B2B Research: What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)

Designing B2B research around the realities of how business audiences engage and make decisions

• Improving engagement with busy B2B audiences through audience-led methodology design.
• Lessons from Ipsos SME and startup research, including the role of CATI and asynchronous qualitative approaches.
• Designing research around how businesses make decisions, from owner-managed SMEs to complex stakeholder groups in larger organisations.

Applying design thinking principles to better reflect real-world B2B decision-making

Presented by: Ruth Awori, Ipsos

Why job titles can be misleading in B2B recruitment 

• What actually works (and what doesn’t) when trying to reach the right people in complex B2B organisations.
• In B2B research, the “decision maker” is often not the person with the senior title. Decisions are increasingly made by multiple stakeholders across changing organisational structures, making it difficult to recruit the right participants and generate reliable insights.
• The aim of the session is a practical look at why title-based recruitment often fails in B2B research and how to identify the people who actually influence decisions.
• Tips on how to screen for real influence and involvement and how better audience targeting improves insight quality

Presented by: Rachel Cope, The Business Advantage Group

Are You Talking to the Right People? 5 Ways to Ensure High-Quality B2B Data

• Using pilot data as a sense-check to confirm you’re reaching the right audience (and refining screeners early)
• Identifying “too perfect” responses as a sign of AI or low-quality data
• Spotting anomalies in tracking studies to flag potential sampling issues
• Cross-checking screener responses vs. survey answers to catch inconsistencies
• The importance of clearly defined terms in screeners (and adapting these by region)

The talk is based on first-hand experience with data quality challenges, including recruitment issues, survey fraud, and misaligned audiences, with practical takeaways throughout.

Presented by: Abbie Ormston, B2B International