B2B Market Research for an Enterprise Solutions Provider

A buying process the client could not fully see.

An enterprise solutions provider was facing longer sales cycles, more competitive losses, and growing pricing pressure in its core segments. Sales reported a shift in how customers were buying, but the internal view of the buying committee, decision criteria, and competitive set was fragmented and largely anecdotal.

What was at stake.

Pipeline forecasts, pricing decisions, and product roadmap priorities all depended on an outdated picture of how enterprise buyers actually evaluated and selected vendors. Continuing to sell, price, and build against that picture risked further share loss in accounts the client was positioned to win.

Leadership needed a rigorous, evidence-based view of the buyer, the buying process, and the competitive dynamics shaping it.

A targeted B2B market research program.

SIS International Research designed and executed a B2B market research program focused on the client's priority segments, buying centers, and competitive set.

Hard-to-reach respondents, rigorously recruited.

We recruited senior decision-makers, technical evaluators, procurement leads, and end users across target accounts, screened on role, purchase involvement, and recent vendor evaluation activity.

A mixed-method design.

The program combined methodologies tuned to the complexity of enterprise buying:

1. In-depth interviews with members of the buying committee across roles
2. Win-loss interviews with recent buyers, including those who chose competitors
3. A quantitative survey to size and prioritize buying criteria across segments
4. Vendor perception and competitive benchmarking modules
5. Pricing and packaging research using conjoint and trade-off exercises
6. Channel and influencer mapping across the buying journey

Outputs the commercial organization could act on.

Findings were delivered through an executive readout, a buying committee framework, a win-loss synthesis, and prioritized recommendations across product, marketing, sales enablement, and pricing.

A clearer view of how enterprise customers buy.

The program produced an evidence-based map of the buying committee, the decision criteria that actually moved deals, and where the client was winning and losing against each priority competitor.

Decisions that moved.

The client used the findings to:

1. Reframe value messaging around the criteria that ranked highest with economic buyers
2. Equip sales with role-specific talk tracks for each member of the buying committee
3. Adjust pricing and packaging against quantified willingness to pay
4. Reprioritize product roadmap items tied to documented buyer requirements
5. Sharpen competitive positioning against the two vendors most often shortlisted

A continuing intelligence relationship.

The engagement evolved into an ongoing B2B research relationship, with refresh waves on the buyer framework and rapid-response win-loss work feeding the client's commercial planning cycle. Win rates in tracked competitive opportunities improved over the following year.