Digging deeper: a snapshot of U.S. business sentiment with GTS

Once again, we have fascinating insights to share from the 2016 The Research Alliance/Wilke Global Trends Survey. This week, we’re taking a look at the U.S., home of a high-potential B2B market research scene, both for domestic and foreign operations looking to do business in one of the 50 states.

The Global Trends Survey (GTS) conducted their interviews during May 2016, targeting opinion leaders between the ages of 25-65, with a total of 4,500 interviews worldwide.

Of the wide spread of questions asked, there were a few attitudes and opinions about other countries and their people that stood out the most for B2B market researchers.

For instance, 25 percent of U.S. respondents polled said they thought the U.S. was “known to be innovative in fashion, design, tech, etc.”, while 34 percent of respondents outside the U.S. said they thought the same to be true. Turns out the U.S. might be more innovative than its citizens think—that’s something companies will want to keep in mind when they’re doing business in the U.S., since you may need to highlight the importance of innovation with your clients!

But the biggest difference between U.S. opinion and the rest of the world was in the category of the U.S. visa application process, which is crucial for many companies that bring in talent from other countries. Only 11 percent of U.S. respondents thought the U.S. “visa application process…is too complicated.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, 27 percent of non-U.S. respondents—the same who are ostensibly going through the U.S. visa application process—thought it was too complicated.

There are many, many more interesting takeaways from the survey, so connect with us to find out more. Send us an email, contact us on Facebook, or give us a call—if you’re operating in the B2B market research sector, you can’t afford not to!