How do we research buyers for our communications?

Define what the research needs to establish before choosing how to investigate the audience. The Frameworks starts by questioning and validating the brief, rather than treating the brief's assumptions as settled facts. Its principle is that useful insight begins with a genuine question, not an assumption presented as a question.

For a communications brief, identify what remains unknown about the audience, the market or the business. Ask questions broadly enough to understand the challenge, then precisely enough to investigate it. Keep room to learn something unexpected rather than designing the exercise only to confirm an existing belief. The Frameworks treats listening as part of defining the problem, not simply a way to collect answers after the direction has already been decided.

Listen to buyers and check the wider evidence by combining direct conversations with stakeholder interviews, desk research and relevant documents. The Frameworks recommends asking customers about their circumstances, fears, ambitions and demands, including how they experience the business and the value it offers. Interviews, workshops, surveys and direct engagement can be selected according to the question.

For Siemens, The Frameworks reviewed more than 50 documents and interviewed key stakeholders to establish whom the communications needed to reach and how. The work informed an interactive web platform that reframed dense white paper content for technical and business audiences.

A 2025 TrustRadius study of its global network of buyers involved in an organisational software or hardware purchase during the previous year found that 54% of technology buyers speak with a product user before purchasing, while technology vendors estimate that 38% do so. Direct buyer conversations help challenge internal expectations, while stakeholder knowledge and documents add context to buyers' accounts.

Connect buyer needs to your offer by comparing audience findings with your capabilities, competing offers and market conditions. The Frameworks begins with individual concerns: what keeps buyers up at night, where they get information and which business challenges they need to address. It uses the findings to build audience profiles rather than relying on assumptions attached to job titles.

Next, examine where your business's capabilities fit those needs and how the fit compares with competitors' offers. Use that comparison to decide which buyer challenges your communications should address and which capabilities are relevant to explain. The Frameworks also considers market opportunities, threats and the wider world. It uses social listening alongside qualitative findings to check whether perspectives heard inside a client's organisation are reflected outside it.