B2B Mystery Shopping
Mystery shopping isn't just for retail, hospitality and other B2C industries. In the B2B world, where sales cycles are longer, relationships matter more, and decisions involve multiple stakeholders, understanding your (and your competitors') sales processes and positioning can be the difference between winning and losing deals.
At Customerwise, we've built a reputation for handling the most demanding B2B mystery shopping projects, with the vast majority focused on competitive intelligence - helping clients understand exactly how competitors are winning business that should be theirs.
Competitive Intelligence: Understanding How Competitors Win
Most of our B2B mystery shopping projects focus on competitive intelligence—and for good reason. When you're losing deals to competitors, you need to understand their strategies, processes, and positioning to develop effective counter-strategies.
Our competitive B2B mystery shopping reveals:
- How competitors are winning deals that you're losing
- Their pricing strategies and commercial terms in real competitive situations
- What they're saying about you and how they position against you
- Their sales processes and techniques that are proving effective
- Service delivery promises they're making to win business
- Strategic partnerships and capabilities they're leveraging
What We Uncover About Your Competitors
Our mystery shopping focuses on the sales and enquiry process. We uncover:
- Products and Features: Current offerings, planned developments, and unique capabilities they're promoting
- Pricing and Terms: Commercial models, pricing strategies, and negotiation approaches
- Sales Processes: How they qualify prospects, present solutions, and attempt to close deals
- Partnerships and Affiliations: Strategic relationships they're highlighting to win business
- Positioning and Messaging: How they differentiate themselves and handle objections about your company
- Competitive Intelligence: What they know about your offerings and how they position against you
Turning Competitive Intelligence into Winning Strategies
Raw information is only valuable when it's actionable. We can provide information that can help you to:
- Identify gaps in your own offering or approach
- Develop counter-strategies for competitive situations
- Refine your positioning and value proposition
- Improve your sales processes and techniques
- Anticipate and prepare for competitive moves
Understanding Your Own Sales Process
While competitive intelligence is the primary focus, we typically recommend including enquiries to your own organisation as part of any B2B mystery shopping project. This provides valuable context and helps you understand your relative performance.
When mystery shopping your own sales process, we evaluate:
- What prospects really experience during your sales process
- How your team performs under real-world conditions
- Where you might be losing deals and why
- What your positioning and pricing actually communicate to the market
- How your approach compares to what competitors are doing
Sales Process Evaluation
- Initial enquiry handling and response times
- Quality of needs assessment and discovery questions
- Presentation of solutions and value propositions
- Handling of objections and concerns
- Follow-up processes and relationship building
Positioning and Messaging Assessment
- Marketing collateral and positioning clarity
- Staff knowledge and capability demonstration
- Competitive positioning and differentiation
- Pricing presentation and justification
- Value proposition communication
Why B2B Mystery Shopping Focuses on Sales
Unlike B2C mystery shopping, B2B projects rarely involve actually purchasing products or services. This is partly due to costs and practical considerations, and it's because service delivery standards are usually not the main thing that clients are interested in.
B2B mystery shopping concentrates on the sales and enquiry process, where the real competitive battles are won and lost.
The Customerwise Difference: Proactive Recruitment
Here's what sets us apart from other mystery shopping companies: we proactively recruit ("head-hunt") genuinely suitable people to make credible enquiries.
While others rely on existing shopper databases that may not include appropriate B2B decision-makers, we actively find and recruit individuals who perfectly match your target customer profile. This means:
- Credible Enquiries: Our mystery shoppers can present convincingly as real potential customers in your target market
- Realistic Interactions: Sales teams engage naturally because they're dealing with authentic prospects
- Deeper Insights: We can sustain complex, multi-stage enquiry processes that mirror real B2B sales cycles
- Higher Success Rates: We achieve results on projects that others find impossible
Bespoke Solutions Co-Created with You
B2B mystery shopping isn't a one-size-fits-all service. Every industry, every business model, and every competitive situation requires a tailored approach.
We work as your strategic partner to:
- Understand Your Objectives: What specific competitive insights do you need?
- Identify the shopper profile: Who do you need to obtain the information?
- Design the Methodology: How can we best replicate realistic customer interactions?
- Plan the Execution: What timeline and approach will deliver the most valuable insights?
We then set to work to provide the results to help you win more deals and more customers!
Testimonials
Leading Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform partner (B2B)
Customerwise has carried out two rounds of mystery shopping of our business centres so that can we thoroughly test our customer service standards.
We have been impressed with the company’s rigorous reporting style and professionalism. They took time to understand our company, processes and values and what we wanted to benchmark. With their guidance and support, they created a fantastic, detailed brief for their mystery shoppers; their findings have proven to be invaluable as we strive to improve our service.
I would highly recommend Customerwise for their fantastic communication, efficiency, responsiveness, professionalism and reliability.
Capital Space
BetConstruct has engaged Customerwise on three separate occasions to conduct Mystery Shopping studies into the handling of B2B sales enquiries submitted to our international team of consultants.
On each occasion the projects have been delivered to a superb standard, with careful, through planning preparation and execution. The enquiries themselves have been handled well and realistically, by people with a suitable level of industry-related knowledge and awareness. The output has been valuable to us as a business, helping us to identify areas for training and process improvement, and to better communicate our offer to potential new partners.
We’ve found the Customerwise team to be extremely professional and easy to work with. They clearly care about doing a great job and supporting our improvement and growth. We would highly recommend Customerwise to other businesses considering looking to improve their enquiry / lead handling.
BetConstruct
“Customerwise helped us with a particularly complex B2B mystery shopping programme… They understood the brief immediately, selected fantastic shoppers, arranged one to one briefings and did a fantastic job of administering the process from start to finish. Calls were routed via alias numbers to route into regional operations, they coped with fifty different complex purchasing scenarios. I cannot recommend them highly enough. They are now our go to guys for this kind of work.”
Burgin Associates
Why Choose Customerwise for B2B Mystery Shopping
Among UK mystery shopping companies, we've built an unmatched reputation for handling demanding B2B projects. Here's why:
Director-Level Oversight: Every B2B project is personally managed by one of our directors, ensuring the strategic thinking and attention to detail that complex projects require.
B2B Background: Unlike most mystery shopping companies founded by retail and other B2C professionals, the founding directors of Customerwise held a background in B2B sales and service delivery.
Proven Track Record: Since 2016, we've helped B2B businesses across diverse industries, consistently delivering competitive intelligence that drives measurable improvements in sales performance.
Unique Methodology: Our proactive recruitment approach enables us to arrange credible enquiries that other providers simply cannot deliver.
Industries We Serve
Our B2B mystery shopping approach works for a wide variety of different B2B industries and situations. Some of our successful projects include:
- IT Infrastructure: Data centres, cloud services, and enterprise technology solutions
- Accounting and Payroll Software (SaaS): Cloud-based financial management and payroll solutions
- HR Management and Outsourcing Software (SaaS): Global HR platforms and outsourcing services
- Employee Wellbeing Services: Including SaaS platforms for workplace wellness and mental health
- Compliance Management Software (SaaS): Regulatory compliance and risk management platforms
- ISO Certification Services: Quality management system certification and consultancy
- Card Payment Processing and EPOS: Payment technology and point-of-sale systems
- Global Car Rental Technology: Technology solutions sold to airlines and travel companies
- Logistics: Supply chain management, freight, and logistics technology solutions
The majority of our B2B clients are SaaS businesses that are interested in learning more about their competitors.
Schedule a discovery call or call now on 01392 984224.
What Drives Your Interest in B2B Mystery Shopping?
Most businesses consider B2B mystery shopping when they're facing specific challenges:
- Sales Conversion Concerns: You're losing deals to competitors and need to understand why
- Competitive Pressure: Competitors seem to be winning business with approaches you don't understand
- Market Intelligence Gaps: You need insights into pricing, positioning, or competitive strategies
- Sales Process Questions: You're unsure how your sales approach compares to competitors
- Performance Improvement: You want an outsider's perspective on how to enhance your competitive positioning
Whatever has prompted your interest, B2B mystery shopping can provide the competitive intelligence you need—if it's handled correctly.
Choosing the Right B2B Mystery Shopping Partner
Not all mystery shopping companies are equipped to handle complex B2B projects. The difference in quality, approach, and results can be dramatic.
What to Look For
- B2B Experience: Have they successfully delivered similar projects?
- Methodology: Can they recruit appropriate mystery shoppers for your target market?
- Partnership Approach: Will they work with you to design the optimal programme?
Red Flags to Avoid
- Inability to explain how they'll recruit a suitable credible mystery shopper
- Reliance on existing pools or networks of claimed industry experts
- Failure to understand your specific competitive objectives
- Focus on price rather than value through real results
- Unrealistically low pricing (think about how the person you need as a shopper will value their own time)
- Lack of relevant B2B experience or case studies
Ready to Gain Competitive Intelligence?
If you want to understand how competitors are winning deals, or gain intelligence about their pricing and positioning, or improve your own sales process, B2B mystery shopping can provide the competitive intelligence you need to win more business.
The key is working with a provider who understands B2B environments, has the methodology to deliver credible results, so you can then turn real and current competitive intelligence into winning strategies.
We'd be pleased to discuss your specific situation and explore how B2B mystery shopping could help you gain the competitive advantage you need.
Schedule a Discovery Call or Call Now on 01392 984224
Schedule a discovery call or call now on 01392 984224 to discuss your B2B mystery shopping requirements and discover how we can help you understand exactly how competitors are winning business that should be yours.