Hard to reach B2B
Audiences under 5% incidence, narrow verticals and roles that do not live on panels, recruited and matched to a professional record.
When the audience is too rare or too specific for standard sample, we build the recruitment for it and tell you honestly what n is reachable.
When is an audience hard to reach?
Below about 5% incidence the work stops being sampling and becomes recruitment. At that point a panel is not a pool you draw from, it is a starting point for finding people, and pricing per complete stops reflecting what the project actually costs.
- Named software or platform users inside a narrow role
- Single vertical decision makers, for example clinical operations or utilities procurement
- C-suite at large companies, or any role where the reachable pool is in the hundreds
- Roles that do not join panels, where the route in is a targeted invitation rather than a survey link
We tell you which of these your audience is before you commit, and what n is realistically reachable, rather than accepting the brief and discovering it in field.
How recruitment works
- Define and size. We work the definition into something a screener can enforce, then check supply across our panel, partner sources and professional records before quoting.
- Recruit. Targeted invitation, referral from verified participants, and phone to web for audiences that ignore email.
- Verify before booking. Employment evidence and a category knowledge question are reviewed before a participant counts, not after.
- Deliver. Completed interviews into your hosted survey, or confirmed participants for qualitative sessions, with the same record of exclusions and replacements.
Quotes take two to three business days rather than the same day, because we confirm supply rather than estimate it.
Hard to reach B2B recruitment: frequently asked questions
How is hard to reach work priced?
Per confirmed participant rather than per complete, because the cost sits in finding and verifying the person rather than in the interview. That also means there is no minimum project size: a study of 25 participants is a normal engagement here.
How long does it take?
Two to three business days for a quote, because we confirm supply rather than estimate it. Field time depends on the audience and we give a realistic window rather than an optimistic one, usually two to six weeks for genuinely rare roles.
What if the audience turns out not to be reachable?
We tell you before you commit. If supply will not support the target, we say what n is realistic and let you decide whether to change the definition, widen the market or stop. Finding out at feasibility is cheap; finding out in field is not.
Can you recruit for interviews rather than surveys?
Yes. The same recruitment and verification runs for in depth interviews, diary studies, communities and focus groups. Participants are verified before they are scheduled, and we handle reschedules and no show replacement.
Do you verify hard to reach participants differently?
The criteria are the same but the evidence is heavier. For roles where the reachable pool is in the hundreds, every participant is matched to a professional record and reviewed by a person before they are booked.
What counts as too rare?
Nothing is ruled out before we look. If supply genuinely will not support a usable base size, we say so and explain what would: a wider seniority band, more markets, or a qualitative design instead of a quantitative one.
Send the spec. Get real numbers back.
Audience, market, target n, expected interview length. Feasibility the same business day for standard audiences, with reachable counts, an estimated qualification rate we believe and a quoted cost per complete that stays fixed for the agreed brief.