In this article
What are B2B psychographics?
Firmographics are the facts about a company: its size, sector and location. Psychographics describe its values, motivations and the way it decides. [1] Forrester makes the same split for personalisation: firmographics and technographics describe the buying organisation, while psychographics are insight into the buyer's motivation, and seeing the whole buyer takes both. [2]
A 2014 study of B2B technology firms in the Journal of Strategic Marketing found that psychographics was not used as a major segmentation dimension, although informal psychographic thinking appeared in 59% of firms. [3] The abstract does not state the sample size. We found no authoritative source that sets out how B2B psychographics differ from consumer ones, so we do not claim a difference.
Why read them before the first message?
By the time you write, the buyer has usually done a lot of the work. In a 2025 study of nearly 4,000 buyers, 6sense found that the first contact between buyer and seller came when the buyer was already 61% through the buying process. [5] The figure reaches us second-hand through a CustomerThink summary.
The decision also involves many people. Forrester's 2026 State of Business Buying, based on a survey of nearly 18,000 buyers, reports an average of 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants influencing a purchase. [4] What a company says in public is the visible part of a discussion you will not see.
Which public signals tell you something?
Not every signal is worth the same, and none of them is proof. The table sets out what each public signal can tell you and what it cannot. It is our own reading, with no measurement behind it.
| Public signal | What it can tell you | What it cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|
| A job posting for a function | What the company is investing in now | That it will buy a tool |
| A post naming a problem or a tool being replaced | The problem in the company's own words, and that someone is looking | When it will decide, or who signs |
| An engineering blog or a changelog | How the team works and what it fixes, week to week | Whether the writers make buying decisions |
| A funding, leadership or reorganisation announcement | That something changed and priorities may move | What the new priorities are, until someone says |
A Philadelphia Fed study of 5.2 million job ads from 1940 to 2000 found that ads with newer job titles reflect innovative technologies and production methods. [6] That supports reading hiring as a sign of what a firm is investing in. It does not show that a hiring burst means the firm will buy a tool, and we could not trace the statistics some vendors quote for that.
How Mach reads attitude in a post
Mach's judge asks eight questions about every post it reads: has a problem you solve, asking for help now, wants the kind of help you sell, runs a real business, means what they wrote, can pay for the work, not selling it themselves, and we can find them. Two of them read attitude directly: whether the author is asking for help now, and whether they mean what they wrote.
Most of what any search finds should be dropped. In one real run for a software services firm on 19 October 2026, 226 searches found 2,090 posts, 455 of them already seen. Mach judged the 1,635 new ones and dropped 1,565, each with a recorded reason. It kept 70: 49 worth a look and 21 ready to contact. The full run is in one real lead search.
Do this before you write the first message
Read the company's last ten posts and its founder's. Write two sentences: what is the company trying to do right now, and what is getting in the way? If you cannot write them, you do not have enough to write a relevant message.
Check its job postings and its changelog or blog. Note anything dated after your last contact. You can quote a dated fact but not a feeling about the company.
After a campaign, sort replies by the kind of signal you wrote about instead of company size. The difference tells you whether the signals you chose were doing any work. Our own reply data is too young to publish yet.
Common questions
What are B2B psychographics?
They are what a company's own words and actions say about how it decides: the problems it names, the tools it is replacing, the roles it hires for. They sit beside firmographics, which describe the company's size, sector and location. [1][2]
What is the difference between firmographics and psychographics?
Firmographics describe a company's attributes. Psychographics describe values, motivations and the way it decides. [1] Forrester treats both as needed to see the whole buyer. [2]
Where do I find psychographic signals for a company?
In what the company publishes and does: its posts, its job postings, its blog and changelog, and its announcements. Read for the problem in its own words and for dates, and treat each signal as a question for the call.
Do job postings show that a company will buy?
Not on their own. A Philadelphia Fed study links new job titles to innovation [6], but we found no independent study showing that hiring predicts a tool purchase, and we could not trace the vendor statistics that claim it.
How many people decide a B2B purchase?
Forrester's 2026 State of Business Buying reports an average of 13 internal stakeholders and nine external participants influencing a purchase, from a survey of nearly 18,000 buyers. [4]
Sources and further reading
- Firmographic Data: What It Is and How It Helps Drive Better B2B DecisionsDun and BradstreetBack to text
- Putting B2B Personalization In ContextForresterBack to text
- Segmenting B2B technology markets via psychographics: an exploratory studyJournal of Strategic MarketingBack to text
- The State of Business Buying: Risk-Averse Buyers Demand Proof, Not PromisesForresterBack to text
- Research Round-Up: 6sense Study Provides Critical Insights on B2B Buyer BehaviorCustomerThinkBack to text
- Measuring Technology Adoption: What Can Job Ads Tell Us?Federal Reserve Bank of PhiladelphiaBack to text
