B2B enterprises today are becoming more and more data-driven as they strive to draw insights and drive actionable business decisions based on relevant information (Fig 1). These actionable insights are then utilized by marketing and sales teams to achieve sustainable conversions and increased revenue. The volume, velocity, and veracity of data (or Big Data) poses continuous challenges to accommodate the right pieces of information at the right spot.
(Fig 1: The Rapid Growth of Big Data Market, Source: Statista)
One of the most significant strategies to overcome these challenges is to divide the huge amount of data into various segments and then connect these segments to drill down and obtain highly accurate and targeted data sets. In the sections to follow, we are going to elaborate on the data obtained from various organizations based on their technology stack, popularly known as Technographics and what is technographic data?
The proliferation of the Internet and other modern technologies such as Mobile Computing, Big Data, Machine Learning and AI, etc. into the business realm has allowed recording and quantifying trillions of interactions and data points each day via easy to use platforms and technology tools. Technographics, derived from technology and graphien (Greek: to write, to carve), literally implies something carved about technology, and relates to the recorded information about technology. Simply put, technographics or technographic data refers to the information regarding the infrastructure, network tools, and usage of one or more technologies as products, solutions, and/or services in organizations; the opportunities and challenges they present for these organizations; their adoption rates and so on.
What Makes Technographic Data a Crucial Prospect for Enterprises?
Two significant aspects about organizations all over the globe are:
- Increased use of technology
- Digital Transformation.
According to Forbes, 70% of the organizations all across the globe already have a strategy towards digital transformation, or are solemnly working towards it.
The data pertaining to various opportunities, challenges, and roadmap associated with the adoption of technology and digital transformation can be categorized into certain groups. These groups are intended to determine the B2B buyer journey through buyer persona or attitude, buying patterns, competitor market, etc. B2B sales and marketing teams of enterprises can pivot their decisions based on the data and insights obtained from these groupings and capitalize upon by setting up a long-term association towards enhancing targeted marketing and sales intelligence to boost revenue and bring about mutual success.
How Can Enterprises Leverage Technographic Data?
Three of the ways to leverage technographics to achieve best results are described as follows:
1. By Segmenting
Technographics is a market segmentation tool in itself. Based on an organization’s behavior and action towards technology, information is segmented into consumer profiles. These profiles are then consolidated based on several parameters, variables, and characteristics that define current or future needs and on-going priorities.
Example: Based on the information about the purchase or expiration date of software, users and organizations can be segmented into profiles that the sales and marketing teams can target to influence business decisions substantially.
2. By Being Specific
In a competitive market, leads and prospects are often tired of the pitches regarding new technologies and services. They either do not pay any attention or snap the sales rep’s jabber at once. Technographic targeting allows you to begin your discourse with the mention about your prospect’s pain point. Bingo! You’ve captivated their attention.
Example: Pitching for a CRM software, your sales guy mentions about the expiration due for a prospect’s CRM software. And also, how many of its users are taking the community help center by storm. Why not try a new CRM software…?
3. With Prioritization
The B2B technology market is highly competitive that makes prioritizing leads challenging. Since all leads may not have the same potential value for a company, much of the time and efforts get scattered on the leads unlikely to convert. With the help of technographic data, you can easily determine which leads will be interested, which leads will take time to consider, and which leads will show no interest.
Example: A certain large enterprise that has recently sourced a proprietary software may show little or no interest to an open-source platform as compared to an SME.
4. By Customizing
In the B2B landscape, the most unreasonable thing to do with respect to your sales and marketing endeavors is to shot an arrow in the dark or cast a large net to hook prospects. With segmented profiles in hand, catering to the convertible prospects on a personal level must be carried out. This is where Account Based Marketing (ABM) comes into picture. Harnessing technographics, communicating with your prospects will not only be personalized, but also relevant and engaging.
According to Hubspot, about 70% marketers report of using ABM in 2021, an increase of 15% from 2020.
Example: For a prospect using Microsoft Dynamics NAV, additional information about the challenges, objectives, and even those aspects that do not impact their business (which otherwise is a concern for most enterprises) will allow your sales and marketing teams to pitch bespoke communication where a prospective client will listen to exactly what he wants to listen.
Why Technographic Data Matters?
Technographic data allows segmenting, specifying, customizing, and prioritizing your prospects based on technology usage. It enables your sales and marketing teams to achieve conversion success by concentrating their efforts at the right spot.
With technographics, you can also gain additional information about your prospects that may aid in your B2B sales and marketing endeavors. For example, consider a great number of your prospects using two automation tools: say ‘A’, and ‘B’. Tool A is robust and expensive, while tool B is light-weight and relatively cheaper. By simply knowing which technology tools companies use, you can have additional information on:
- Budget
- Priorities of the prospects
- Attitude towards marketing
- Size of the organization
- Marketing and technology expertise
And last, but not the least, technographics saves precious time and effort, and also boosts the morale of your sales and marketing team when they achieve more using less. Unwarranted leads not just waste time and effort but can even break the morale of your sales and marketing teams that may have negative implications for your enterprise in the long run.
Additional Read: How to Make Sales and Marketing Work Together