Best Practices for Conducting B2B Quantitative Surveys
The panel responds to business-related surveys to assist in information gathering, problem solving, and long-term industry insight.Let’s discuss how B2B panels can be used for market research for your company.
Here’s the Audience view on best practice in conducting B2B surveys yourself.
#1.Clearly define your business objective
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What are my goals for the survey?
- How will I use the information that results from the survey?
- What specific information do I need to reach these goals?
Then, put your goals and motivations into a brief statement and include any specific details you’ll need to succeed in achieving them.
These information objectives’ sequencing and wording are unimportant. At this point, being thorough is the only objective.
#2. Specify the sample size and target audience in detail:
B2B decision-making is frequently complicated because it often involves several people. Consider which roles to ask about in the survey.
Usually, you want to get in touch with the people who ultimately decide whether or not to purchase the research’s target product category.
Consider the variety of organisations you would like to respond in a similar manner. For instance, you might have chosen to concentrate on any US SMB.
The interviews must be representative of the US SMB population in order for the research to be useful. That would entail make sure there is a mix of various sectors and size segments.
Decide how many interviews are necessary after defining the target audience. The results will be statistically more reliable the more interviews there are.
However, the target audience might be so small that conducting a large number of interviews would require extremely high budgets. Increase the number of interviews as much as you can, but be sensible about what is practical.
#3. Decide on the survey methodology
Surveys for B2B market research can be completed over the phone, online (on a laptop or mobile device), or in person.
In B2B research, face-to-face surveys are frequently unrealistic unless you’re conducting interviews at a significant conference or event.
Even then, this is only true if the study is focused on that particular event or if the target audience as a whole is likely to attend. Otherwise, the participants will favour those who will be present.
Online surveys frequently prove to be a very economical method for conducting quantitative research. They are typically easy to set up and carry out.
They aren’t always attainable or realistic, though. There are times when conducting surveys over the phone is necessary (also called CATI).
The design of the questionnaire should take into account the dynamics of each approach. Online surveys, for instance, can use a variety of question types but typically need to have shorter questions (e.g., conjoint exercises are possible).
4. Choose your reward strategy for the target audience.
B2B decision-makers are a limited resource, especially when the study concentrates on people who hold senior or specialised positions.
They are scarce, but that’s not the only issue. It can be difficult to win over decision-makers’ support. They are shielded by gatekeepers, have a finite amount of time, and are more interested in expanding their business than conducting research.
However, if you employ the proper strategy, you can encourage B2B respondents to participate in the study.
People buy from people in the majority of B2B markets, and buyers and sellers typically have positive interactions. Utilizing this connection is the most potent inducement available.
Interrogating a decision-curiosity maker’s is another effective soft incentive. Decision-makers are more likely to consider participating if the research topic or method sounds interesting.
Because B2B respondents have limited time, it’s critical to stress that the time they do invest in the research will pay off in the long run. We advise highlighting how involvement in research will benefit them, their employer, or both through innovations or service improvements.
In our experience, a combination of soft and hard incentives works best when trying to persuade time-constrained decision-makers to take part in research.
#5.Create the questionnaire structure
Writing surveys calls for two distinct abilities:
Detail-oriented writing is required when creating survey questions and responses.
However, if the questionnaire structure is flawed, even well-written questions are useless. Respondents might lose interest in the survey if the order of the questions causes them confusion.
These are distinct abilities that draw on various cognitive processes. No one can do both well at the same time, and few people are able to do both well. Writing questions necessitates such attention to detail that questionnaire authors lose sight of the overall structure’s big picture.
Your ability to successfully complete both tasks is increased when you approach each skill as a separate step. It also enables you to speak with coworkers who might excel in each skill. As an illustration, you request that a coworker with exceptional attention to detail review the question’s wording.
#6. Write the questions
You must create the actual questions once you are familiar with the structure of the questionnaire. When doing so, make sure to avoid common mistakes:
Avoid leading questions. Check your question wording frequently to make sure you are not unintentionally or knowingly leading respondents to a specific answer.
Remove ‘double-barrelled’ questions. Bad surveys frequently ask participants to provide feedback on multiple items with a single response.
Avoid the overly complicated survey question. Although the survey is intended for B2B decision-makers, a typical consumer should be able to understand the questions. This means that to prevent any jargon misunderstandings, the language used should be straightforward.
Avoid repetitive questions. Similar to lengthy questions, repetitive questions may drive respondents away from the survey. Repeated survey questions can also irritate respondents and produce unreliable results. Imagine, for instance, that two questions in an online survey are nearly identical, but one word has been changed. In this case, the survey may contain an error because the respondent might believe that the questions are identical.
Don’t ask for too much personal information. It makes sense that B2B decision-makers are reluctant to divulge sensitive information about their company. There is a limit to how much information respondents are willing to share, even if you can assure them that the survey is genuine. Therefore, if you request too much sensitive information, they will withdraw.
#7. Pilot the survey
Sending the survey to friendly clients or coworkers is advised. Keep it as straightforward as you can; you can just send a draught in the format you’re using (e.g., Word).
You can steer clear of errors like the ones mentioned above thanks to their advice. It will also give you a good idea of how long it will actually take respondents to finish the survey.
#8. Launch and manage the survey
There are typically five ways to start a survey in B2B research:
Sending it via email – This strategy is cost-free and lets you choose who takes part in the survey. The popularity of your brand and the quality of your bond with the email contacts will both affect the response rate.
Calling respondents – This strategy is comparable to email distribution. It gives participants choice, and the response rate is influenced by how well-established the connections are with those on the list.
Buying respondents through a panel this strategy appears to work well in theory. Since participants in the research have already agreed to participate, you usually know in advance how many responses you will receive.
Embedding the survey in a website or newsletter -By placing the study in front of a potential respondent when they are close to the brand or product category covered by the questions, you may be able to collect responses.
#9. Process and analyse the results
Once a survey is comprehensive, the temptation is to start immediately doing analysis and building a report.
The possibility is to begin analysis and report-building as soon as a survey is finished.
However, this might result in poor-quality research reports:
Before you begin analysing the data, you must format and check it; otherwise, you will be referring to inaccurate or incomplete data.
Before you begin writing the report, you must analyse the data and determine the story. By doing this, you can prevent the narrative from being unclear or the report from being overly lengthy.
Start by looking at your data. You are looking for the following:
- People who haven’t adequately responded to all the questions
- People who “flat-lined,” or finished the survey too quickly by simply answering the questions without giving them much thought
- Those whose responses are illogical, such as those who claim to have never heard of Brand X while also declaring it to be their preferred brand. Nevertheless, mistakes do happen. You probably shouldn’t have permitted that combination in the questionnaire.
Spade Survey is a B2B market research and B2B survey firm located in India. Our market research company has conducted many B2B studies across the country with a variety of industries.Contact our team to receive a quote for a market research project Email-id:rfq@spadesurvey.com.
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