{"id":3782,"date":"2026-09-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humes.pl\/how-to-conduct-industrial-market-research-interviews-with-distributors-installers-and-procurement-departments\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T15:31:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:31:56","slug":"how-to-conduct-industrial-market-research-interviews-with-distributors-installers-and-procurement-departments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humes.pl\/en\/how-to-conduct-industrial-market-research-interviews-with-distributors-installers-and-procurement-departments\/","title":{"rendered":"How to conduct industrial market research: interviews with distributors, installers and procurement departments"},"content":{"rendered":"

A manufacturer of fittings, boilers, electrical components, or automation systems rarely sells directly to the end user. Between the factory and the installation are a wholesaler, a regional distributor, a designer, a contractor, and the investor’s procurement department – and each of these links describes the same product differently. This is why industrial market research<\/strong> is designed differently from consumer research: the starting point is not solely a representative sample of the population, but a map of the distribution and decision-making chain.<\/p>\n

Why does industrial market research require a different sampling logic?<\/h2>\n

The industrial market has three characteristics that mean approaches transferred from B2C research are often insufficient. First, the population is small and concentrated – the number of technical wholesalers serving a particular segment in Poland may be counted in dozens rather than thousands. Second, the purchasing decision is distributed across several roles, which may operate in different companies. Third, product knowledge is asymmetric: the distributor knows turnover and margins, the installer knows failure rates and installation time requirements, and the procurement department knows commercial terms and formal criteria. None of these sources alone provides a complete picture.<\/p>\n

The methodological implication is straightforward. In industrial market research<\/strong>, the aim is not always statistical representativeness in the traditional sense, but rather coverage of the market structure<\/strong>: all relevant types of entities, regions, company sizes, and positions in the channel. A purposive sample with clearly defined quotas may be more useful here than a random sample that, without an appropriate sampling frame, may overrepresent the most easily accessible entities.<\/p>\n

The second implication concerns the unit of analysis. A buying center<\/a> includes an initiator, user, technical adviser, budget decision-maker, and so-called gatekeeper, meaning a person who filters incoming offers. In industry, these roles may be distributed across companies: the designer specifies the product, the installer may modify it on site, the procurement department negotiates the price, and the distributor decides on product availability. A study that asks only the “person responsible for purchasing” may describe the final stage of the process while overlooking the point at which the actual brand decision was made.<\/p>\n

The third difference concerns the time horizon. The purchasing cycle in industry can span several years, and statements such as “we will buy next year” may have different predictive value than consumers’ purchase declarations. This is why research instruments emphasize reconstructing the most recent actual transactions (who, when, based on which criteria), rather than relying solely on hypothetical intentions.<\/p>\n

How can researchers reach distributors, installers, and procurement departments?<\/h2>\n

In this type of project, recruitment is often more costly and time-consuming than conducting the interviews themselves. It is worth planning it as a separate stage with its own schedule. The following sequence of activities works well in project practice:<\/p>\n

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  1. Channel mapping.<\/strong> Before recruitment, a map of entities is developed: general technical wholesalers, specialist distributors, purchasing networks, integrators, contracting companies, design offices, and maintenance departments at end-user organizations. The map specifies how many interviews should be conducted with each type.<\/li>\n
  2. Defining eligibility criteria.<\/strong> Not a “wholesale employee,” but a person who, in the past twelve months, decided whether to add or remove a brand from the offering. Not an “installer,” but a person who installs a given type of equipment at a specified minimum frequency.<\/li>\n
  3. Building a contact database.<\/strong> Company registers, lists of authorized partners, databases of technical training participants, industry directories, trade fair exhibitor lists, associations, and craft guilds.<\/li>\n
  4. Multichannel recruitment.<\/strong> Telephone can be the primary channel, supported by an email containing a one-page study description, LinkedIn outreach for procurement and managerial roles, and direct recruitment at points of contact with installers.<\/li>\n
  5. Scheduling an appointment rather than conducting an interview on the spot.<\/strong> An installer is on site in the middle of the working day; a buyer may have a calendar booked for the entire week. Flexible scheduling, including early mornings and late afternoons, can increase the completion rate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/br><\/p>\n

    The choice of method depends on the respondent’s role. Telephone or online in-depth interviews (IDIs) work well for procurement departments and distribution management, where discretion and brief, precise contact are important. Installer research<\/strong> can be conducted as short CATI telephone interviews with an extensive open-ended section or as face-to-face interviews at the workplace, where the tools and products actually used can be observed. Distributor research<\/strong> works well in combination with observational elements: display audits, checks of product availability, and conversations with counter staff.<\/p>\n

    A separate tool is the B2B customer satisfaction survey<\/strong>, conducted periodically among business partners. In industry, it measures not only overall satisfaction but also distinct dimensions of cooperation: delivery timeliness, quality of technical support, clarity of pricing policy, efficiency of complaint handling, and availability of training materials. Such measurement is meaningful when results can be linked to a specific account manager, region, or product group while maintaining confidentiality.<\/p>\n

    In industry, the purchasing decision is often shaped by the installer or designer rather than the formal buyer – omitting this link can distort the picture of the channel. In other words, the procurement department can describe the terms of a transaction, but does not always know why that particular brand was included in the specification. The answer may lie at earlier stages of the decision-making process.<\/p>\n

    In relationship-focused projects, it is worth considering a dyadic approach, in which the same contract or business relationship is described in parallel by the supplier and the customer. This is discussed in more detail in the article on dyadic research in B2B<\/a>. Comparing both perspectives may reveal discrepancies in the assessment of the same events – for example, whether a complaint was handled efficiently.<\/p>\n

    What mistakes most often undermine B2B research in industry?<\/h2>\n

    Most data quality problems in industrial market research<\/strong> arise at the design or recruitment stage. Below are the most common pitfalls and ways to mitigate them.<\/p>\n