Reference table
Analyst report or customer interviews? Match the tool to the question
Eight common vendor evaluation questions and the instrument that answers each
A table matching eight common questions in a B2B vendor evaluation to the instrument that answers them best. Analyst reports cover categories, shortlists and procurement defensibility, while customer interviews cover lost deals, objections, claims in production and willingness to pay. Use it to plan which questions to buy answers to and which to research yourself. Koji runs the customer interview side as AI-moderated voice or text conversations with your own buyers.
Where this appears
What's in this reference table
| The question you have | Best instrument | Why |
|---|---|---|
| What are the categories, and who is in them? | Analyst report | Category definition and cross-vendor structure are exactly what the format is for |
| Which five vendors should make the shortlist? | Analyst report plus review sites | Structured comparability, then breadth of user coverage |
| Will my procurement committee accept this vendor? | Analyst report | External name-brand defensibility is a genuine product |
| Why did we lose the last four competitive deals? | Customer interviews | Only the lost buyers know, and they are in no dataset |
| What will our buying committee object to? | Customer interviews | Objections are specific to your positioning and your market |
| Does this vendor claim hold up in production? | Customer interviews | Reference lists are curated, and your own network is not |
| How should we price against the incumbent? | Customer interviews | Willingness to pay is measured, not summarised |
| Is this category actually growing for buyers like ours? | Both | Analyst view for the market, interviews for your segment |
Use this image
Free to use in your docs, decks and posts under CC BY 4.0, as long as you credit Koji with a link to this page. To embed it, paste this into your page:
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<a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/analyst-report-or-customer-interviews-by-question"><img src="https://www.koji.so/visuals/analyst-report-or-customer-interviews-by-question/analyst-report-or-customer-interviews-by-question.png" alt="Table of eight B2B buying questions matched to an analyst report, customer interviews or both, from category structure to lost deals and pricing." width="1200" height="1060" /></a>
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.koji.so/visuals/analyst-report-or-customer-interviews-by-question">Analyst report or customer interviews? Match the tool to the question</a>, Koji</p>
