Market research. Sounds about as thrilling as a Monday morning Zoom call, right? But you’d be wrong, because doing your own research is one of the few marketing moves that actually saves time, money, and awkward “why didn’t we see that coming?” meetings.
What on earth is B2B market research? It’s basically detective work. But instead of a trench coat and magnifying glass, you’ve got LinkedIn, surveys, and a half-decent CRM.
Unlike B2C (where you’re poking around in the minds of individual shoppers), B2B is about figuring out what other businesses need, who’s making the decisions, and how you can swoop in as the answer to their prayers.
At its best, research helps you:
• Spot fresh market opportunities
• Understand what your customers actually care about
• Keep a beady eye on competitors
• Build products that don’t flop
• Market yourself without shouting into the void
Here’s the catch
Most businesses think buying a glossy industry report counts as “doing research.” It doesn’t. That’s like saying you’re a Michelin-star chef because you own a frying pan. If you want to stand out, you need your own data. That’s where the magic happens.
You might also need to convince C-level that it’s worth the effort. One CEO’s response to my suggestion that we needed research was to say, “If you ask people if they want faster cars, the answer will be yes, so why waste time doing research?”
My answer. Research will reveal if they really want a car – some may be concerned about traffic pollution and want a better bicycle. You don’t know how big a car they want, their preferred colour, electric, diesel, or petrol. What features they value most and what they dislike in your competitors’ vehicles.
A quick story (the good kind)
One of my clients swore blind their prospects were the CEO’s PA. That didn’t make sense to me. So a quick review of the CRM found the economic buyer was actually the Head of HR. No survey required, just analysis of existing data in the CRM.
We changed the target persona and, surprise!, response to cold emails improved 27%.
Now for the disasters
Skipping research can make even giants look like mugs.
Take Microsoft’s Zune. Remember it? Exactly. It was meant to rival the iPod, but Microsoft assumed people cared more about ‘sharing tracks wirelessly’ than, say, design or ecosystem. They didn’t. Zune tanked, and Microsoft wrote off millions. A couple of focus groups could’ve saved them the pain.
And in B2B land? Quibi is a classic. A $1.75 billion video streaming platform for mobile that assumed busy professionals wanted ‘quick bites’ of Hollywood-quality content between meetings. They didn’t ask the market. They just built it. Within six months, Quibi was gone.
Research doesn’t just make you smarter. It saves you from looking daft.
A tale of two launches
Here’s where it gets interesting. Well, mildly interesting.
Slack (the win): Before launching publicly, Slack ran a private beta with thousands of companies. They obsessively gathered feedback, tweaked features, and polished the product based on what actual teams said they needed. The result? When Slack went live, it spread like wildfire in the B2B world. Within two years, it was the darling of workplace tools.
Google Wave (the flop): Remember Wave? Probably not. Google thought it would revolutionise business collaboration, but they skipped the bit where you actually check what users want. It was over-engineered, confusing, and lacked a clear value proposition. Within three years, it was quietly put to sleep.
Same space. Same ambition. One listened, researched, tested. The other assumed, built, and flopped.
The real gold: unique insight
Doing your own research makes you look clever. Share it in a blog, a webinar, a reports or even on LinkedIn, and suddenly you’re not just another company peddling services – you’re a credible “thought leader.” Translation: people trust your brand more.
You want to see an example, don’t you? OK, check out this video for Curo Services.
When you collect your own insights, nobody else has them. Not your competitors, not that bloke spamming motivational memes on LinkedIn, just you. The results can be tailored to your audience and knock spots off generic reports from the big firms (hello Gartner).
Here’s the fun part. By talking to actual humans (your customers and prospects), you find out things that change the way you market, sell, and build.
Some of the goodies you’ll dig up:
• Who’s worth targeting (and who isn’t)
• What pain points are really keeping your prospects up at night
• Which trends are creeping up behind you and your audience
• Where your product needs tweaking before it’s mocked in a customer review
• How to save money by not chasing dead leads
• The language your audience uses so you don’t sound like a robot
Tools that make life easier
You don’t need a PhD in statistics. Just a decent toolkit and a bit of patience. Try these:
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator for sniffing out decision-makers
• Google Analytics to see who’s lurking on your site
• SmartSurvey for, well, surveys
• SEMrush or Ahrefs to stalk your competitors’ keywords
• A CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce to connect the dots
Pro tip: don’t overcomplicate it. Start small. A quick survey, a few interviews, maybe a peek at analytics. The point is to build insights you can use, not a 200-page report nobody reads.
Ready to start?
Here’s the thing: B2B market research isn’t about looking smart in board meetings (though that’s a perk). It’s about making better decisions, cutting wasted effort, and building stuff people actually want.
My favourite? Creating research-based reports that deliver real value and knowledge to a target audience. If I download a report, I’m asking “teach me something I don’t already know”. Invariably, insightful survey results provide that answer.
Do it yourself, and you’ll stand out. You’ll also stop throwing money at campaigns that never land. Which, let’s be honest, is a win for everyone.
Any questions? Drop me a line. I’ll do my best to answer. Or subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss out on more stuff like this.