Busting 6 Common B2B Market Research Myths

Of course you want to base business-critical decisions on robust customer data. But are you hesitant about investing in the B2B market research that would give you these invaluable insights? Think it’s too expensive, time-consuming, or your business isn’t big enough? 

In today’s fast-paced market, having reliable data is crucial for making informed decisions. Let’s blast six common B2B market research myths right out of the water and show how to do B2B market research your way!

Myth 1: B2B market research is expensive

Yes, hiring ‘do everything’ market research firms is expensive. A quick google gives you eye-watering ‘average’ numbers between $20,000 and $50,000 for a custom market research project. Or, the more usual option for large market research firms’ websites – no indication of cost at all, just ‘custom pricing to match your needs’.

Everyone understands there are multiple factors involved in calculating a price for B2B market research projects, depending on what you need:

• Target audience: 1:1 interviews with decision-makers in niche markets, or wider surveys
• Primary and secondary research 
• Local or global view 
• Objectives: Are you answering one question, or looking for a more complex analysis?

But not having a baseline number to go from puts many marketing managers off making a discovery call, never mind investing in a full project. It can feel like B2B market research is only affordable for large, global companies with huge budgets.  

Busted!

But … B2B market research can be extraordinarily cost-effective, because you can avoid wasting money by testing ideas in the market, not just in your mind. Advancements in digital market research tools and data analytics help businesses of all sizes access valuable insights without breaking the bank. In fact, with ScoreApp, you can create an engaging market research quiz for free! 

Myth 2: It’s too hard to access high-quality data from the right people

Finding solid, accurate data is one of the main issues with B2B market research. It can be much harder to find the right research participants than in B2C markets. 

You might need to speak to the users of your product or service, or the decision-makers in your target organisations, depending on what you want to know. The wide world of B2B comprises thousands of niche experts with specific pain points. Finding the individuals who truly influence purchasing decisions is a significant challenge. 

B2B products and services often require a major financial investment, so organisations spread the responsibility of decision-making across their buying teams. You need market research insights into the brain of each team member. They all have a unique perspective and input into the purchase decision. For you, it’s not just about finding that one key person who holds the purse strings. You need to convince the whole buying team and keep them coming back for more. 

Busted!

ScoreApp makes this easier because you can quickly create different surveys to engage each brand team persona – giving them the most comfortable customer journey they’ve ever had!

Myth 3: Market research is time-consuming for everyone

‘No one’s got time to answer my questions!’ How many times have you thought that? It’s a major concern when you’re asking participants to get stuck into a market research project. And then there’s all the extra time you need to make sense of your data…

For respondents:

Problem: The B2B decision-makers you want to speak to have jam-packed schedules, which can result in low engagement with surveys or interviews. This limits the effectiveness of your whole research project. 

Busted! Survey fatigue is real! How many do you delete from your inbox, without even opening them? The answer is to give them something they actually want in exchange for their time and thoughts. ScoreApp makes it easy to create valuable lead magnets your audience can use immediately and even get them excited about being involved in your market research. 

For you:

Problem: It takes way too long to collect, collate, analyse, and disperse data insights.

Busted! Use a market research tool that tracks the right metrics, automatically analyses your data, and presents insights in easy-to-share formats. Your AI-driven tool will dramatically speed up the research process, getting you actionable results fast. 

Myth 4: B2B research doesn’t offer actionable insights

The whole point of B2B market research is for you to get actionable insights from trustworthy data that informs business-critical decisions. Your market research projects can guide key areas such as product/service development, customer satisfaction, and market positioning. 

A common myth is that B2B market research can’t do this because it doesn’t give the whole picture due to two main flaws:

• Getting real with your audience: Traditional market research methods may put people off articulating their real thoughts and feelings, especially in 1:1 interview situations. Reputation and job security risks are high when you speak truth to power. But your research insights are only actionable if the answers get right to the heart of your audience’s pain points, preferences, and needs. They must incorporate the emotional factors that influence buying decisions – trust, relationships, and risk aversion. 

• Looooooong processes: Long sales cycles and research timeframes can make it seem pointless to even start market research on a particular project. The prolonged decision-making process can make it difficult to assess the impact of marketing initiatives and to draw conclusions from data in real time. 

Busted! You can manage long sales cycles and get relevant research insights with a tailored ongoing market research strategy. And you can delve into the emotional aspects of buying decisions with anonymised quizzes that guide people through carefully crafted questions and give you analysed insights in real time. 

For example, you’ve got two potential ideas for new features and you’re not sure which one to go for. Set up a waitlist and ask the audience! Find out which they prefer and why – before you invest any money in development. 

Myth 5: Market research is only for big companies

Whether you’re a startup, micro business, SME, or global enterprise, your business operates in a market. That means you’ve got competitors! Accurately assessing competitors’ strategies and market positioning is a key component of B2B market research. Yes, it’s a dynamic market. 

B2B market research that embraces your context helps you:

• understand your target markets
• identify opportunities
• mitigate risks
• develop products and services with perfect product–market fit 
• create marketing campaigns that work
• hit the mark with pricing strategies
• differentiate your offering from your competitors’

You need this capacity to make data-informed decisions just as much as the multinational operators do. 

Busted!

ScoreApp makes high-quality B2B market research accessible to smaller businesses by offering an affordable and user-friendly platform that means you don’t need costly research agencies. Through its interactive quizzes and assessments, you can easily gather valuable data and insights directly from your target audience. 

ScoreApp gives you a scalable, simplified process to identify customer needs, trends, and preferences, without a massive budget or having to hire in-house specialists. So, as a smaller business, you can use your B2B market research insights to compete effectively, drive growth, and improve your offerings. 

Myth 6: Surveying clients is the only way to gather insights

Market research doesn’t just mean a list of questions you send to your email list in a (boring!) traditional survey format. There are so many different market research methods that give you a panoramic view of your market landscape. 

Busted!

There’s a whole host of market research methodologies for you to combine to create your research projects: 

• Quantitative research: A method of gathering numerical data to measure and analyse specific behaviours, preferences, and trends within a target audience. In B2B industries, it involves collecting structured data from businesses, professionals, or decision-makers to answer key questions about market dynamics, purchasing behaviours, product performance, or competitive positioning. 

By using tools such as surveys or analytics platforms and ensuring large, statistically significant sample sizes, quantitative research provides objective, data-driven insights that inform strategic decisions such as pricing, market entry, and sales strategies.

• Qualitative research: Explore the why behind behaviours, motivations, and decisions to get deep insights into how people think and feel. In B2B industries, it focuses on understanding the complex decision-making processes of key stakeholders through open-ended methods such as interviews, focus groups, and case studies. 

By uncovering pain points, needs, and aspirations, qualitative research offers rich, contextual understanding to complement quantitative data, helping businesses refine product development, customer journeys, and messaging strategies.

• Primary research: The process of collecting first-hand data directly from your target audience, industry experts, or competitors to address specific business objectives. In B2B contexts, it provides highly tailored and accurate insights through methods such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups. 

This helps you with market analysis, product development, customer feedback, brand perception, and competitor research. This original data is precise, actionable, and directly relevant to strategic decision-making.

• Secondary research: This involves analysing existing data collected and published by external sources, such as industry reports, government data, trade publications, social listening data, and academic studies. In B2B contexts, it provides a broad, cost-effective overview of market trends, competitor activity, and industry dynamics, serving as a valuable starting point for deeper investigation and helping refine primary research objectives.

ScoreApp: making B2B market research simple, affordable, and actionable

You see? B2B market research doesn’t have to be expensive, time-consuming, or just for the big players. We’ve busted these myths wide open! 

With ScoreApp, you can gather high-quality insights quickly, easily, and without breaking the bank. Our simple interactive quizzes and assessments help you engage the right people, uncover what really matters, and turn those insights into actions that drive results. 

Whether you’re testing ideas, refining products, or understanding your market, ScoreApp gives you everything you need to make smarter decisions and stay ahead of the competition – no fuss, no huge budgets, just powerful, actionable insights that help your business grow.

And you can try your first ScoreApp B2B market research project today, for free!