B2B Sampling: Don’t bring your driver to the putting green

For researchers, if all we did was support studies with primary grocery shoppers, the world would be a better place. Deadlines would easily be met, budgets would have surplus, and we would all have plenty of free time to spend with friends and family.

As the original expert in sample acquisition and aggregation, EMI has learned that with new challenges come new opportunities to expand our reach and partner network. On a daily basis, we are asked for more and more difficult recruiting targets on the consumer, B2B, and healthcare fronts. Too often, we see clients make poor decisions in sample selection specifically around B2B sources, essentially pulling the wrong golf club out of their bag and ending up with a double bogey.

Throughout our 17 years on planet Sample, we have identified the following three sources for B2B respondents:

• Consumer/B2B hybrids – basically, those that do some basic profiling of their consumer panel and have some basic profiling points such as the industry in which they work, income, and, if we’re lucky, job title
• B2B specific – those typically focused generally on B2B sampling
• Niche panels – those that focus on a specific industry within the B2B space and specialize in construction workers, veterinarians, attorneys, or some other specialty group

Much depends on the client’s research objective and other factors like cost, speed, and quality.

• Be clear on the target audience and demand transparency from your sample partners on what exact profiling exists.
• Consider adjusting your screener or quotas to mirror panel profiling on things like title, company size, industry, etc.
• Include quality measures like industry specific red herrings or multi-tiered screening questions.

Recently we were approached by a long time client who had decided to use a panel who provided the cheapest CPI for an IT survey with software developers. After 2 weeks in field, they were nowhere near full quota, and the majority of completes delivered were not usable due to quality concerns. EMI was able to quickly present a blend of deeply profiled sampling partners and launch that same day. Within four days, the study was complete with 100% data quality scores, ultimately allowing the client to deliver insights on time and budget, without the headaches!

You wouldn’t try to win the Masters without a caddy, so don’t go to field for a B2B survey without the help of EMI!

Sincerely,

The EMI Team