Interviewing is a method of social psychology, which consists in collecting information obtained in the form of answers to the questions posed.
In the context of b2b market research, interviewing, as a method of obtaining primary information, has its own characteristics and is most often associated with obtaining the opinion of an expert or an informed person on a specific issue.
The initial data for interviewing are the task to be solved and a preliminary list of interviewed enterprises.
The interviewing process itself can be conditionally divided into preparatory, main and final stages.
At the preparatory stage:
- "immersion" in the subject of the study, the study of the goals of the study and the tasks set,
- study of the specific activities of enterprises - based on content analysis, available information about the enterprise, other sources of secondary information,
- drawing up a list of supposedly knowledgeable officials of the enterprise,
- development of a scenario for obtaining the required data, preparation of basic, auxiliary and leading questions.
The main stage includes:
- search for knowledgeable officials (experts),
- checking their competence with leading questions,
- obtaining information according to the scenario,
- documentation of the received information,
At the final stagethe completeness and consistency of the information received is checked, all materials are summarized, and a summary report is prepared.
In case of incompetence of the respondent, insufficiency of the information received, the presence of contradictions, the possibility of solving the task in full is sought, most often, another contact person is selected for clarifying interviews.
Depending on the situation, it is possible to interview both on behalf of the Industrial Information Agency and on behalf of the Customer.
The disadvantage of the method is the difficulty of obtaining sensitive information constituting the trade secret of the enterprise. In this case, other methods are most often used - Legendary Interview or Mystery Shopper in the b2b market
