Is It Getting Harder To Reach B2B Decision Makers?

Short answer: yes, and it’s getting worse.

Burnout Among Participants

B2B decision makers are exhausted. They’re inundated with constant outreach for research projects, survey requests, “quick” interviews add hours of back & forth, and let’s not forget, their actual jobs. Many top executives receive over 100 requests per week, including 3-4 at a time from multiple agencies working on the same project. It’s no wonder participation rates are dropping but it’s not that these professionals don’t want to help, it’s that they’re burned out.

In a recent survey Zintro with with corporate executives, 96% of executives said they don’t feel the the current status quo of B2B screeners respect their time.

Additionally, 75% reported they’ve become “extremely selective” about which projects they’ll respond to.

The Problem with (Many) Screeners

For years, the industry standard has been to send participants 5-30 screening questions before they even qualify for a project and use their answers to gauge whether they’ll be a good fit or not for a study. Somewhere along the line, these changed from binary (yes/no) qualifying questions to straight-up surveys. Some screeners even exceed 30 questions and in general, most screeners take 2-15 minutes each to complete. These questions also often probe into sensitive topics like budgets, revenues, internal tools, the kind of information that takes trust to share or shouldn’t be discussed at all. While it’s great researchers can pick awesome participants for each project, it doesn’t bode well for the future of research.

Participants shared a wide range of conversion rates from screeners to projects, with a low end of 5% and a high end of 60%, but the average was 18% across the surveyed group.

Those that reported being more selective of which projects they’ll respond to cited various factors they consider when deciding which they’ll respond to:

• Prior experiences with a company

• The company’s reputation (online and among personal network)

• Hourly rate offered

• Project keywords and description

• The number of screening questions and complexity of the screener

This means researchers are now competing not only against each other, but also against the accumulated frustration of overworked professionals who have stopped believing the process respects them. This comparison is the epitome social dilemma called a “Tragedy Of The Commons”. It arrises when many individuals enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource, such as a pasture (in the case of cows), than they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether.

Data Misuse and Participant Fatigue

Despite the wealth of information collected, few companies seem able to reuse it or learn from it. Participants notice when they’re asked the same questions over and over again and it signals that their input isn’t being used to improve future experiences. Many wonderful participants now feel it’s worth the risk to lie on screeners just to qualify for more projects. That’s a dangerous sign for data quality and for the credibility of the entire B2B research ecosystem.

Who Needs Whom More?

Let’s be honest: researchers need participants a lot more than participants need researchers. Without respect, transparency, and meaningful interactions, the entire model begins to crumble. The companies that thrive in the future will be the ones that prioritize participant experience as a core value and not as an afterthought.

Zintro Mobile and ThinkEasy’s Approach

We’ll be the first to admit it… Zintro did not do nearly enough to cut down long screeners in the past and even today, some are still too long. We sent too many irrelevant projects to the wrong people and, frankly, hurt our brand name because of it. Now it’s our chance to be leaders of change but change doesn’t happen over night. We’re definitely not data harvesting or doing anything nefarious, but the screeners are too dang long!

Our changes comes in the form of Zintro Mobile and ThinkEasy.

Zintro Mobile is the SMS-only (or RCS) product where we send survey questions and interviews directly to participants via text. Everything has a payment attached and is meant to respect every second of a participant’s time. Every interaction has a payment attached, designed to respect every second of a participant’s time. Participants can reply via simple text messages without needing to click links, fill out unpaid screeners, or log in to any platform just to see the opportunity. Payments are issued within seconds of a response.

We believe the best insights come from participants who feel valued, respected, and heard. That’s why participant respect isn’t just a talking point, it’s our top priority.

ThinkEasy is built for researchers. It allows them to survey and interview top-tier decision makers, the individuals who aren’t signing up for DIY research platforms, in a faster, easier, and more affordable way. These researchers understand that to reach the people they want today (and in the future), they need to do things differently.

Zintro’s mission is simple: to bridge the gap between researchers and participants and create a more respectful, sustainable future for B2B research.

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