Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 0 In their latest report on the state of the market research industry, ESOMAR estimate that just 4% of research spend is on business to business market research. That’s shockingly low. I took a sample of 400 companies which represent the UK business landscape: The 100 companies on the FTSE 100 Index 50 random companies picked from the FTSE All Share Index The 100 companies on the AIM100 index 50 companies from the Grant Thornton Fast Track Index 100 companies randomly picked from Companies House This reveals that 45% of UK companies operate in business to business markets (and many more have some business to business component to what they do). Yet despite this, business to business market research accounts for less than a twentieth of total market research spend. So why do business to business companies under-invest in market research? Well first off, the data may be distorting the true picture a little. ESOMAR’s 4% figure relates to the percentage of market research spend, not market research projects. As business to business market research requires smaller sample sizes than consumer studies, this tends to make them less expensive than their consumer counterparts. This means that the proportion of business to business market research projects may actually be greater than 4%. But in my experience, market research is less common in business to business markets and three cultural reasons seem to underpin this: Business to business purchases are seen as ‘rational’ which can lead to the mind-set that “it’s obvious what customers want, so we don’t need to ask” Business to business companies are often ‘engineering’ led. This can lead to a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality and an internal focus In business to business markets customer numbers are limited and relationships with sales teams close. This can lead to assumption (“I know my customer”), subjectivity (“I’ll ask them next time we speak”) and protectiveness (“that’s my customer”), none of which are conducive to conducting objective, independent market research And if anything, these attitudes seem to be becoming more entrenched. The 4% spend on business to business market research which ESOMAR reports, has halved from the 8% recorded in the previous year. It’s time that business to business companies woke up to the importance of listening to their customers and invested in market research. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article originally appeared on B2B market research agency and has been republished with permission.Find out how to syndicate your content with B2C Author: Andrew Dalglish Follow @circle_research Andrew co-founded B2B market research company Circle Research in 2006. Circle has since won various industry accolades (most recently two BMA B2 Awards) and works with numerous blue-chip clients internationally. He is a columnist for B2B Marketing Magazine, a frequent speaker at industry events and leads the B2B Barometer study for… View full profile ›More by this author:Do Online Survey Panels Work in B2B Research?Innovation in B2B MarketingSurvey Design Tips