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9 min

How do you conduct a B2B qualitative survey?

The way to conduct a B2B qualitative survey explained

GrapeData
Jan 15, 2023
B2B market research

Introduction

A B2B qualitative survey is a valuable tool for uncovering insights about your business. It can help you better understand your customers and their needs. Additionally, it can also help you understand the problems that they face and the solutions that they’re looking for. As a result, a B2B qualitative survey can help you improve your products or services based on what people really want and need.

What is a B2B qualitative survey?

B2B qualitative research is a type of research that involves talking to people about their experiences, opinions, and expectations. The most common form of B2B qualitative research is interviewing. Qualitative methods are useful for understanding the opinions of customers and potential customers, as well as for understanding customer needs.

Why should you conduct a B2B qualitative survey?

You can conduct a B2B qualitative survey to gain a deeper understanding of your customers and the market in general. It helps you understand what other companies are doing, and how they’re differentiating themselves from you. In addition, it also helps you know which features are most important to them. A qualitative survey can tell you how they feel about their interactions with your company.

You can use this information to make better decisions about where to invest marketing dollars or product development resources. You can also use it to identify opportunities that weren't identified before. For example, you can ask customers why they don't like one part of your product. This could lead to an idea for improving that part of the product.

In general, B2B research is more complex than B2C research. This is because you not only have to understand your customer's needs and desires but also their business needs and goals. You have to consider how they use your product or service within the context of their own business environment. Moreover, you need to consider how it might impact other areas of their business (like customer loyalty).

Another reason why a B2B qualitative survey is more complex and expensive than B2C research is that there are many more stakeholders involved in the purchase decision. In addition, many companies don't have a marketing department dedicated to customer research. Or, they may not have resources allocated for it.

An example of a B2B qualitative survey

B2B qualitative research is a way of understanding the needs, wants, and behaviours of your target market. It can help you to understand what your customers want, and how they make decisions. In addition, you can conduct a B2B qualitative survey to know what they think about your brand. This information can be used to develop new products or services that meet their needs, thereby increasing sales. Learn more about new product development in this post.

A good example of this is a recent project conducted by us. A leading accounting software company was looking for ways to improve its product offering in order to attract more businesses as clients. By conducting B2B qualitative research with potential clients we were able to find out what these businesses wanted from an accounting system. In particular, we also found out what the company could do to improve the product so that it would appeal even more strongly on first use.

Why is a B2B qualitative survey useful?

The answer is simple: when you want to understand something better. That could mean understanding your customers better, your competition, or even your market. It could mean understanding your product or service, or even your brand. In fact, the only reason not to conduct a qualitative survey is if you already feel like you know everything there is to know about your business.

If you’re in a situation where you feel like you have a good grasp of what it is that brought you here, then there’s probably no need to conduct a B2B qualitative survey. On the other hand, if there are still questions lingering in your mind about your customers or market, then conducting a qualitative survey is what you need.

Qualitative surveys can be useful for a number of reasons. They allow you to understand your customers better, they help you better understand what your competition is doing. Additionally, they can even give you insight into how the public perceives your brand. In fact, qualitative surveys are often used as part of market research. Through this research, companies can get a more holistic view of their customers or consumers.

It’s important to note that qualitative surveys are not the same as focus groups. A focus group is a more interactive process where people come together to discuss their thoughts on a topic or product. A focus group helps you gain insight into what they think about the topic.

What insights can you get from a B2B qualitative survey?

B2B qualitative surveys are useful tools for market research. They allow you to understand the needs of your customers, as well as their problems and expectations.

By conducting a B2B qualitative survey, you can learn more about how customers use or don't use your products or services. You will also be able to get an idea of what they would like to see in the future when it comes to updates or new features.

Qualitative surveys are particularly useful for B2B companies. They allow you to get feedback from your customers in a way that does not feel like an obligation. Instead, these surveys are more qualitative in nature.

Qualitative surveys are useful for any business that wants to learn more about its customers. They can be used for market research, customer feedback, and more. Qualitative surveys are not just a B2B tool; they can be used by any company looking to get insight into its market and customers.

How do you conduct a B2B qualitative survey?

The first step to conduct a B2B qualitative survey is to recruit participants. Typically, you will want to have at least 15 participants for each segment of your audience that you are trying to reach. For example, if you are marketing a product that caters primarily to business owners and executives, then the best way to find these people would be through LinkedIn or other professional networking sites.

Once you have recruited the right number of participants, it’s time for the interviews! Depending on how many people participated in your study (and what type), there are several different ways that could go down:

  • One-on-one interview with an interviewer present (an ideal option if there were fewer than 10 respondents)
  • Group discussion with moderator present (a good option when there were more than 10 respondents)

Once all interviews are completed and analysed, it's time for some conclusions about what you learned from your study.

The most important thing to remember is that you need to know who your target audience is before you can begin any marketing efforts. By understanding the needs, wants and desires of your audience, you will be able to create a product that fits those needs perfectly. This will help you build a strong brand that resonates with your target audience.

Once you’ve completed all of these steps, it's time to use your newfound knowledge to create an effective marketing strategy. If you want some help with this process, feel free to reach out!

Challenges in conducting this type of survey

In this section, we'll look at the different challenges to conduct a B2B qualitative survey. The first challenge that we often hear is, "Businesses don't have time to do anything like this."

Time constraints

Finding B2B decision-makers for a qualitative survey can take a lot of time. It is a limited resource, and it's hard to find the time to do anything that isn't directly related to the core business functions. But qualitative research is worth your investment of time, especially if you want to make better decisions about how you communicate with your customers or prospects.

For one thing, poorly designed or executed surveys can waste a lot of time and money! If you're doing market research on your own without an expert helping plan and execute the project, there's a good chance you'll run into problems like not getting enough responses from targeted segments. Or, you may have participants respond in ways that don't reflect reality. For instance, respondents can say that they would buy something when they actually never would.

The good news is that there are solutions for both these issues: having the right people involved in planning and execution; using survey tools, and planning ahead so there are no surprises along the way.

Finding survey respondents for a B2B qualitative survey

The next challenge is finding participants who fit your criteria. You need to be able to locate people who are in the right place at the right time, willing and available to participate. They must also have the time to do so and are honest and genuine. This can be extremely difficult because of how much time a qualitative survey takes up. In order for you to get enough responses back from your target population you may need upwards of 100 people per question for it to be statistically significant. You could end up with a sample size that is too large for what you really want or need from your research (a smaller sample will cost less money). Or worse yet, if there aren't any respondents who fit all these criteria then you could end up with no results at all!

How can you solve these challenges?

Before you can even begin to think about how to conduct a B2B qualitative survey, there are some things that you should consider.

  • First, understand your audience. Who will be answering these questions? What do they know? What are their goals when they answer these types of questions? For example: do they want to tell a story or just get the facts?
  • Second- consider the topic and purpose of your research. If you're conducting a survey on customer satisfaction specifically with product X and its features, then it may be useful to ask about specific aspects of that product. Consider what questions would help you gain insight into this area. What sort of information do companies need for making decisions about which products best suit their needs?
  • Thirdly—think about how you plan on using the data from this survey. Will you use it as part of an existing study or a new development process? How will learning more information from employees help make these processes better?

Using a survey platform for a B2B qualitative survey

If you're using a survey platform, make sure it allows you to create your survey in minutes. If you're working with a questionnaire builder, check that its templates are designed for B2B research. It's also good practice to keep the survey brief so that respondents don't get overwhelmed or confused by too many questions.

You also want to make sure your questions are clear and to the point without being too wordy or complicated. Here are some tips on how to achieve this:

  • Include an introduction at the beginning of your survey that outlines what they'll be answering (and why). This will help ensure that respondents understand what you expect of them and can answer each question accordingly.
  • Keep all questions short; one sentence is ideal! You might want to use bullet points or lists wherever possible as these can be easier for people who aren't well-versed in English grammar (or any other language).

You can uncover many valuable insights by conducting a B2B qualitative survey

Through conducting a B2B qualitative survey, you can uncover many valuable insights into your customers. You will learn what your customers want to buy and how they use the product. You'll find out what they like and dislike about your product. This information helps you identify problems before they become major issues.

A well-conducted B2B qualitative survey has the capacity to revolutionise the way that companies operate by providing them with an opportunity to interact with their customers and employees directly in order to gauge feedback on future products or services.

Qualitative surveys are a great way to gain valuable insights into your customers. The answers you receive from these surveys can help you identify problems before they become major issues. 

Conclusion

B2B businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve their products, services, and customer experience. While quantitative data can help provide insights into important business decisions, qualitative research can provide valuable insight into the perceptions of key customers.

Qualitative studies are an essential part of the research process. The insights they provide can be used to inform new product development, marketing campaigns, and more. They are also useful in measuring the effectiveness of existing products or services in the marketplace by evaluating customer feedback on these items.

Learn more about B2B qualitative research in our recent blog post.

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