[Webinar Recap] The future of B2B research starts with the death of panels

Understanding panel dynamics and what motivates participants

One of the first things that we have to understand is the clear difference between what makes real professionals respond to B2B surveys compared to traditional consumers in B2C panels. While the latter is almost exclusively motivated by compensation, a real professional is more complicated than that.

So what motivates professionals to participate in B2B surveys? According to research published by Scott Worthge, the top reasons are:

1. Making my opinion known/heard 
2. Compensation paid in cash or a cash equivalent
3. Exposure to new ideas
4. Gaining information helpful to my role

Karine Pepin shared what her experience was like after signing up for a consumer panel. “I calculated that out of 260 attempts, roughly over 70 hours of survey taking…I screened out 68% of the time and completed 32% of the time. So for all this time I earned $51, which works out to be $.72 cents per hour.” 

The result of this painful process is an ecosystem that encourages people to become professional respondents or bend the truth to qualify.

Approaches for enhancing data accuracy

Understanding what life is like for panel participants helps dispel the idea that senior decision makers are simply waiting around for the next survey link. Jimmy Coonan highlighted that targeting the right professionals is the crucial first step to ensuring data quality. “Simply recruiting humans isn’t enough; you need to thoroughly verify their qualifications and relevance for the study before sending them a screener,” he stated. By adopting an open network approach to recruiting professionals, leaders are able to avoid fraud by targeting individuals that are a good fit for their project. NewtonX is on the cutting edge of this approach by sourcing professionals with an AI-driven search that finds and recruits B2B audiences at scale.

After you find the right professionals, you still need to create a survey experience that will resonate with them. Quality professionals are often slower and more intentional with answers, so leave space for variation and make sure your project design is engaging. Pepin provided a project framework she has used in the past for reaching niche audiences:

1. Start with qual before quant 
2. Design a thoughtful questionnaire informed by qual
3. Create a survey designed with engaging questions, images, and friendly dialogue 
4. Test the experience (not logic) by people who don’t live and breathe surveys
5. Blend the best sample sources with robust profiling + strong security

Strategies to identify poor quality panels and mitigate fraud

Targeting the right professionals makes sense, but fraud abounds when panels are incentivized to get completes at all costs. “Fraud thrives where there’s little oversight, and in the current panel landscape, it’s rampant,” Pepin warned. 

Here are four red flags that will help you identify and eliminate poor-quality panels from your vendor list:

• Unrealistic feasibility – “Sure we can get you 150 CTOs from the Fortune 500.”
• Never push back on requests – Be wary of vendors that always agree and don’t provide a perspective on what is realistic. 
• Low CPIs – Use the common sense test, would a CFO really take a survey for $10?
• Lack of transparency – They’re not forthcoming about their sample sources.

The future of B2B research is custom recruiting professionals

As the B2B landscape evolves, it’s clear that the future of research lies in moving away from traditional panels and embracing more targeted approaches to recruitment that reduce the possibility of fraud. Be intentional when choosing your partners and select one that is motivated by quality, not quantity.