Introduction
If there’s one thing that’s consistently driven growth in both my own companies and my clients’ businesses, it’s customer research. Not flashy campaigns, not hacks, just a structured way to understand what your customers really care about.
When things get busy, this is often the first thing teams stop doing. But it’s the one thing that can improve everything else. From messaging to product to sales conversations, good research is the thread that runs through real growth.
I’ve always loved talking to customers. It’s where psychology meets marketing. It helps you see the world through their eyes and spot opportunities you’d never find in a dashboard.
This playbook gives you a practical way to run B2B customer research. You’ll learn how to recruit people, run interviews, summarise what you hear, and turn those insights into action. And with a bit of creativity, you can apply these steps well beyond B2B too.
Chapters
Customer research goals
Before you start interviews or surveys, get clear on what you actually need to learn to improve your growth strategy.
Qualitative research
Use heatmaps, recordings and survey data to uncover friction, confusion and blockers that hurt your conversion rates.
Recruit participants
Personas shouldn’t be pretty slides. Make them sharp, testable tools that guide messaging and targeting.
Customer interviews
Customer interviews are the best source of insight—if you know how to run them properly. Most marketers don’t.
Turn interviews into insights
You’ve got the interviews. Now what? Turn transcripts into clear, actionable insight that drives growth.
Sharing research findings
Turn interview notes into a six-slide deck senior leaders will green-light in minutes.
Tools
Go to tools
Hotjar
Behaviour analytics that reveals where visitors get stuck, combining heatmaps, recordings and quick surveys.
Microsoft Clarity
Free behaviour analytics with heatmaps and recordings, good for spotting friction at no cost.
Zapier
No code automation that connects apps and moves data, great for quick wins and alerts that save time.
Books
Go to booksWiki articles
Go to wikiFurther reading
Upskill to a full-funnel marketer in 90 days
Learn the system that connects every part of growth and compounds results month after month.
