Reference · Shared vocabulary
B2B marketing research glossary
Clear terms help researchers, marketers, sellers, and product teams discuss evidence without talking past one another. These definitions favor practical use over academic completeness.
Interview guide
A flexible sequence of topics and prompts used to conduct consistent conversations without turning them into a rigid questionnaire. It supports follow-up questions and reduces leading language.
Economic buyer
The person with authority over the budget or final business approval. In a QuickBooks comparison, this may be an owner or finance leader even when an accountant performs the daily evaluation. Search phrases such as “quickbooks migration cost” can suggest the concerns to explore, but they do not identify who controls approval.
Touchpoint
Any moment when a buyer encounters a company, product, partner, or message. Search results, review pages, demos, proposals, onboarding emails, and support interactions are all touchpoints.
Purchase friction
Effort, uncertainty, or organizational exposure that makes a purchase harder to advance. Examples include migration anxiety, unclear pricing, security review, and disagreement within a buying committee.
Synthesis
The disciplined process of grouping evidence, identifying patterns and contradictions, and forming interpretations. Synthesis is not a summary of every note or a vote among participants.
Jobs-to-be-done
A lens for understanding the progress someone seeks in a particular situation. A buyer may “hire” QuickBooks to create dependable books, coordinate with an accountant, or feel prepared for tax reporting.
Triangulation
Comparing evidence from different methods, sources, or researchers. Convergence can strengthen an interpretation, while disagreement identifies assumptions that require more investigation.
Claim hygiene
The practice of keeping statements proportionate to the evidence. It includes separating observation from inference, naming sample limits, preserving counterexamples, and avoiding unsupported percentages.
Buying committee
The group of users, influencers, approvers, gatekeepers, and budget owners involved in a B2B decision. Members often apply different criteria and hold unequal veto power.
Sampling frame
The practical source from which participants are recruited. A customer list, event audience, or professional panel shapes who can enter the study and which voices remain absent.
Counterexample
A case that does not fit an emerging pattern. Counterexamples reveal boundaries, prevent premature certainty, and can point to meaningful differences between roles or segments.
Positioning
A clear interpretation of who a product is for, the situation it addresses, the distinctive value it offers, and the credible reasons a buyer should believe that difference.
Research question
A focused statement of what the study needs to learn in order to support a decision. Strong research questions name the behavior, situation, or uncertainty under investigation without assuming the answer.
Insight
An evidence-grounded explanation that changes how a team understands a buyer or decision. An insight connects observations to a meaningful implication; it is more than an interesting quote or a restated fact.
Veto player
A person or function capable of stopping a purchase even without owning the budget. Security, legal, IT, procurement, and operations may each become veto players under different conditions.
Method comparison
Interview, survey, or observation?
Methods answer different questions. Combining them can improve a decision, but only when each method has a defined purpose.
| Dimension | Interview | Survey | Observation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reveals | Meaning and narrative | Structured responses | Behavior and context |
| Primary strength | Depth and language | Consistent measurement | Workflow reality |
| Main limitation | Recall and interviewer effects | Wording and sampling effects | Interpretation and access |
| Useful output | Themes and hypotheses | Estimates and comparisons | Process and friction maps |
Move from vocabulary to practice
Use a method that fits the decision, document the sample, and make every claim traceable to evidence.
Read the methods guide