When we ask B2B customers about the reasons they choose the brands they work with, we hear similar themes crop up across various sectors: price, service, and product availability, to name just a few. We also hear similar themes raised as pain points related to working with chosen brands.

B2B decision-making on brands is a balance of a range of different factors. While customers may perceive the price offered by one brand to be high, excellent benefits and its industry-leading technology offering can justify what they’re asked to pay. Equally, customers may choose to forfeit added-value benefits offered by more premium providers, like additional training or resources, if the price point of another brand with a less sophisticated offering is too competitive to overlook.

Further Reading

3 B2B Pricing Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Read now

The Value Equivalence Framework

To evaluate the perception of brands within this ecosystem of different decision-making factors, we often use a simple questioning technique that asks research respondents to think in relative terms. This technique is called the value equivalence framework and consists of two very simple questions:

• How would you rate [BRAND]’s benefits versus other similar brands? Answered using a 5-point rating scale from ‘Significantly better’ to ‘Significantly worse’

• How would you rate [BRAND]’s price versus other similar brands? Answered using a 5-point rating scale from ‘Significantly more expensive’ to ‘Significantly cheaper’

The variables in bold are not always set in stone and can be tweaked to suit the brand in question. For example, you may want to measure quality and price if your brand is more product-focused (or even a different product-focused attribute). That said, it is recommended to include one attribute that is price or value-related, as this framework focuses on determining whether a brand’s value is justified by other parts of its offer.

Analyzing the Data

We tend to analyze the feedback from these two questions together, plotting the results on two different axes.

Taking the average score for both questions for the brand that is being rated, you will get your two data points for your two axes. This will give you your plot point for your brands, and you will be able to see how they are positioned against each other. As a general rule, your brand wants to be positioned on the right of the line; brands on the left of the line are more at risk of losing market share based on lack of perceived value.

To understand the feedback here, consider where the brands are positioned. Brand A is perceived as a more expensive provider, but its benefits are said to be significantly better than other brands, so it is in a comfortable position of a justified premium. You could even argue that Brand A has scope to increase its premiums further to get closer to the value equivalence line. By contrast, Brand B is perceived as having worse benefits, but its prices are also very low compared to others in the market, so its position is relatively balanced. You can add as many brands as you have data for to this chart so you can build a picture of the market landscape and see where your brand is positioned on value equivalence against other providers.

Further Reading

Competitive Landscape Analysis with Porter’s Five Forces Framework

Read now

When and How to Use the Value Equivalence Framework

The value equivalence framework is commonly seen in studies that touch on the market landscape a brand operates in and is a useful gauge for understanding how it’s perceived against competitors. To do this, you would need to make sure you ask respondents not just about your primary brand, but also about competitor brands. These should be brands that the respondents use so that they can give them a fair rating. You can play around with the results and compare data by segments within your sample to see if the perceived value of brands differs by group.

A final note: be careful of any potential bias in your sample and how this may impact the results. If you are interviewing your customers who you know are loyal supporters of your brand, don’t be surprised to see yours performing better than the competition – a representative market sample will give you a less biased view of this topic.

To discuss how our tailored insights programs can help solve your specific business challenges, get in touch and one of the team will be happy to help.

The post The Value Equivalence Framework: A Simple but Powerful Questioning Technique appeared first on B2B International.

A deep dive into the latest Superpowers Index reveals what’s important to professional services buyers, the top priorities for professional services marketers, and the key trends impacting the professional services sector in 2025.

The landscape of professional services marketing is evolving at an unprecedented pace. The Superpowers Index provides a comprehensive analysis of the critical factors influencing professional services buyers, highlighting their priorities and preferences.

This report delves into the essential insights from the research, offering marketers a strategic roadmap to navigate the complexities of the sector. By understanding the top priorities for professional services marketers and identifying the key trends shaping the industry, this report equips you with the knowledge and tools needed to excel in 2025.

The post What Marketers in the Professional Services Sector Need to Know to Win in 2025 appeared first on B2B International.

A deep dive into the latest Superpowers Index reveals what’s important to tech buyers, the top priorities for tech marketers, and the key trends impacting the tech sector in 2025.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of the technology sector, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for marketers aiming to make a significant impact.

This report delves into the findings of the Superpowers Index, offering invaluable insights into the preferences and priorities of tech buyers. This comprehensive analysis highlights the top priorities for tech marketers and identifies the key trends that will shape the industry in 2025.

The post What Marketers in the Technology Sector Need to Know to Win in 2025 appeared first on B2B International.

A deep dive into the latest Superpowers Index reveals what’s important to financial services buyers, the top priorities for financial services marketers, and the key trends impacting the financial services sector in 2025.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for marketers aiming to capture and retain customer interest.

This report offers a comprehensive analysis based on insights from the Superpowers Index. It delves into the core values and priorities of financial services buyers, highlights the top strategies for marketers, and identifies the key trends that will shape the sector in the coming year.

The post What Marketers in the Financial Services Sector Need to Know to Win in 2025 appeared first on B2B International.

A deep dive into the latest Superpowers Index reveals what’s important to manufacturing buyers, the top priorities for manufacturing marketers, and the key trends impacting the manufacturing and industrial sector in 2025.

As the manufacturing and industrial landscape continues to evolve, marketers within this sector must stay ahead of emerging trends and shifting buyer priorities to maintain a competitive edge.

This report delves into the critical insights from the manufacturing cut of the Superpowers Index, highlighting what matters most to buyers, the top priorities for marketers, and the key trends shaping the sector.

The post What Marketers in the Manufacturing & Industrial Sector Need to Know to Win in 2025 appeared first on B2B International.

An Interactive Guide to Leveraging Market Research to Deliver on Your CX Strategy

Customer Experience (CX) covers all the interactions that a customer has with your brand. From the customer’s point of view, if they can see it, smell it, touch it, taste it or hear it, it becomes a part of the customer experience – and therefore the brand.

Compared to B2C markets, B2B customer experience is more complex – there are more stakeholders, each with varying expectations. As such B2B CX strategies cannot be the same as those deployed in the B2C world.

Our research demonstrates that there is a significant opportunity for B2B companies to improve the experience that they deliver to customers. Evidence shows that B2B customer expectations are increasing but benchmarking data taken from our annual Superpowers Index, tells a story of static scores on key customer metrics such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) and overall satisfaction.

Whilst there is no one size fits all solution to B2B customer experience research, B2B International has over 25 years’ experience in enabling global B2B organizations make decisions that are grounded in evidence. We have developed this guide to explain how you can effectively leverage market research to deliver on your CX strategy.

To view the interactive PDF in full-screen mode, click here to open in a new window.

Readers of this article also viewed:

• B2B Insights Podcast #66: How To Effectively Target B2B Buyers in 2024 & Beyond
• How to Ensure Representative Samples in Customer Research
• When to Use Qualitative Research to Better Understand Your Customers and Their Needs
• Buyer Personas: How to Research, Develop and Activate Buyer Personas in B2B
• Customer Journey Mapping in B2B Markets: A Comprehensive Guide

The post A Best Practice Guide to Assessing CX in B2B Markets appeared first on B2B International.

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In this episode of the B2B Insights Podcast, B2B International’s Conor Wilcock and Simi Dhawan discuss the challenges marketers face when targeting B2B buyers and how they can use segmentation to overcome these challenges.

Key discussion points:

• The complexity of customer needs and the competitive landscape
• The importance of differentiation in B2B
• Personalization of buyer experiences
• Challenges with data privacy
• How to conduct and use customer segmentation
• Benefits, risks, and pitfalls of segmentation
• How to make segmentation actionable through creative outputs

Listen to the full episode:

Listen on Spotify >
Listen on Apple Podcasts >

Watch the full video:

Read the full transcript:

Jump to section:

• Main challenges facing marketers
• How marketers can effectively market to their audiences
• Benefits of implementing a segmentation strategy
• Risks and pitfalls with segmentation
• Key trends and considerations for successful segmentation projects

Conor: Hello and welcome to the B2B Insights Podcast. I’m Conor Wilcock, Managing Director at B2B International, and I’m joined by Simi Dhawan, Senior Research Director, for an important discussion on the challenges marketers face when targeting B2B buyers and some of the things they can think about to overcome these challenges.

This is particularly important for B2B companies who need to engage a varied customer base with complex needs, whilst at the same time balancing tighter marketing budgets.

In this episode, we’ll explore this challenge alongside delving into segmentation as an important opportunity to effectively target B2B customers.

Main challenges facing marketers

Conor: To start things off, Simi, what would you say are the main challenges marketeers need to keep in mind, based on your experience?

Simi: You mentioned it earlier but marketers have been experiencing tighter budgets since the pandemic and we expect this trend to continue. However, there’s a dichotomy here between tighter budgets, alongside more complex customer needs, expectations and buying decisions, as well as more competition. Brands therefore have to work harder to stand out.

Conor: That’s my experience too and our recent Superpowers data certainly backs this up. Would you agree?

Simi: Definitely…. there’s a number of trends we’ve observed within this wave of Superpowers that suggest that marketers have an increased challenge in making their brand stand out. Our latest wave of Superpowers speaking to over 14,000 B2B buyers globally since 2021 has shown there’s more decision-makers involved in B2B purchasing decisions than ever before – over 7 on average, where this is growing by roughly 6% every year. B2B organizations can’t rest on their laurels since there’s also more brands being considered.

Conor: I’d agree, it’s been quite telling to see that even a third of incumbents have been losing out to other brands which is higher than we observed last year! So, marketers certainly have to work harder than ever to win against the competition.

Simi: I’d go even further and say that they probably think they are doing a better job to stand out from the crowd than they are since we found that 7 in 10 felt they were communicating a distinct USP and brand position whilst 7 in 10 buyers actually felt that B2B brands ‘..have very similar messages’ and ‘all sound and act the same’.

Further reading

Market Segmentation in B2B Markets

Read more

How marketers can effectively market to their audiences

Simi: I suppose the key question then is what is it that marketers can do to more effectively market to their audiences and stand out from the crowd?

Conor: That’s the key question! I suppose what we’ve seen is the power of personalizing experiences and marketing efforts to the needs of buyers.

Whilst on the one hand, it makes sense for marketers to place focus on the aggregate needs of the organization, increasingly, we are finding that the needs of the individual are key and as you mentioned earlier, there are more buyers that are involved in decision-making, so it’s being able to talk to the needs of buyers at different levels – from the senior decision-makers right through to those in more junior or influencer roles.

Marketers should really be demonstrating they understand the day-to-day working world and challenges of these individual buyers. They need to show that they are willing to tailor their offering to fit their needs.

Simi: I think that’s really at the heart of everything we’ve seen and when B2B brands do deliver more personalized brand experiences, they are able to reap the benefits.

On this topic, I’d read something interesting* which said that traditionally, buyers would be happy to share their personal details in exchange for more personalized marketer’s content. However, with increasing concerns about data privacy, fewer buyers are willing to part with this information before they are doing business with a company. What would you say to marketers facing this challenge?

*https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/technology-marketing/tech-insights/the-rise-of-self-personalised-buyer-journeys

Conor: I think brands can have a human face and offer more tailored experiences without expecting customers to part with personal information upfront.

One effective means is through creating a customer segmentation. With this approach, marketers can seek to better understand their diverse range of customers and use this insight to replace a ‘one size fits all’ marketing strategy into one which is more tailored. Segmentation allows B2B marketers to group customers into ‘like’ segments, for example, because they have similar needs, behaviors, attitudes, firmographics or indeed a combination of these.

This means they can create more targeted value propositions and messaging for each segment they wish to serve, whilst also identifying which segments might be less attractive or aligned to their offer. All of this helps to drive efficiencies in their marketing efforts and resources, which in view of marketing budgets being squeezed, can only be a good thing!

Simi: I think it’s interesting because whilst we are discussing business-to-business, we’re also focused on a more personalized approach for individuals – all of which have their expectations set at what they might experience elsewhere in their consumer lives too.

For example, if we think about subscriptions such as Netflix, we can see personalization at play with personalized content recommendations based on analyzing user behavior. Similarly, B2B brands are adopting a similar approach and an example we’ve seen from our recent Superpowers research is HP, who have been successfully running account-based marketing campaigns that help their sales and marketing teams to understand their target customers better, communicate the right messages to them and connect with them better on both a functional and emotional level.

Further reading

Best Practices For Implementing Segmentations

Read more

Benefits of implementing a segmentation strategy

Simi: I think risk and reward are two sides of the same coin, so it would be helpful to explore both for a more balanced discussion for our listeners. Focusing on the reward first, how would you summarize the benefits of implementing a segmentation strategy?

Conor: Well, you could treat all customers the same as a segment of one and try to market in the same way to everyone, but this could result in a business being too generalist in its offerings and marcomms and could be detrimental because it doesn’t demonstrate the tailored approach that B2B business buyers value.

On the flip side, in a perfect world, we could argue that every customer has unique needs and so we should be treating each customer as its own segment, however, this is impractical and inefficient to deliver in practice so we need an approach that is effective and practical. Segmentation is that compromise. It’s a tailored approach to marketing rather than a one size fits all and as we know a more personalized experience can drive commercial benefits.

Simi: What sorts of commercial benefits can be achieved by tailoring a marketing approach in this way?

Conor: We’ve observed that B2B businesses that adopt more personalized experiences can enjoy winning in contracts of higher value, shorter sales cycles and obtaining higher loyalty levels from their customers. However, as our recent Superpowers research demonstrated, only 5% of B2B experiences are delivering fully on this, so there’s an opportunity here.

Risks and pitfalls with segmentation

Conor: You mentioned risk versus reward earlier, so whilst there’s clear benefits to segmentation, what would you say are some of the possible pitfalls to be aware of?

Simi: First and foremost, I think it’s important to identify your business goal for running a segmentation. If your goal is to better understand your existing customer base, which segments are most attractive to focus attention on or increase your sales or loyalty levels amongst these, then it makes sense to run a segmentation project focused on speaking to your existing customer base.

Beyond this, if your goal is to build market share amongst prospective customers or build your brand then you may need to cast the net wider and conduct a market segmentation to include existing and prospective customers. There’s different approaches to designing these studies and so it’s important to understand the main business focus.

Once you identify the type of segmentation project that’s right for you, there’s some common pitfalls to be mindful of.

It might sound obvious, but the first is making sure you have a manageable number of segments – too many of these and you might find that some of your segments are too small or niche to serve and that there’s too many to action. If you have too few, you might find that segment needs or characteristics are too broad and they aren’t tailored enough, so it’s important to get the balance right.

Going back to a point mentioned earlier, it’s also important to determine upfront what you want to achieve from the segmentation. If the main point is to create suitable value propositions and marketing messages to different customer groups, then you’re likely going to benefit from a needs-based segmentation which is led by grouping customers based on their needs and challenges. However, if you’re wanting to use the segmentation to allocate customers within your CRM, then you may well need to place more emphasis on customer firmographics such as customer type, sector, size and so on, so they are easier to characterize.

Conor: I agree, I think the project design is key and led by the outputs needed. There’s lots of factors to consider as mentioned but also even thinking about whether we are after quantitative measurement to allocate segments or some qualitative understanding of the segments too.

Further reading

Buyer Personas: How to Research, Develop and Activate Buyer Personas in B2B

Read more

Key trends and considerations for successful segmentation projects

Simi: We have seen a growing rise in projects which combine both quantitative and qualitative elements, for example, with persona development. If you had to summarize, what would you say are the key trends marketers should watch out for when it comes to successful segmentation projects?

Conor: Firstly, I think segmentation is changing in terms of how B2B businesses are using this. I think traditionally, we’d place more emphasis on segmentation to group different customers, but now, as you mentioned, there is an added layer in terms of persona development which takes things further by bringing the segmentation to life so that marketers can target individual fictional buyers based on similar characteristics and behaviors. Persona development also helps B2B teams to more clearly identify the segments so these are less abstract and more relatable in a way.

Secondly, I’d say that there does appear to be a growing trend and interest in our clients wanting to integrate their internal data, such as on their CRM with any segmentation or persona data from the research. Again, this is brilliant because it talks to a desire to action the findings by having the data to empower you to personalize your marketing and messaging which as we discussed earlier, is a key means that businesses can stand out from the crowd.

Simi: Thanks Conor, on the last point, I think this is key and ultimately for a segmentation to be successful, it needs to be actionable. It’s a big reason behind why there’s so much value to our clients that we have an in-house statistics team, as to help our clients, we’ve been able to create customized tools that help them bridge the gap between their data and ours, such as by having a segment allocation tool which helps to easily identify which customer or future customer falls into which segment.

I’d also add that the internal cascade and understanding of the segments is key since our clients should be able to easily understand the segments or personas in order to action them. So further to having a statistics team, having a wider creative offering through our in-house teams within B2B International and dentsu means we can really bring the segments to life through visual representations, videos and so on, which can be more engaging than a PowerPoint deck!

Conor: Thanks Simi….I completely agree and I must admit, some of the outputs we’ve seen on segmentation studies are definitely amongst the most creative, so watch this space on upcoming projects!

For those listening, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes.

To explore more of our content on how segmentation research is used to inform successful business outcomes, or to subscribe to our B2B Insights Newsletter, please visit B2B International’s Insights Hub.

The post B2B Insights Podcast #66: How To Effectively Target B2B Buyers in 2025 appeared first on B2B International.

Reaching the right audience is crucial for any research project, embodying the principle of “Quality In, Quality Out.”

B2B International excels in recruiting and researching diverse target audiences, and engaging senior professionals is among the most challenging. The more specific the audience, the tougher it is to recruit participants, especially those in senior roles.

Despite the dominance of online methods for a wide range of target audiences, high-level executives and decision-makers are often time-poor and hard to reach. Experienced recruiters can target specific individuals based on their professional backgrounds, roles, and interests.

Where appropriate, B2B International deploys a human-led recruitment approach, which helps to break through the noise of everyday life to encourage participation. This approach also acts as an initial quality control checkpoint, ensuring that the right person is recruited into studies.

Targeted recruitment can provide audiences with different opportunities to participate—completing immediately in real-time, being invited to complete a follow-up online survey, or arranging a pre-scheduled interview at a convenient time. The key is to allow participants to feel empowered by the research and the decision to contribute, rather than sending an easily deleted unsolicited email (we’ve all been guilty of this).

B2B Insights Podcast

#62: How to Achieve World-Class Quality in B2B Market Research

Listen now

Central to recruitment in market research is the question of incentivizing participation to recognize the time given in sharing their views. Traditionally, online panels tend to offer lower incentives (with incentives varying based on agency and budget restrictions), which generally have low appeal to senior professionals. Personal recruiters can aid this by establishing a personal connection, building trust and rapport, which encourages participation.

This can be coupled, where possible, with offering participants a unique incentive linked to the research. Sharing a summary of the results, or a subset of results with those who contribute, can encourage participation as it can be positioned as an exclusive or early view of insights relevant to them, their role, or their industry. And who doesn’t like a sneak peek!

There will always be a place for online research; the ease and speed will continue to be appropriate for a large proportion of audiences. However, where audiences can be considered hard to reach, the benefits of targeted recruitment should not be overlooked.

B2B International benefits from experienced in-house CATI and interviewing teams. Reach out to the B2B International team when you are next planning to talk to the people that truly make the decisions and help guide your strategy.

To discuss how our tailored insights programs can help solve your specific business challenges, get in touch and one of the team will be happy to help.

The post How to Reach Senior Professionals in B2B Market Research appeared first on B2B International.

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In this episode of the B2B Insights Podcast, B2B International’s Beata Miklosz and Niklas Heitland share their favorite strategic frameworks to develop winning value propositions.

Key discussion points:

• The importance of creating value in business
• The role of frameworks in market research
• The Value Proposition Canvas
• The Three Circles Framework
• The Kano Model
• The Push-Pull Framework

Listen to the full episode:

Listen on Spotify >
Listen on Apple Podcasts >

Watch the full video:

Read the full transcript:

Jump to section:

• Importance of Creating Value in Business
• The Role of Frameworks in Research and Analysis
• The Value Proposition Canvas
• Competitor Analysis with the Three Circles Framework
• Understanding Customer Needs with the Kano Model
• Push-Pull Framework for Introducing New Propositions

Importance of Creating Value in Business

Beata: Hello and welcome to the B2B Insights podcast. My name is Beata Miklosz. I’m a Research Director at B2B International in Germany, and I will be the host for today’s episode. I’m joined by my colleague Niklas Heitland, who is a Senior Research Executive in Düsseldorf. How are you, Niklas?

Niklas: I’m very good. I hope the weather is better for you in Munich today, but thanks for inviting me. I’m really looking forward to today’s discussion.

Beata: Thank you very much. Yes, the weather is really nice today, and thank you for accepting the invite. I’m super excited about today’s topic because we will be discussing our favorite frameworks for creating winning value propositions. I think the topic of value should really be at the heart of every business, whether it is about the value for our customers or about creating value for society, our employees, or potential employees. This should be the ultimate goal for every company.

Very often we speak about growth and looking for new growth opportunities, which is super important. However, if we do not create true value for customers and other stakeholders, the business will not grow. If we really focus on creating value, growth will follow naturally. As mentioned, today we will be talking about our favorite frameworks. You’ve been with the business now for almost three years. What do you think about using frameworks in research? What role do they play?

The Role of Frameworks in Research and Analysis

Niklas: Yeah, I imagine frameworks like a dessert in a restaurant. You’ve gone through the main course, which is our whole analysis packed with numbers, data, and insights. The goal is to finish with a bang, like a memorable dessert. When it is a good ending, you remember it even more and in a good light. That’s where frameworks come in for good research. They take all this prior analysis, which can sometimes be overwhelming, especially for other departments not deeply involved in market research, and wrap it up in a way that’s easy to digest. Ideally, you should be able to glance at the framework and immediately see what the results are saying about your research and what the key themes are.

A solid framework should be accessible to everyone, even those not deeply involved in market research. You can share it across the whole company, and everyone will understand the main points. That’s why I think frameworks are a really important part of good research. It’s a good way to end the report and summarize everything again.

Beata: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. I like that you mentioned frameworks are not only used by market research or marketing specialists. They can be used by anyone in the company. Frameworks are great for summarizing data and showing the most important findings in an understandable way. They are also great for gathering ideas and organizing insights we already have for brainstorming within the organization.

Frameworks can be used both at the end of the process, as you mentioned, and at the beginning when you want to organize thoughts and identify what information is still needed to make solid decisions. Essentially, frameworks can be used throughout the market research and strategic processes by anyone in the organization, regardless of their role.

Now, let’s dive straight into our favorite frameworks.

The Value Proposition Canvas

Beata: So, what is your favorite framework for creating winning value propositions?

Niklas: Yeah, thanks for asking. My favorite framework is the Value Proposition Canvas. Think of it as the heart of your business model. It’s all about the promise you make to your customers—the unique value or benefit they get from your services. For example, in our market research, it’s not just about what you sell in the end, but why it actually matters to them. Creating a strong value proposition is key for your marketing, pricing, and overall success.

The Value Proposition Canvas is a great tool that can help you nail this down. It’s split into two parts: on one side, you look at your customers and what they need; on the other side, you focus on how your services, like our market research, meet those needs. When these two sides match up, we achieve what’s called a problem-solution fit.

Ideally, that’s the spot where we want to be with our services. Going into more detail, on the right side, we have the customer segment. You want to create a separate canvas or model for each customer group or persona. This helps you understand which part of your offering will resonate with each audience, as different audiences have different needs.

Further reading

What is the Value Proposition Canvas?

Read more

On the right side, you have the customer jobs—these are the tasks your customer needs to accomplish. This isn’t about your product yet; it’s about addressing the needs and goals of the chosen customer segment. When we talk about the jobs customers have, we’re listening to everything that matters to them, including functional, social, and emotional aspects.

You ask yourself: What tasks and jobs does the customer need to accomplish? What strategies do they use to solve these tasks? When and in what context do they need to complete these tasks? For example, a startup company might want to understand the market potential for their new app or product. Their jobs could include identifying target demographics (a functional job), validating their business concepts (an emotional job), and presenting data-driven insights to potential investors (a social job).

Of course, they will face some pains—things that cause frustration while trying to complete these tasks. For example, a startup might find it difficult to collect accurate and comprehensive data on their own, which is a significant barrier.

Beata: Yeah, for example, they might need to spend a lot of time on this, which is also a pain. Or the investor might not trust the data or understand it, as you just said.

Niklas: Exactly. Then they will have some fears about whether their product will meet the market’s needs and the challenge of convincing investors. These are pains that will occur on the customer side. We can also look into gains, which are the benefits for the customer experience. These are the advantages they gain from completing their task. It’s not about the product yet, but rather the satisfaction the customer feels when they successfully accomplish their goal.

As part of this framework, you focus on identifying these positive outcomes for your customer and how they would feel if they accomplished their goal. For example, when a company hires a market research firm and gains detailed and reliable data, they get confidence in their product and can present this data to investors. This results in many gains for the customer, such as gaining trust in their product and feeling satisfied.

Always remember, customers don’t buy products or services; they hire them to do a job for them.

Beata: I definitely agree with you. The Value Proposition Canvas is also one of my favorite frameworks. You mentioned different customer groups and how important it is to consider the needs, expectations, pains, and gains of these different segments. Within a company, there is often more than one decision-maker involved. Especially in the B2B space, decisions are often complex and made by groups.

For example, in an industrial company, the production manager might focus on smoothly running production, while the person responsible for sustainability will look at achieving the best possible sustainability index. Meanwhile, the purchaser might be more concerned with savings. It’s important to think about the different tasks of different people within the organization. The Value Proposition Canvas is a very handy and useful tool for creating value propositions.

Niklas: Exactly, completely right. It’s really important to keep an eye on this point. To continue the framework, on the left side, we look at how our services can meet those needs. As a market research company, we have pain relievers—our services that relieve the pain of collecting data. We can make the whole process smooth, provide accurate insights, be cost-efficient, and use advanced data tools and analytics to ensure our reports are spot on and easy to understand. It’s not just about the products; it’s about achieving actionable and good insights.

So, that’s why they hire us to do this. We provide gain creators, such as data, analytics, predictive modelling, and more, depending on what the customer needs. We can also offer market opportunities, dashboards, and visualizations to present everything in a clear and engaging way. Beyond frameworks and reports, we use our skills and knowledge to deliver valuable insights for the company. Some examples include market analysis reports, personalized consultation services, workshops, and training sessions. These services help relieve the customer’s pain points and provide gain creators, ensuring their satisfaction.

We stand out by offering value beyond the product itself. The goal is to achieve the perfect problem-solution fit. When our value proposition effectively addresses the customer’s needs for good market research, and we align our services with the customer’s jobs, we achieve this fit. This means our product is perfectly tailored to the customer’s needs, providing the ideal solution for their pain points. This creates enthusiasm and high satisfaction among customers, leading to repeat business and a strong reputation.

That’s why I think this framework is so important. It really nails down what the customer needs and what we can provide. If done correctly, it brings significant advantages and helps us stand out as a company.

Beata: I think it can be used by any kind of business. You mentioned the market research industry, but the Value Proposition Canvas can be applied to any business, whether you produce machinery, provide coloring shampoos to hairdressers, or develop software. By focusing on customers’ jobs, pains, and goals, you have a high chance of being successful in the market.

However, there are aspects not covered by this framework that can be addressed by another one of my favorite frameworks: the Three Circles Framework. This framework focuses not only on customer needs but also on the strengths and offerings of our competitors and our own strengths.

Competitor Analysis with the Three Circles Framework

Beata: The ideas and findings we summarize in the Three Circles Framework highlight areas common to all three circles. These include aspects that customers need and expect, aspects in which competitors are also good and deliver, and aspects we deliver as well. Often, these are hygiene aspects that must be delivered to be successful in the market. It’s normal for some areas to be common among all competitors.

There are also aspects important to customers that only some competitors can deliver, and we might not be able to deliver them at the moment. Additionally, there are aspects we can deliver that customers need, but other companies cannot. These aspects are our true differentiators—market-relevant features that set us apart from competitors. It’s crucial to develop, communicate, and market these differentiators. Delivering a product or solution that already exists in the market and is offered by others doesn’t bring true value to customers. Using this framework helps create winning value propositions by focusing on market relevance and competition, ultimately leading to success.

Further reading

How to Apply the Three Circles Framework in Strategic B2B Research

Read more

Niklas: Exactly. It’s a good framework for identifying differentiators, which is crucial in today’s market where there are so many services available. Finding and highlighting the most important differentiators is essential. Every company should consider incorporating this framework into their strategy. You mentioned aspects that need to be delivered by everyone, which brings me to another framework I like to use in customer value proposition projects: the Kano Model.

Understanding Customer Needs with the Kano Model

Niklas: The Kano Model is used in market research to prioritize product features based on customer satisfaction. It helps businesses understand which features will delight customers and which are simply expected. I like this framework because it identifies basic must-have features—essential features every customer expects. These features won’t significantly increase satisfaction, but if they are missing or not functioning properly, customers will be heavily dissatisfied.

Beata: Like you mentioned with the train, I’m thinking about the internet. It should be a basic expectation that when you work from home, the internet is reliable. It’s not something to boast about if you’re an internet company, but it should be delivered. It doesn’t make me super happy if the internet works, but it makes me very angry when I have problems with it.

Niklas: That’s a very good example. I think everyone has experienced that. Furthermore, we can also see performance features, which have a direct impact on customer satisfaction. The better these features are, the more satisfied the customer will be. For example, the battery life of a smartphone—there’s no doubt that a longer-lasting battery directly connects to satisfaction. Then we have excitement features, also called delighters. These are unexpected things that can greatly increase customer satisfaction when present, but they don’t cause dissatisfaction when missing. They’re like hidden gems that customers don’t expect but appreciate when they find them. For example, when you purchase something and get an extra goodie, like a free accessory or extra points, it raises customer satisfaction significantly.

Further reading

Using the Kano Classification Model to Quantify the Importance of Product Features and Attributes

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Beata: I think these delight features can really increase satisfaction disproportionately. Of course, delight features might not be as important during the decision-making process as performance features. For example, when buying machinery, you might compare energy efficiency, price, and material. However, if the company also offers something extra, like additional training for employees or sustainability activities, it can delight customers and make them feel special. I’m glad you mentioned the Kano Model because it’s important to realize what features and aspects of our solution play what roles when creating a value proposition.

It’s not necessary to highlight hygiene features; they just need to be developed to a satisfactory level. For performance features, it’s important to ensure we are better than competitors. We also need to have delight features, which again ties back to differentiators.

Niklas: Exactly. I couldn’t agree more. It’s a great way to see which features of our products are important to customers and what we should market. Sometimes, what we think is different as a company might not be perceived that way by customers. This framework helps us set the right focus and can bring many advantages. I think every company should consider incorporating this business model.

Push-Pull Framework for Introducing New Propositions

Beata: Yeah. And there’s also one more framework that I think is worth discussing: the Push-Pull Framework.

When you introduce or want to introduce a new proposition to the market, it’s important to consider the factors that will help or enable customers to switch from the current solution to the new one. It’s also crucial to understand what can block the switch. You can have a great solution, but if customers can’t switch to it, you won’t be successful.

In this model, we think about aspects that support the switch, such as problems with the existing solutions or dissatisfaction with some features. On the other hand, there are aspects connected with your solution, like the benefits of the new offering. Then, we have the blocks, which can be connected to the current solution. For example, the current solution might be deeply integrated into systems and production processes, making it hard to change.

Further reading

Using the Push-Pull Model to Successfully Bring New Products to Market

Read more

In banking, many companies are reluctant to switch providers because of the difficulty in informing all partners. Even as customers, we are often unwilling to switch to a new web provider. This applies to all kinds of products and software that are well integrated into systems. There are also blocks connected to your solution, such as concerns about whether your system can be easily integrated and if all features will work smoothly.

It’s good to be aware of these aspects so that when you develop your value proposition, you address all the problems and enhance the pull factors. In your communication, inform clients about the positive aspects of the product and features that make the switch easier.

Niklas: Exactly. It’s very important and a good way to see what you should push and pull, as the name suggests.

Beata: Of course, there are other useful frameworks that can be explored by decision-makers in business. We hope these four examples show how frameworks can support decision-making and market research analysis. If you’re interested in learning more about creating winning value propositions or using frameworks in business and research, we invite you to subscribe to the B2B Insights Podcast. You can also visit our Insights Hub at b2binternational.com/insights.

For now, we’ll finish our discussion. Niklas, thank you very much for accepting the invite and sharing your thoughts on your favorite frameworks. I hope to speak to you soon.

Niklas: Thank you for inviting me. If any of our listeners have a favorite framework, we’d love to hear about it. Let us know what you think is a good framework or what you use daily. Thank you.

The post B2B Insights Podcast #64: The Best Frameworks to Develop Winning Propositions appeared first on B2B International.

An important part of every customer research program is a representative sample. Often this is oversimplified into a focus on response rates or quota targets, but this can be misleading in isolation. To understand why, we need to look more closely at what it means for a sample to be representative.

Total Survey Error

A helpful way to frame the idea of representation is through the theory of Total Survey Error (see Groves et. al 2009) as it conceptualizes a survey and the errors that can occur. According to the theory, errors introduced into a survey can either be caused by variance (which refers to a random deviation from the true values) or by bias (which refers to a systematic deviation from the true value). A sample can be said to be fully representative if it is free from bias and the more bias that exists, the less representative the sample is. Common statistical approaches can accurately predict variance in the form of confidence intervals, but bias is often less predictable and we can only attempt to identify and mitigate each potential source of bias on a case by case basis.

So what does this mean in the context of customer research?

Further Reading

AI in Market Research: The Challenges and Limitations of Synthetic Data

Read more

Sample Error

Calculations used to estimate variance assume the sample selected to be random, which means without any systematic deviations. Sometimes however, systematic deviations can arise in the sample and these are called bias. These bias can emerge from a number of sources but when considering customer research, the two principle concerns are under/over coverage and non-response bias.

Under/Over Coverage

One important source of bias is the sample frame (the list from which the sample respondents are recruited) that is provided. In customer research, the universe (the total population you are trying to learn about) is usually all of the customers that have used or bought your services/products within a certain time period. In a perfect setting the sample frame would cover exactly this universe. However, there might be certain people that are missing from this list (this is called under coverage) or are on the list but don’t belong there (this is called over coverage).

Common examples include where contacts have switched companies and the email address you had for the company therefore becomes invalid, or very new customers who have not made it into your system yet. This can result in repeat customers or those with greater direct sales contact being more likely to have correctly listed contact details in the sample frame and therefore introduce a bias towards these types of respondent in our sample. This can be a problem when these sorts of customers also tend to be more satisfied as it skews our results towards their more positive experience and could hide underlying issues experienced by the under-covered group.

How can you tackle this bias? Firstly, you should ensure you have the most accurate customer lists possible, which will not only benefit customer research but also all other marketing activity and internal company processes. This means maintaining the customer lists and keeping all relevant information up-to-date, including removing or replacing clients/email addresses that have become irrelevant. The second step is the selection of customers that participate in the research. As mentioned earlier, it might be tempting to only survey a subset of customers that are expected to be satisfied, however, this will not provide an accurate and representative picture of the customer base and will eventually backfire as it hides the dissatisfied. An easy answer for who to select for a customer research study is severyone. If this is not possible/reasonable, there should only be random samples drawn to ensure the subset of customers is representative of all clients.

Further Reading

Going for Gold: A Lesson in Poor Survey Design

Read more

Non-Response Bias

Another important source of error that we have less control over is the non-response bias. This refers to the bias that is caused by those people who made it into the random sample but did not respond to the survey. As long as the total sample size is large enough this doesn’t immediately become an issue, but under some circumstances certain types of customer will be more likely to respond to the survey invitation than others. This introduces a systematic bias which we refer to as a non-response bias.

Reasons for non-response in customer research are various. Some of these reasons we have control over, such as keeping the survey design interesting, ensuring there is enough time to finish the survey, and ensuring privacy. Others we have less control over, such as survey fatigue for respondents, time constraints for busy respondents, or respondents that spend less time on a desk and are therefore less likely to respond. It is important to try and prevent possible non-response by informing customers prior to the survey, giving multiple chances to reply to the survey, ensuring an interesting survey design, keeping the survey as short as possible, and making it as easy as possible for the clients to respond.

But what about the reasons that we do not have control over? As a certain non-response share is inevitable, a prominent measure has been established to get an understanding of the non-response bias that results from non-response to surveys; the response rate.

High response rates are perceived to be positive, while low response rates are negative. Although there is a certain connection, research shows that high response rates do not necessarily mean more accurate data, only a lower risk of non-response bias (see Groves and Peytcheva 2008). This is mainly due to not knowing what causes the non-response to the survey.

There are various different approaches suggested by research on how to handle this situation (see Wagner 2012), but the one most applicable to customer experience studies is cross-checking with frame data. Although this is not a panacea, it brings some additional information on non-respondents and can increase confidence in the representativeness of the sample.

In this context, frame data is information that is available to you about your customers; commonly, there might be information available like job role, country, and gender, but this can be anything at all. Once the survey is conducted, we can compare the true values (the distributions of those variables in the entire customer list) with the ones from the survey.

If we find a close match between the customer research sample and the entire customer list, the risk of non-response bias decreases. If we find differences we can take steps to mitigate this (seeking additional sample, weighting responses etc.). The limitation is that this approach needs reliable information from the customer list. This kind of information is not always fully available or accurate and there may only be a weak connection between the frame variables and key metrics in the survey. Despite this, it can provide an additional safeguard against bias and so should be used wherever possible.

Further Reading

The Case for Custom Research: The Pitfalls of Standardization and the Quest for Uniqueness

Read more

Takeaways

Representativeness is a more complex challenge than most people realize. While it may be impossible to ensure a fully representative sample, we should make every effort to identify potential sources of bias and correct for them where possible. The first step towards this is having a comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date sample frame. This adds some more context to our data and is a useful substitute for response rates to judge the risk of non-response bias.

References

Groves, Robert M. and Emilia Peytcheva (2008). The Impact of Nonresponse Rates on Nonresponse Bias: A Meta-Analysis. Public Opinion Quarterly.72 (2).167–189. https://doi. org/10.1093/poq/nfn011.

Groves, Robert M., Floyd J Fowler, Mick P. Couper, James M. Lepkowski, Eleanor Singer und Roger Tourangeau (2009). Survey Methodology. Edition 2. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

Wagner, James (2012). A comparison of alternative indicators for the risk of nonresponse bias. The Public Opinion Quarterly.76 (3). 555-575. DOI: 10.1093/poq/nfs032.

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The post How to Ensure Representative Samples in Customer Research appeared first on B2B International.