Businesses have been urged to move beyond job titles when recruiting participants for business-to-business (B2B) market research, with expert Rachel Cope highlighting how data-driven selection can improve research accuracy, reduce costs and identify the people who genuinely influence corporate decisions.
Cope, managing director of Business Advantage, a global B2B research and data consultancy, said companies could gain better insights by analysing organisational structures, technology usage, industry information and behavioural patterns before beginning participant screening.
In an article published by Quirk’s on October 8, 2026, Cope explained that relying solely on professional titles could lead researchers to overlook influential stakeholders or interview people who have little involvement in the decisions being investigated. Brandspur Brand News reports that she advocated using business data at the planning stage to establish a more accurate picture of the organisations and individuals relevant to a study.
The recommended approach combines information about company size, industry, business functions and technology systems with signals showing which organisations are actively exploring particular products, services or commercial strategies. This can help researchers determine who influences, evaluates, approves, uses or opposes business decisions.
Cope illustrated the approach with a software company considering a transition to usage-based pricing. Instead of focusing exclusively on executives responsible for pricing or finance, researchers could identify companies that had recently changed their billing systems and examine the roles played by finance, product and customer success teams.
The findings could help research teams recruit participants with direct knowledge of the issue, rather than assuming that a senior job title automatically makes someone the right respondent.
Better targeting could also reduce the time and money spent on recruitment, improve the likelihood of finding eligible participants and limit interviews with people who cannot provide meaningful answers.
For Nigerian businesses operating in competitive markets, the approach offers a potential way to strengthen decisions about pricing, technology adoption and customer needs. However, the benefits would depend on the quality of the data available and how effectively researchers combine it with properly designed screening questions.
Cope also noted that business data could help researchers understand market structures and purchasing behaviour across several countries, even when limited budgets or tight schedules restrict the actual research to a smaller number of markets.
She maintained that screening remains necessary, but using data before recruitment begins can give researchers a stronger foundation for finding the individuals whose knowledge and influence matter most to the decisions under investigation.
