How to hire the right B2B market research company

Better business decisions are fueled by quality insights. Yet in a sea of 46,000 providers, how do you find the strategic research partner who can source the exact audiences you’re looking for? Moreover, B2B audiences are notoriously tricky—it can be hard to find a provider who specializes in sourcing B2B audiences instead of retrofitting B2C methods like closed expert networks. We’ve outlined 4 key factors to consider in the research provider who will consistently deliver the best results for your bottom line.

1. Consistently innovating to find the exact audience you’re looking for

It’s a big world out there. For projects requiring niche audiences, it might feel like you’re grasping for invisible needles in an expertise haystack. When the business challenge demands hard-to-find audiences—from electric vehicle parking decision-makers to specialized algorithmic traders—you need a research partner with x-ray vision to find those needles.

We use our NewtonX Knowledge Graph, our proprietary search technology, to do just that. Rather than pulling from closed research panels with limited pools of expertise, we start with our graph’s open network of 1.1 billion professionals across over 140 industries. Like a search engine for specialized B2B knowledge, our granular search filters allow us to crawl vast datasets of professionals for deep domain expertise that’s not publicly accessible. With the help of automation, we hand-pick—or as we like to say, custom recruit—exactly the right people you’re looking for without compromising any nuance, at any scale.

2. Ability to verify professional expertise and eliminate fraud

Traditional B2B market research relies primarily on consumer-oriented panels where fraud can be rampant. Vetting for experience and verifying people for their credentials becomes nearly impossible to do at scale. 

At NewtonX, we work exclusively with B2B audiences and have custom built our process for them. We understand the importance of good data, the cost of bad data, and the imperative of finding the absolute best professionals to answer our client’s questions. This means ensuring they are all 100% verified with a two-step ID check to make sure they are who they say they are. Additionally, we provide clients the opportunity to connect with opted-in participants over phone to verify that the respondents have the necessary domain expertise.

3. Success in incentivizing participation

It’s tough to not only find the right participants, but also incentivize them to participate. For example, why would a CFO take a $10 survey? With traditional standards often borrowed from B2C research, the financial compensation is just a drop in the bucket for the decision-makers you’re looking for. A CFO making a salary equivalent to $240 an hour isn’t going to take the time to earn $10 from a 20 minute long survey. 

Look for a B2B market research company that understands the true value of expertise—not just time. If you’re looking for insights to assess a $10 million or $100 million decision, spending $200,000 (or, say 1%) to get high quality data is worth its value and more. 

Coupled with our custom recruiting process at NewtonX, offering fair compensation ensures that respondents have a positive experience from screening to survey. Because we find only the most relevant professionals and respect their time, our audiences are more likely to participate. 

4. Creative and collaborative delivery, no matter the ask

While business decision-makers need reliable data from highly specific populations, they also often need it at scale and at speed. Old models of research don’t always deliver, resulting in fraudulent data and wasted resources when pressed for time and budget.  

Thanks to our proprietary technology, we leverage automation and extremely high data processing capabilities to do the seemingly impossible. In one case, NewtonX was able to save a global management consultancy’s project by sweeping in to reprogram the entire survey and find a sample size of 400 highly niche algorithmic traders who used a specific source of financial data — all in just 10 days. We’ve also helped a top financial services company enter the US fleet industry market with 20 interviews in 15 days, along with 7 follow-up interviews.

Are you having incredulous moments reviewing fraudulent data? It’s time to rethink your B2B research partner. With the right strategic partner, you can trust that your data contains only relevant insights — so your team can stand behind your business decisions with confidence.