In B2B markets, customer perspectives are crucial because there’s often no off-the-shelf data that fully captures the nuanced needs and mindsets of clients. Unlike consumer markets, B2B environments usually have fewer customers, making it essential to dive deeply into their goals, fears, and motivations. It’s often said that “customers tell the truth about businesses.” By identifying the right people and conducting enough calls, investors gain an unbiased view of a company’s value proposition and how it measures up against competitors.
Customers provide deeper details of why they are paying for any particular Tech.
Customers give more details on how the tech is helping their business.
And most importantly what the solution could be missing or what they wished the technology did differently!
Customer calls often yield deeper insights than calls with industry executives. While executive experts can provide high-level views and strategic insights, they may sometimes have an idealised perception of how customers view their company. Customers, however, offer direct insights into their actual experiences, views on the company, spending behaviour, and sensitivity to pricing - valuable details that often can’t be fully understood by executives alone.
An outsourcing business where the sell side was hesitant to allow access to key customers due to concerns over potential client dissatisfaction. Despite the buy side's reservations, the deal went through. Just two months after the acquisition, the business's largest customer decided to leave, creating a significant financial hole in the investment. Had the buy-side been able to speak with the client beforehand, they would have learned of the customer's dissatisfaction, potentially preventing the deal from moving forward. The lesson here is clear: avoiding direct customer conversations can lead to missing critical insights that might change the outcome of a deal.
On the other hand, a contrasting example from the software space, where engaging with a large customer provided a very different outcome. In this case, there was concern that the client might leave due to shifting industry preferences towards a competitor. However, after speaking with the customer directly, it became clear that they were very satisfied with the product and had no intention of leaving. This firsthand customer feedback not only provided reassurance but also helped move the deal forward by eliminating one of the major risks.
The key takeaway from both examples is that engaging with customers, whether to uncover potential issues or confirm satisfaction, is an essential part of the due diligence process.
Surveys are an increasingly valuable tool in the B2B space. However, challenges in finding the right survey partner and panel, as B2B surveys can sometimes be a bit of a "black box." This means it’s difficult to be sure if the right people are being reached and to avoid false positives.
To mitigate this, screening participants and using specialised panels, such as those from trade magazines. Additionally, web scraping is another valuable tool, particularly when researching industries like professional services or IT-managed services. Leveraging platforms like LinkedIn, combined with AI tools like ChatGPT can help gather data quickly and efficiently.
However, in other industries where the information is too technical or not accessible, partnering with an expert network such as Afrorian, can support the agency to get unbiased actionable information quickly, which then supports the agency to budget appropriately for campaigns prior to starting, and therefore, saving money.
