder to find. Some examples of B2B professionals that are used in market research include C-level executives, directors, brand managers and employees. 

But there are a couple of ways you can solve the problem of finding B2B respondents. You need to make sure you have really specific questions in mind when approaching B2B professionals. For example, if you are doing competitor customer research look for things like:

1. People who have bought a service or product from the company
2. People who fit the profile you want to survey
3. People who are associated with the brand such as Amazon or Trustpilot reviews.

Additionally, you can look for B2B professionals on LinkedIn by matching their job title and location to your target profile. You can also use our existing CRM base and use pop-ups on your website for professionals to fill in their contact details. Also, make sure to incentivise them using higher rates than you would for B2C respondents. 

If you’re curious about the difference between B2B survey respondents and vetted B2C survey respondents, check our blog post that we published recently.

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2. Gathering Responses 

Gathering responses depends on the nature of the B2B research. B2B market research can be of two types: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research means the collection of data that can’t be expressed in numbers. It is used for understanding potential underlying causes of consumer behaviour or gaining other qualitative insights. Using this kind of research, you’ll be able to have an idea of your business's target market. Methods in this type of research include focus groups, open-ended questions and interviews.

Next, we have quantitative research. Quantitative research entails collecting information that can be defined in numbers. It’s much more precise than qualitative data and methods include polls, interviews and questionnaires. 

3. Analysing Responses

Once responses from the B2B market research have been collected, researchers must then analyse the data, infer conclusions based on that data and report the findings.

For quantitative research, B2B market researchers can utilise various data analysis tools to analyse the data. Excel and R have many features that can facilitate this process. SPSS is another tool that can offer more features for complex data sets.

For qualitative research, market researchers must go back and view transcripts and recordings of interviews. Moreover, they will look into the focus groups too and typically a theme emerges from these conversations. Once the data is analysed, the findings are then compiled into a report that begins with an executive summary. 

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Due Diligence Surveys in Market Research

A due diligence survey also sometimes referred to as a Due Diligence Questionnaire or DDQ is a collection of questions designed to help a company analyse various aspects of a company when making a major business decision. Sometimes, a due diligence report can also be prepared including a concluding section that contains recommendations, findings and areas of concern, if any.

The main reason to conduct a due diligence survey is to reduce uncertainty. For that purpose, a survey streamlines and simplifies the data collection process, acting as a one-stop shop for all data needs. It also makes the process quicker and more efficient. Furthermore, it serves as historical proof for any legal obligations that may arise in the future.

Due Diligence Surveys are at the end of the day about understanding your target audience but can have wider implications. They can be taken by anyone such as professionals, decision makers, suppliers and stakeholders. However, a due diligence survey isn’t a one-stop shop. It can work alongside other B2B markets research methods, such as focus groups, observation and empirical testing. This could help you make a confident and informed business decision.

How can your business use these types of surveys? 

Depending on the type of survey, due diligence surveys can prove useful for businesses for different reasons. Below we analyse, some of the types of these surveys:

Market description surveys

The purpose of these surveys is to know the size and relative market share of the market. Such a due diligence survey lets you know where you stand in the market.

Market profiling segmentation surveys

The point of these due diligence surveys is to identify who the customers are, who are not and why they don’t buy/buy from your business.

Product fulfilment surveys 

These types of due diligence surveys are conducted to review the product’s promised collection of benefits. The point is also to see whether expectations created for the product by advertising and branding match the actual product itself.

Market positioning surveys 

These due diligence surveys show where you stand vs your competitors. This gives you an idea of what you can to do improve and drive more customers to your business if you are lagging.

Marketing message effectiveness surveys 

Marketing messages decide the difference between business success and failure. Message effectiveness reveals the impressions, feelings and thought processes behind what drives the customer to purchase.

Brand equity surveys

The purpose behind these due diligence surveys is to show the psychological value that a brand holds in the industry. Brand equity is made up of brand awareness, brand associations and brand loyalty.

Still, confused as to the role of due diligence surveys in B2B market research? We have got the answers! GrapeData has an amazing team of dedicated professionals willing to help you with your research to optimise your results. We generally get answers from 250,000+ contributors from 90 countries. Find us on our website or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date with our activities.

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