B2B market research with business decision-makers

Questions this report answers

Who takes part in the purchase, and who has the final say?
Which criteria decide supplier selection, and how does their weight change by stage?
Why did we win or lose specific deals last year?
How many qualifying companies exist in each target country?
How do buyers rate us against the two or three rivals they usually shortlist?
Which channels do buyers prefer: direct, distributor or marketplace?
What would make a current customer expand, renew or leave?

When you need it

Business markets have fewer customers, larger contracts and longer sales cycles than consumer markets, so each wrong assumption costs more. Companies usually commission B2B research when the pipeline stalls without an obvious reason, before entering a new country or vertical, when designing a product for professional users they have never observed, or when key accounts begin to churn. A lost tender is another common trigger for a round of win/loss interviews.

The work also tests what the sales team reports. Sales staff hear objections first-hand, but only from prospects who agreed to a meeting; buyers who never replied, or who chose a rival without talking to you, are invisible to them. Interviewing both groups shows where the sales story and the buyer's story part ways.

It is less useful when your customer base is a handful of accounts you speak to every week — a structured account review may be enough — or when the question concerns published facts such as industry turnover, which desk research answers faster. It also adds little for low-value, quick purchases, where buying behaviour resembles consumer shopping more than a committee decision.

Sample table of contents

Executive summary
main buying drivers, barriers and recommended actions
Methodology
screener, recruitment routes, interviews by role and country
Market universe
number and profile of qualifying organisations, incidence by segment
The buying centre
roles, influence and who can veto
Decision journey
triggers, information sources, shortlist and contract stages
Selection criteria
importance, and your performance against named competitors
Win/loss findings
why deals were won, lost or abandoned
Channel preferences
direct, distributor, marketplace, integrator
Segment profiles
differences by company size, sector and country
Implications
messaging, offer, sales process and account priorities

Methodology and sources

Defining who counts

We start from a written screener: sector codes, company size, country and the respondent's actual role in the decision, because "IT decision-maker" means little without it. Official counts of enterprises by size and sector set the universe; our business data pages show the kind of series we use.

Incidence drives the design

The share of companies that qualify decides how many must be contacted. Eurostat reports that 33.2% of Dutch enterprises with ten or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025, against 8.6% in Bulgaria and 19.9% across the EU. A study of AI users therefore needs roughly three Dutch screening contacts per qualifying firm but about twelve in Bulgaria, before refusals. A low incidence rate shapes timeline and method more than any other factor.

Mixing methods

Depth comes from 45–60-minute interviews with decision-makers by video or phone. Measurement comes from B2B surveys run on business panels, by CATI with list samples, or online among your customers.

Respondent quality

Every respondent passes a screener and a short check on their role and company. Online completes are reviewed for speeding and inconsistent company details. Incentives are proportionate, often a charity donation or a findings summary, and never depend on the answers given.

What you receive

Report with executive summary and buying-centre map
Interview summaries with anonymised verbatim quotes
Data tables by role, company size and country (Excel)
Competitor scorecard on the criteria buyers rank highest
Sales enablement notes: objections and the evidence that answers them
Workshop with sales, product and marketing leads

How the project runs

Kick-off and screener definition — 3–5 days
Universe sizing and sample plan — about 1 week
Recruitment and interview fieldwork — 2–4 weeks
Quantitative survey, if included — 2–3 weeks, overlapping the interviews
Analysis and reporting — 1–2 weeks
Workshop and handover — 1 day

Hypothetical example for illustration

Worked example

Example: a German maker of predictive-maintenance software for factory equipment plans to expand into the Netherlands and Bulgaria. Its sales team believes price is the main obstacle.

The study screens manufacturers with ten or more employees in both countries and interviews 24 people across maintenance, operations, IT and purchasing, followed by a short online survey of Dutch plant managers. Recruitment takes much longer in Bulgaria, where far fewer firms already use AI-based tools, so fieldwork there runs mainly by telephone after an introduction from a trade association.

The findings contradict the sales team. In both countries the decisive barrier is integration with existing maintenance systems, and the IT function, rarely met by sales, can veto a purchase on that ground alone. Purchasing joins late and negotiates terms rather than choosing suppliers. Bulgarian buyers also want local-language support from a partner they already know.

The company rebuilds its pitch around integration, develops connectors for the two most common maintenance systems, invites IT to the first meeting and signs a Bulgarian integration partner instead of hiring a direct sales team.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them

Interviewing the wrong person. Job titles vary between companies; screen on real involvement in the decision.
Relying only on customer lists. Satisfied customers respond readily; lost prospects and non-users teach more, so recruit them independently.
Treating the company as one voice. A user, an engineer and a finance director judge the same offer differently; report by role.
Underestimating fieldwork time. Senior respondents reschedule, so build in buffer time for low-incidence segments and holiday periods.
Oversized questionnaires. Professionals abandon long surveys; check the draft with the survey length calculator before launch.

Who it suits

Suitable for	Why
Software and SaaS providers	Complex buying centres and long trial periods
Industrial and engineering suppliers	Engineers and procurement both shape the decision
Professional and financial services	Trust and relationships drive supplier choice
Firms entering a new EU country	Local buying habits and partners decide uptake; often part of a market entry study
Companies with rising account churn	Reasons for leaving surface in interviews; pair with customer satisfaction research

Frequently asked questions

How long does a B2B research project take?

Most projects take four to eight weeks. Recruitment is the variable part: a broad audience such as office managers fills quickly, while a narrow one, say heads of maintenance at mid-sized food plants, can take weeks. Summer and the year-end also slow business fieldwork across most of Europe.

How do you find and recruit business decision-makers?

Through B2B panels, professional networks, trade associations, business databases and, with your permission, your own customer and prospect lists. Each route carries its own bias, so we usually combine two or three and record where every respondent came from. A screener confirms role and involvement before any interview.

What affects the cost of B2B research?

Mainly incidence and seniority: the rarer and more senior the respondent, the more contacts and recruitment effort each completed interview needs. The number of countries and languages, interview length, the mix of qualitative and quantitative work and the depth of reporting also count. Request a proposal listing your target roles and markets.

Will respondents know who commissioned the study?

Usually not. Running the study under our name reduces politeness bias and lets buyers speak freely about competitors. If we contact people from your customer list, they are told where their details came from, as GDPR requires. Some clients choose to reveal themselves to raise response rates; we discuss that trade-off at kick-off.

How are respondent data and our commercial information protected?

Respondents take part with informed consent, results are reported anonymously, and contact details are processed under GDPR and the ICC/ESOMAR International Code. Your customer lists and commercial information are used only for the project, transferred securely and deleted at the end of the agreed retention period.

Can one project combine interviews and a survey?

Yes, and it is often the strongest design. Interviews reveal the criteria and vocabulary buyers use; a survey then measures how widespread each view is. When the universe is small, a survey of every qualifying firm can replace sampling altogether.

Sources

Updated: 5 Nov 2026

B2B market research: interviews and surveys with business decision-makers