Editor's note: Daniel Oromaner is president of the Qualitative Difference, Inc., Port Washington, New York. This article was adapted from a presentation made before last year's ARF Conference.
Although more companies are conducting business-to-business focus groups each year, many have found the consumer group model cannot be directly applied to industrial work. The unique circumstances of business-to-business research call for different methods and procedures.
There are five key areas of difference between industrial and consumer qualitative research projects: specialized recruitment, limited populations, confidentiality, subject matter expertise, and dominant group members.
Specialized recruitment
Although most focus group facilities are located in suburban areas-where they are convenient for consumers to visit from home or on their way home- most industrial research projects are easier to recruit from a downtown facility. In downtown areas there is a higher concentration of businesses, and more opportunities to recruit early morning, lunch time, and evening groups. In addition, some metropolitan areas have higher concentrations of certain industries-i.e., advertising or media in New York, computer-related in Silicon Valley. In selecting a city, you should generally pick a location where you will find the largest selection of qualified respondents.
Once the city has been chosen, the focus group facility/recruiter must be selected. Since consumer research still dominates in most markets, care must be taken to select a facility that has extensive experience in business-to-business research. Industrial recruiters must understand business decision-making, organizational reporting relationships, and how to get through secretaries to reach the right person.
Business-to-business recruiters must also recognize that respondent specifications are critical and non-negotiable. Generally, there is no such thing as someone who is "close" to the specifications in industrial research. Either they are the decision maker or they are not, either they use a spread sheet program or they don't, either they understand "full duplex transmission," or it is out of their realm of expertise.
Good business-to-business recruiters must also know how to get the qualified people TO SHOW. Consumers generally come to groups for the money and the opportunity to get out of the house and meet some new people. Business people come to focus groups to learn something from their peers, to have their egos stroked, to discover a new product or service that their competitors don't know about yet, to have an impact on the marketplace, AND for the money.
Industrial research is also different because sometimes recruiters must reveal the name of the client's company or the type of client sponsoring the research in order to successfully recruit the right people. Owners of quick printing franchises will come to groups sponsored by a copier manufacturer, but they probably won't come to groups sponsored by a competing franchiser.
Business people often want to know what they will be talking about in the group, who will be there, and (often) who is sponsoring the research. They LOVE to learn new developments in their field, and to hear the experiences of their peers. They also appreciate the opportunity to network with those who are in positions to help their business or their career. All of these factors can be mentioned during the recruiting interview to encourage reluctant respondents.
Sensitivity to the needs and lifestyle of busy managers, executives, and owners is also required. Sometimes lunch or breakfast groups are advised, or short, in-depth interviews during the work day. Recruiters must know when these are appropriate alternatives to the standard 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. focus groups.
Limited pool of respondents
When conducting research with some types of respondents (i.e., MIS directors, telecommunications managers), their limited numbers and the sheer quantity of research conducted may require you to accept respondents who have participated in other focus groups within the past year, six months, or even 90 days. In some industrial categories, if there are any "virgin" respondents left, it is only because they NEVER have and NEVER will attend a focus group!
Sometimes you personally must research the same decision makers year after year. In those instances, how the respondents are treated by the facility and moderator determines if they will return. Some participants may also be present or potential customers of the (identified) sponsor of the research. These respondents must be treated with the utmost consideration and respect. Sometimes you may have to interview all qualified respondents who show up, rather than limiting it to a group of six or eight, because these business people want to participate. Most industrial respondents do not want to be paid and sent home without participating after they've "psyched" themselves up for the discussion.
When there is a very limited pool of respondents, and you have interviewed most of them in a focus group series, should you then do a quantitative survey with the same people? If you thoroughly understand the respondents' points of view, and they ARE the universe, why go further?
When I have interviewed 50 or 60 buyers and potential buyers of a piece of equipment or business-to-business service, I generally do not recommend follow-up quantitative research. There is no need to project from the sample; we know the opinions of most of the key population. To my knowledge there is no equivalent situation in consumer research.
The last consideration determined by the limited pool of respondents in business-to-business research is that the group members may be competitors, potential competitors, and/or they might already know each other. Might this affect the quality of your information? Yes! Is there something you can do to mitigate the situation? Yes!
What I have found works best when faced with a room full of competitors is to explain up front that they will not be asked to divulge proprietary information, nor will they be pressured to answer any question they wish to avoid. I have found that if you give them the freedom to say no, they generally will not use that right- and they will freely tell you everything you need to know.
Confidentiality
Although confidentiality concerns may arise in consumer focus group research as well, they are not as common or as critical as they are in industrial focus groups.
First, as was mentioned previously, sometimes in the course of recruiting business people it is necessary to divulge the name of the sponsoring corporation. In those instances, the respondents will not only learn of a new product idea, they will also know which company is developing it.
Second, since most industrial markets are smaller than consumer markets (and there is more communication between them), there is more concern about respondents revealing to others within the industry what they learned in the focus group. These potential breaches of confidentiality may be mitigated somewhat by thorough security screening and the use of confidentiality agreements signed by each respondent prior to the group discussion.
The third issue relating to confidentiality is quite unique to the business-to-business marketing research arena. What if a member of the client's marketing team hears a potential large customer say in a focus group discussion that he or she wishes a sales representative would call relating to the products or services discussed? Is that information used, or is a large sale passed up in order to completely separate the research from the sales function?
What I do in this type of focus group situation is try to have an agreement up front with my client to determine the sponsoring corporation's preferred reaction to this temptation, If there is no agreement up front, I will wait until the group has concluded and then ask the potential customer/respondent if he or she would like me to pass along that request for a sales call. If the respondent wants a sales representative to call, I do not consider it a violation of research principles to pass on the information. Both the respondent and client benefit from this communication.
However, the fourth and final point relating to confidentiality is that information gained in the backroom of a focus group session should NOT be used by the client unless he or she is acting in response to a group member's request. In other words, unsolicited sales calls should not be made as a result of focus groups, and information about customer needs revealed in a research discussion should not be used to better the client's standing with individual respondents. Again, business-to-business research often draws from a limited pool of respondents. If group members hear their focus group words repeated back to them in unsolicited and unwanted sales calls, they may curtail or eliminate any future focus group participation.
Subject matter expertise
In the case of consumer qualitative research, either the moderator knows more about the subject matter than the respondents, or they are on about the same level of expertise. Furthermore, consumers do not necessarily expect or need the moderator to be an expert on the subject matter. They will gladly explain their actions or reactions, providing more depth and texture to the research.
On the other hand, business people expect that either the moderator will have a working knowledge in their field, or at least have sufficient understanding so that the group is not bogged down by having to explain basic points.
I have found that it is not necessary for the moderator to be an expert in the field (as some believe). It is easier to take a professional moderator and provide him or her with sufficient background through a client-prepared briefing paper on key issues and technical terms than to take a subject matter expert and teach him or her group management and research skills.
In some cases, it has been necessary to have a technical expert in the focus group room during part of the discussion to demonstrate and/or answer questions about a new concept or piece of equipment. That person needs to be thoroughly briefed in advance about his or her role, and should not be the idea's prime supporter.
The technical expert should be able to answer questions and present concepts in a matter-of-fact way, a hard sell approach might bias the results in one direction or the other. It is also imperative that the moderator maintain control of the group discussion. No matter what his or her actual position is, the technical expert is in the group as an assistant to the moderator, and that relationship should be crystal clear to all group members.
I have also found that over time and repeated projects in an industry, the moderator's knowledge of the industry will expand to the point that less client involvement will be necessary to clarify points either before or during a group session.
Dominant group member
Subject matter expertise also plays a role from the respondents' side in business-to-business research, often encouraging a dominant group member.
While it is certainly possible and common to have a respondent in a consumer group vie for group leadership with the moderator, it is generally difficult for such a person to establish a leadership position on the basis of anything other than personality characteristics. Not so in industrial research.
Quite often a respondent will be respected and thrust into a leadership position by the other group members on the basis of his or her position, years of experience, or particular expertise. While it is important to secure the opinions and reactions of these individuals, it is also important to make sure they don't unduly influence the opinions of the other group members-or worse, intimidate them into silence!
Certain actions can be taken by the moderator to minimize the possibility of a dominant group member, and to deal with one should he or she appear:
In setting up the project, specific questions can be included in the screening questionnaire to select those with an acceptable level of knowledge and experience. Business-to-business focus group members should be as homogeneous as possible in their background and current job responsibilities. Those with much higher levels of experience and job responsibilities can be questioned in a separate mini-group or one-on-one interview.
No maker how diligent the recruiting process, there will still be intra-group differences in knowledge on particular subjects. Thus, I always state in my introduction that there are differences in background and experience among the group members; all opinions are valuable, and at times there will be disagreement, which is natural and acceptable.
There have also been projects where because of their nature I had respondents with very different backgrounds and levels of education around the table. For example, I did a study for a major financial institution where I had very highly paid real estate attorneys, real estate sales representatives, building inspectors, and small real estate investors all in the same discussion group. The income range of the participants was from $30,000 per year to $300,000 per year. In order to minimize any potential dominant influences, I did not ask (nor let) these people introduce themselves with any information relating to their occupation or employer. All they knew was that they each had some involvement in the real estate industry, and with that limited information they related very well.
A technique that I also use at times in consumer research is to have participants write their answers to key questions before giving them verbally. This guarantees originality of response, and once a group member has committed himself or herself in writing, they will generally offer that answer even if it is the minority opinion. (I also ask them to write their first names on the papers, and I will check their responses when I am writing my report to make sure that what they said agreed with what they wrote.)
In instances where one or two respondents do disagree with the majority, I have found it to be important to support their individuality through my words and non-verbal reactions. In those instances, I stress that what each has to say is important, and I remind the group that at the beginning I mentioned that there would be some disagreements-as there are in the real world.
One of the most interesting questions relating to the effects of group members on each other is the question of education in the group. In consumer research, the participants are generally educated by the moderator or the materials distributed. This is a controlled education process and it is easily considered in analyzing their reactions. In business-to-business research, the moderator must be aware of how much respondent-to-respondent education is taking place, and its possible effects. At times, this educational process must also be controlled.
For example, in a consumer group if a respondent says she doesn't like the taste of toothpaste XZ, the other group members will not necessarily conclude that brand XZ doesn't taste good. However, if the telecommunications manager of one of our largest corporations recounts the problems encountered with a particular long distance carrier, respondents who have not had personal experience with that carrier will probably take that advice very seriously.
Thus, at times it is necessary to order the discussion in such a way that this type of education does not take place until after key questions have been addressed. In addition, when group members do educate each other, I ask myself if it is something that might have happened in the real world. Do they normally share experiences with colleagues? Could this conversation have happened on the job, or at a conference? The artificiality of the focus group situation must be considered in analyzing the results of business-to-business focus groups.
I also recommend videotaping industrial focus groups in order to help identify who made which comment. Often the respondents will have different backgrounds and needs - it is important to know how each has reacted to the concepts and ideas presented. When the groups are not videotaped, I will try to call on respondents by name as much as possible so that I can identify their comments when I listen to the tapes.
This technique also minimizes the influence of potentially dominant group members, as you can identify minority opinions, even if they are only voiced once. In addition, since those respondents who try to dominate tend to interject similar comments over and over, you can differentiate that situation from having many respondents presenting and agreeing with a particular point.
The final technique to minimize the potential influence of dominant group members is to keep group side small. Business people love to talk about their occupations and their industries. The more knowledgeable they are, the more they have to say. In a group of 10-12 you will certainly have 3-4 who say very little because they are not aggressive enough, or feel others have more to say. Therefore, group size should be limited to 6-8 so the moderator can make sure that each participant has sufficient time to provide his or her input.
Conclusion
We have seen that special care and advance planning are needed for successful business-to-business focus groups. Industrial research is different from consumer research because of the demands of
- specialized recruitment
- limited pool of respondents
- confidentiality
- subject matter expertise
- dominant group members
Business-to-business focus group research is generally more expensive than consumer focus group research because of additional recruiting and incentive costs. But the reality is, we receive the professional opinion and expertise of key business people, who often purchase thousands of dollars of our products. Therefore, if done correctly, the $40-50 per hour that we pay them is actually a bargain. Most of us probably pay more to have someone fix the office copier!