For any market research study, but especially B2B and medical/healthcare studies, recruiting the right people is as important as asking the right questions. B2B and healthcare studies study outcomes will be determined by the knowledge of the recruited participants, which is why extra attention must be given to screening guide questions and familiarity with connecting to harder-to-reach communities.
Finding first-rate recruits for B2B and healthcare market research studies requires specialized knowledge of the industry, which is why we have dedicated teams of recruiters whose sole focus is recruiting for either B2B or medical/healthcare studies. You can think about recruiting for general consumer studies as Little League and recruiting for B2B and healthcare studies as the Major League.
We’ll share with you three tips for improving recruiting outcomes for specialized studies.
Tip #1: Narrow Down Your Qualifications
Recruiting for specialized studies takes more time and effort than recruiting for a general study. It’s easy to succumb to the temptation to accept anyone into the study who meets the minimum requirements and hope for the best. The problem with this tactic quickly becomes apparent once the study is underway and the focus group conversations don’t reveal any meaningful insights.
A robust screening guide will help the recruiter find people who will add value to the study. It isn’t unusual to conduct a double screening for B2B and medical studies. The extra effort you spend upfront will pay off in spades once the study gets underway.
Tip #2: Don’t Use Panel Firms to Fill your Study
Panel firms are an okay choice when looking for lots of people to take part in a quantitative study, but you’ll likely discover that such firms don’t have the expertise, industry knowledge, or professional networks to reach qualified participants for B2B and healthcare studies.
We’ve recruited for hundreds of B2B and healthcare studies and we can attest to the extra work it takes to fill such studies. In our early years as a company, we didn’t have the staff to specialize into different study sub-categories, which made recruiting for specialty studies more challenging. Over time we recognized that if we wanted to offer the stellar results our clients expected then we needed to devote resources into building out specialty recruiting teams. This business decision was the right call. Focus Insite has become the go-to nationwide recruiting agency for B2B and healthcare studies.
Tip #3: Get Specific
We can’t stress this last point enough! You need to be picky about who you want to participate in your B2B or healthcare focus group. When we work with companies who are spearheading their own research study, we’ll sometimes get a request such as, “We want to better understand our competitors’ customers.” This isn’t a starting point for recruiting. “Competitors’ customers” is way too broad and can mean just about anything. You need to drill down and get specific. For instance, do you want to talk to people who have purchased from a specific competitor, or do you want to expand your definition of your competition? Are you wanting to talk with people who have purchased a specific service or product from a named competitor, or does it only matter that they feel loyalty to your competitor? Are you looking for participants who fit into the buyer segments you’ve identified, or do they need to satisfy more specific psychographic and demographic criteria? Hopefully, this illustrates why getting specific matters. You’ll end up with a very different make-up of recruits by drilling down and thinking about exactly the type of person you want in your study.
Our teams have years of experiences working with clients and market researchers to help them find the best-suited recruits to fill a study. To learn more about how we can help you find the best B2B and healthcare participants, Contact us Today!
