Create the Perfect Customer Journey with B2B Market Research

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.” Muhammad Ali

It often seems like the B2B buyer’s journey is an uphill struggle – for all concerned. B2B market research puts you right in your customers’ shoes so you can feel their experience of your company and figure out how to be the perfect guide. 

Not just at a surface-level ‘are those boots your size?’ way. But really getting into if they’re pinching across the toes, or providing the perfect ankle support.

A good B2B market research strategy means you’re always attuned to both the negative and the positive aspects of your customers’ journey. Directing your resources to exactly the right place, at exactly the right time, with exactly the right thing. 

You just need to identify the pebble in their shoe first…

The importance of the customer journey in B2B

In the B2B world, the customer journey is key to understanding and optimising every step, from first impressions to post-sale support. With multiple decision-makers involved, mapping their journeys helps you cater to everyone’s needs and build lasting relationships. 

It also ensures you’re delivering clear value and ROI at every stage – before, during, and after the sale. By continuously analysing the journey, you can spot friction points, seize opportunities, and fine-tune the experience to boost satisfaction, retention, and growth. It’s all about creating a seamless, impactful journey that keeps customers coming back for more.

Unique challenges of mapping customer journeys in B2B 

• Complex decision-making process: In B2B, decisions often involve a team of stakeholders, with their own priorities. Mapping these layers can be tricky but is key to understanding the full picture.

• Longer sales cycles: B2B sales take time, with touchpoints that stretch across weeks, or even months. Tracking these over a longer period helps you stay on top of every stage in the journey.

• Diverse touchpoints: From in-person meetings to digital interactions, B2B journeys cover a lot of different terrain. Capturing each moment ensures you don’t miss any critical insights.

• Customisation requirements: B2B solutions are rarely one-size-fits-all. Every client’s journey is unique, making it crucial to map out personalised experiences.

• Data silos: With different teams using different tools, getting a clear view of the customer journey can be tough. Bringing it all together is essential for spotting trends and making improvements.

• Customer expectations for value and ROI: B2B customers are all about results. Mapping where you might fall short in delivering value helps you stay ahead of their expectations.

• Post-purchase engagement: The journey doesn’t end with a sale! Implementation, training, and ongoing support are all key touchpoints that need to be mapped to keep clients happy and engaged.

• Limited direct feedback: B2B clients may provide less frequent feedback compared to B2C. ScoreApp helps you understand their experiences and make data-driven improvements.

Here are your five steps to creating smooth customer journeys using B2B market research.

Step 1: Define your target audience

Understanding your target audience is the foundation of effective journey mapping. By identifying key customer segments, you can ensure every step of your strategy resonates with the right people.

For example, in the SaaS industry, a company selling project management software might segment their audience into HR managers seeking tools for onboarding and IT departments prioritising integration capabilities. Each group requires tailored messaging to address their specific pain points.

In B2B markets, research is vital for uncovering insights about decision-makers – their roles, challenges, and priorities. It’s crucial to highlight that the person making the purchase decision may not be the end user of your offering. Do you know how they both feel about your product, service, and brand? 

Consider a manufacturing business selling industrial equipment: the procurement team may focus on cost-efficiency, while the operations manager might prioritise durability and uptime. Understanding these distinctions helps you design messaging and products or services that directly address each set of objectives.

ScoreApp simplifies this process by analysing audience data to inform segmentation in real time. Your business is powered by insights which inform nuanced refinements across strategies that drive engagement, lead generation, and sales – because you’re speaking directly to the pain points, needs, and aspirations of each member of your buying teams.

Step 2: Map the existing customer journey

You can’t figure out how to get where you’re going if you don’t know where you are! Understanding your current customer journey is the first step to making meaningful improvements. By using market research tools to identify the key touchpoints and interactions customers have with your brand, you can gain valuable insights into their experience. Tools such as customer interviews, feedback surveys, and analytics help capture what’s working and what’s not. 

Imagine trying to improve a journey without knowing where it starts or where the bottlenecks are – you’d be making changes in the dark. ScoreApp quizzes are a great way to pinpoint roadblocks in your customer journeys, to enhance their overall experience.

Step 3: Identify pain points and opportunities

Spotting gaps and frustrations in the customer experience – like unclear messaging or slow response times – is crucial for making changes that truly matter. In the B2B SaaS world, onboarding can feel overwhelming if clients aren’t getting the right support at the right time. By digging into customer feedback and analysing the data, you can uncover these sticking points and turn them into opportunities to delight your customers.

With ScoreApp, you can collect direct insights into what your customers value most, in real time. Let’s say your clients mention they need more intuitive onboarding resources. Acting on that feedback and quickly solving the problems they highlight will make them feel valued. 

When you address pain points proactively, you don’t just meet customer expectations, you exceed them – and set the stage for long-term success.

Step 4: Design an optimised customer journey

Aligning the customer journey with their needs, preferences, and behaviours is the secret to creating an experience that truly resonates. Every customer is unique, so understanding what they value at each stage of their journey – whether they’re seeking information, considering options, or ready to make a purchase – ensures you’re engaging with them in a way that feels personal and relevant. This optimisation drives stronger connections and improves conversions, because customers feel heard and understood.

Market research is key to making this happen. By gathering data through feedback, surveys, and analytics, you can make informed decisions about things like messaging, your choice of channels, and the perfect timing for each touchpoint. 

For example, ScoreApp assessments can tell you:

• When customers are most engaged: the day of the week, the time of day
• What topics are top of mind: from what’s trending in their industries to worries that are less publicly discussed
• The communication method they prefer: like getting a better response from email follow-ups after a webinar

By applying these insights, you can make clients feel like they’ve teleported straight to your checkout and who wouldn’t want to keep repeating that experience?

Step 5: Test, refine, and iterate

Nothing in business is static – including your customers’ buying behaviours and their feelings about your brand and your offering. B2B customer journey market research isn’t a one-and-done situation. You need to create an ongoing market research strategy that evolves with your customers.

Designing the best customer journeys requires ongoing testing, assessment, and refinement of every stage. What worked yesterday might not resonate with them today, and what’s effective now may need tweaking tomorrow. That’s where feedback loops, analytics, and tools such as ScoreApp come in. By regularly collating insights from your customers and analysing their actions, you can make data-driven adjustments and keep the experience fresh and relevant.

Measuring key metrics is crucial for understanding how well the journey is performing.

• Track conversion rates to see how effectively your touchpoints are turning leads into customers.
• Monitor engagement levels to gauge how interested and involved your customers are at each stage.
• Keep an eye on customer satisfaction to ensure you consistently overdeliver and delight.

ScoreApp helps with all this (and more!) by providing real-time feedback and detailed analytics for identifying areas for improvement and making timely changes. By continuously testing, measuring, and refining, businesses can ensure their customer journeys stay effective, keep customers engaged, and drive lasting success.

The power of research-driven customer journeys

In B2B, market research is the essential foundation of building deep understanding for long-term success. Your customers benefit from your laser-focused attention to detail and feel your empathy at every touchpoint. They have no reason to look elsewhere. 

By prioritising high-quality market research, you’ll always be in tune with your customers and ahead of the competition. ScoreApp’s superpower is uncovering your key market research insights in real time so your customers always have the smoothest path to purchase with your brand.

See how it feels to wield ScoreApp’s power for your business, for free, today!