Best questions for b2b buyer survey about decision making process

Here are some of the best questions for a B2B buyer survey about the decision making process, plus practical tips for crafting them. Want a shortcut? You can build your B2B buyer survey about decision making in seconds with Specific.

10 best open-ended questions for B2B buyer decision making surveys

Open-ended questions uncover the rich detail behind every decision. You get authentic insights, the “why” behind answers, and often hear things you’d never predict. These questions work best when you seek deep context, want to surface pain points, or are exploring motivations and processes you didn’t set out to find. Here’s what works best for B2B buyers:

1. Can you walk me through your typical decision making process when evaluating new vendors or solutions?

2. What triggers the need for a new product or service within your organization?

3. Who are the main stakeholders involved in the decision, and how does each one's input impact the process?

4. What challenges do you most commonly encounter when researching solutions?

5. What information do you need before shortlisting a vendor for further consideration?

6. How do you prefer to conduct your initial research on potential solutions?

7. Can you recall a time when a vendor lost your interest early in the decision process? What happened?

8. What factors make a solution stand out from competitors during your evaluation?

9. How important is previous experience with a vendor when making a new purchase decision?

10. What advice would you give to vendors looking to improve your buying experience?

With 67% of the buyer’s journey now taking place digitally, open-ended questions are crucial for understanding unobservable behaviors, preferences, and blockers your sales and marketing teams might otherwise miss. [1]

Best single-select multiple choice questions for B2B buyer decision making surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you want to quantify opinions, preferences, or milestones. They make answering easier by offering quick, clear options—especially at the start of a survey, or to break the ice and lead into more detailed follow-ups. These are also perfect for benchmarking and segmenting your audience based on real choices, not just narratives.

Question: What is the most important factor when choosing a new vendor?

• Pricing and ROI

• Product features

• Customer support and responsiveness

• Brand reputation

• Other

Question: At what stage do you prefer to engage with a sales representative?

• As soon as I learn about the solution

• After doing my own initial research

• Only after shortlisting potential vendors

• After a recommendation from a peer

• Never, I prefer a self-service approach

Question: How many stakeholders are typically involved in your organization’s purchase decisions?

• 1

• 2–3

• 4–5

• 6 or more

When to follow up with "why?" — Whenever you want to dig into the “reason” behind a choice, ask “why?” as the next question. This is invaluable for clarifying priorities, motives, or concerns. For example: if someone selects “Brand reputation” as their top factor, a follow-up like “Can you share why brand reputation is most important to you?” quickly surfaces actionable insights.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? — Always include an “Other” option when the possibilities aren’t exhaustive. The follow-up on “Other” can reveal insights you didn’t anticipate—like niche requirements, unique internal processes, or dissatisfaction not reflected in your listed options.

With 80% of B2B purchase decisions involving multiple stakeholders, multiple-choice structures let you easily segment respondent types and spot patterns fast. [2]

NPS: Is it right for B2B buyer decision making surveys?

NPS (Net Promoter Score) measures how likely customers are to recommend a vendor, solution, or process to others. For B2B buyer surveys, it’s a strong signal of the buyer’s overall confidence and satisfaction with your buying journey—not just the product. When you ask NPS related to the decision process, you identify friction points and advocacy moments, which is vital for iterating your sales and onboarding experience.

You can auto-generate an NPS survey for B2B buyer decision making in seconds with Specific. Try it to see how buyers rate their likelihood to recommend your vendor evaluation process—their feedback here pinpoints where you win and where you lose potential champions.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are what make a survey truly conversational. Instead of settling for a shallow answer, Specific’s AI uses smart probing—just like a skilled interviewer. Automated follow-ups dig into unclear comments, ask “why”, and help clarify context on the fly. According to our guide on automated AI follow-ups, this approach pulls out the real motivations and concerns—without endless back-and-forth emails.

• B2B Buyer: “We needed a solution that was scalable.”

• AI follow-up: “What were the factors that made scalability especially important for your team in this decision?”

How many followups to ask? In our experience, 2–3 follow-ups are usually enough to uncover the key insight, while keeping the conversation efficient and friendly. Enable skipping to the next question as soon as you’ve gathered the info you need—Specific’s survey builder gives you fine-grained control over follow-up depth and behavior.

This makes it a conversational survey. Real conversations adapt, clarify, and move forward as soon as people feel heard, making the overall survey experience more engaging for B2B buyers.

AI-driven response analysis: When you’re dealing with a lot of qualitative data, it’s crucial to make sense of it fast. Don’t worry—AI survey analysis tools like Specific’s response analytics make it easy to uncover trends, identify recurring themes, and even let you ask questions directly about the data—so you get actionable results, not just piles of raw text.

Smart follow-up questions are still a new concept—generate your survey now and see how this approach uncovers richer, more actionable insights than traditional, static forms.

How to compose a great AI prompt for B2B buyer decision making surveys

If you’re using ChatGPT or any other generative AI to build your B2B buyer survey, starting with the right prompt is critical. Here’s a step-by-step playbook:

1. Begin simple, then iterate:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for B2B buyer survey about decision making process.

AI works far better when you provide more background. For example, specify the industry, your business goals, or the profile of the buyer you care about:

We are a SaaS company targeting enterprise buyers in financial services. We want 10 open-ended questions for a survey capturing how these buyers decide on new software solutions, especially what influences their shortlisting process and final purchase decision.

2. Categorize and cluster:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

3. Narrow down and deepen your insight:

Generate 10 questions for the category “stakeholder involvement in the decision making process”.

What is a conversational survey—and why is AI survey generation better?

Conversational surveys mimic the way real, thoughtful conversations unfold—asking a question, reacting to the answer, and digging deeper automatically where it matters. Unlike static web forms or manual phone interviews, AI-powered conversational surveys adapt in real time, clarifying responses and surfacing unexpected insight, without manual legwork.

Why use AI for B2B buyer surveys? B2B buyers crave efficiency and clarity. With 52% now preferring a self-service approach and 90% never answering cold calls, conversational AI surveys meet people where they are, speed up your learning, and produce better data—all while giving a more enjoyable, modern user experience. [3]

If you want step-by-step directions, check out our how-to article on creating B2B buyer surveys for decision making.

At Specific, we’re passionate about best-in-class user experience—ensuring your survey flows feel like a true conversation, so B2B buyers engage deeply and share real-world insight, not just clicks and ratings.

See this decision making process survey example now

Ready to create a conversational B2B buyer survey that actually delivers deep, decision-making insight? Try it—Specific empowers you to uncover what real buyers really think, with effortless setup and powerful AI-driven analysis.