How do you get B2B survey insights and what are the benefits?

Key takeaways:

Surveys are essential for several types of B2B market research projects. Surveys can test or validate information using numerical data. But data alone has little value if it is hard to interpret or understand. B2B survey insights come from thoroughly analyzing the data, using advanced statistical techniques, and making recommendations for the business.

The value of B2B survey insights

Surveys are a common way to describe quantitative market research, regularly used to inform critical business decisions.

Surveys test or validate information, providing results in a form that you can count, rate, and measure using numerical data.

According to McKinsey research, sales driven by data in B2B should result in above-market growth and a 15-25% increase in EBITDA. 

And research from PwC has found that:

• Highly data-driven businesses are 3x more likely to see a significant improvement in their decision-making
• However, nearly two-thirds – 62% – of executives rely more on general advice and their own experience than data to make business decisions

But data in isolation has little value if it is hard to interpret and understand. That’s why it’s crucial to get actionable insights from survey data to help inform these business decisions.

Analyzing data accurately and informatively is easier said than done, though.

That’s why many market research agencies take the easy way out and provide ‘data dump’ presentations – lots of PowerPoint slides with pretty charts but few conclusions. Later in this article, we’ll explain how Adience does things differently and share best practices.

The advantages of getting reliable B2B survey insights include:

• Informing critical business decisions – with insights that are statistically valid and robust after surveying a large number of relevant people
• Reaching a consensus – to agree on a new direction, internal stakeholders are more likely to accept results that may challenge their views if they are statistically valid
• Ensuring consistency – survey data is structured, so it’s easy to compare answers between different respondents
• Providing trackability – by asking the same questions to a similar audience at different intervals, you can directly compare how the data changes over time

When to seek B2B survey insights – examples

There are several market research projects where, in our experience, quantitative surveys are the only realistic option.

These include projects where you need to model and forecast different scenarios based on statistics, or measure metrics and numbers over time, consistently – such as:

• Testing and validating new product or service concepts
• Finding the optimal pricing strategy
• Tracking brand perceptions and managing performance
• Tracking changes in market trends

Additionally, there are several projects where for the most useful results, the best approach is to run a survey before or after some accompanying qualitative research. Qualitative research may lack the robust statistics required to validate big decisions, but it tells you why business buyers think and act a certain way.

Here are some examples of B2B market research projects involving quantitative surveys and/or a qualitative phase:

• B2B customer satisfaction research: Surveys are the more common methodology for customer satisfaction (CSAT) research, providing businesses with robust and trackable metrics. In addition, qualitative insights explain the reasons behind high or low CSAT scores.
• Identifying a target market: Market sizing and segmentation studies tend to require hard data from surveys. But to understand different groups in the right target audience, you need qualitative research to build buyer personas.
• Marketing campaigns / marcomms research: In contrast, qualitative research is often the best way to identify and test marketing channels and messages for your audience. However, if you need a clear consensus on which message to proceed with, a survey can validate this.

We always recommend choosing the best methodology for your research or business objectives first and foremost.

How to do B2B surveys

In most cases, B2B surveys take place online because this tends to be the most cost and time-efficient approach, but there are other options.

The three ways to conduct B2B surveys are:

• Online: You can send the survey to respondents by email, or embedding it in a website/newsletter, or by sharing the link on social media
• By telephone: Also known as Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI), this is particularly useful if you only have phone numbers available rather than email addresses, or don’t have any ‘warm’ contacts
• Face-to-face: Very rare in B2B due to the cost and time involved, this approach involves capturing survey answers at an event or the respondent’s place of work. It is better suited to qualitative research for a more open-ended discussion.

While online is the most common approach, the recent MRS B2B conference we attended confirmed that CATI is growing in popularity as an option. Sometimes it is the only realistic option for a B2B survey when respondents are hard to reach.

Case studies: Impact from B2B survey insights

B2B survey insights can have a transformative impact on businesses, informing and validating significant financial decisions.

These case studies from Adience demonstrate the impact B2B surveys can have on businesses’ growth objectives:

Helping a B2B SaaS provider increase awareness and consideration with smarter brand tracking

• Objective: The client’s previous brand tracking – provided by a different research agency – was a stale, boring, unengaging data-dump that no-one trusted. They wanted an engaging, insightful, story-led process that would engage stakeholders. 
• Methodology: We started with an audit of the previous study, identifying ways to improve it. We added statistical techniques to get more from the data, introduced best practices, and tweaked areas of the methodology to improve data quality. Then we conducted a 10-minute CATI telephone survey among 500 decision-makers.
• Findings: Our research showed the client had raised awareness of its new brand, but it significantly lagged market leaders. They didn’t have strong associations with some of the attributes it was trying to own. We used statistical analysis to identify which of their brand values most drove brand consideration. 
• Outcomes: The client tweaked their original channel strategy to keep what was working and invest more into underperforming, under-invested ones. Our statistical analysis also helped the client prioritise two values. They developed a targeted ad campaign to build associations around these and increase brand consideration.

Helping a B2B healthtech brand navigate acquisition without losing equity

• Objective: This B2B healthtech brand had acquired a company that targeted the same audience with a different solution. Uniting the two brands would create an end-to-end proposition. Get it right and they’d build an industry-leading brand, but misstep and they’d risk losing money only to destroy existing equity.
• Methodology: We conducted 30 qualitative interviews among the target audience with customers and prospects of both brands. Then we ran an online survey with the same audience to validate our findings. 
• Findings: The existing brands had strong equity among existing customers, but low awareness overall. We also discovered from customer feedback that they welcomed the acquisition and were open to a new unified brand.
• Outcomes: Our research made a strong case for developing a new brand, but with careful handling to transfer equity. The client took our recommendations and developed the new brand with a new proposition. The legacy brands were sunsetted over 12-months to make sure equity was transferred.

Best practices for implementing a B2B survey step-by-step

#1 Check your objectives and target audience

Make sure that a quantitative survey is the right methodology to address your business and research objectives.

If your priorities are to understand the reasons behind something, a survey may not meet your needs as effectively as more open-ended qualitative research.

Check that your survey will be for the right people, asking questions they can realistically answer.

Usually the ideal B2B survey respondents are the people making/influencing the decision to buy the products/services, or the ones using them.

Also check that you can realistically get enough genuine respondents to take your survey based on your screening criteria.

#2 Screen the respondents

We recommend including a maximum of 10 screening and profiling questions. These make sure that the respondent is a good fit for the survey design in terms of role, responsibilities, and so on.

These questions also help ensure you get the right mix of segments in your target audience taking the survey.

For example, if 75% of your revenue comes from SMBs then it often makes sense to have three quarters of the respondents representing such companies. But such quotas also depend on your objectives.

For reliable and high quality data, it’s vital to have genuine B2B decision-makers taking your survey. However, they are challenging to recruit and incentivize, as we explain in our article on the problem with B2B research panels.

Regardless of your recruitment source, to make sure that rogue respondents or ‘bad actors’ don’t take your survey, catch them out in your screening section: 

• Include one or two open end questions that ask respondents to answer technical, relevant questions in detail – screen them out if an answer is clearly made up
• Add in some ‘red herring’ answer options in the screening section e.g. a fake competitor name. If they select any of these fake options in their answers, these respondents are probably not genuine.

#3 Design the questionnaire

Decide on the survey format and structure first before writing the questions. For a B2B survey, usually there are two or three sections after the screening and profiling section, each focusing on different parts of your overall objectives.

Start with relatively broad questions before writing more specific ones as the survey progresses.

There are several key principles to writing a questionnaire that will provide reliable results and fair data:

Do:

• Include ‘Other’ options where relevant
• Include ‘Don’t Know’ options where relevant
• Include 1-2 open questions
• Clearly state how you will use the data

Don’t:

• Write leading questions
• Include double-barrelled questions
• Use unnecessary jargon
• Write long questions
• Include repetitive questions
• Ask for too many personal details

For more details on these dos and don’ts, read our full advice on conducting B2B quantitative surveys. 

#4 Test, launch, and manage the survey

Ask someone to check the survey and any routing logic before it is programmed onto a hosting platform. They should check for leading questions, unnecessary jargon, and so on.

Once the online version of the survey is ready, test it thoroughly. Try every possible option to make sure it works – aim to ‘break’ the survey.

Pilot the survey with a soft launch, with only a few respondents completing the survey. Then check the data to make sure everything is being captured correctly.

After the full launch, monitor the fieldwork. In particular, make sure that the quota balance is right.

#5 Analyze the survey results – find the insights and share them

To analyze the final survey results and find the insights:

• Check it: Remove any last respondents that completed the survey too quickly, gave contradictory answers, or haven’t answered a question properly
• Format the data into tables: You can cut the data into key segments and compare them side-by-side, identifying patterns and making analysis less time-consuming
• Focus on the project objectives: Prioritize the most important and relevant stories, rather than just the most interesting ones
• Look for statistically significant stories: Add significance testing to the tables, so that some of the most noteworthy findings will stand out 
• Set aside data that isn’t interesting: You don’t have to include the answers to every question in the final report
• Find the ‘so what’ – interrogate the data for insights: What are the implications for your business, marketing, sales, and more from the data you’re seeing?
• Make recommendations: Based on these insights, how should your business act?

You can often get additional, valuable insights by using advanced statistical techniques. For example, regression analysis can help you see past any over-rationalization or exaggerated claims to see the true relative impact of different criteria on decision-makers’ choices.

Visualize the most important data and explain the narrative – the final report you share needs to be engaging and actionable for stakeholders to take notice. Finally, work with them to act on the insights, otherwise there is a risk that the research does not provide its true value.