Buyers are constantly performing research and giving off signals that they are in-market for solutions:
- They’re continually searching the web
- They’re visiting vendor websites, and
- They’re referencing reviews sites to inform their decision making
And for the most part, they’re doing this research anonymously. Roughly 70% of a buyer’s hunt for information is conducted away from sellers’ eyes, according to Forrester.
Buyers have become weary of filling out forms, relentless inbox spam, and annoying cold calls. And who can blame them? For some buyers, the research and sales process feels like swimming with sharks: Raising your hand too early in the process is like putting a drop of blood in the water. (When it comes to engagement, some salespeople can be … voracious..)
But there’s still good news for sales and marketers: we can capture those anonymous signals, smartly identify the right accounts and buyers with that data, and provide them with a world-class buying experience.
Capturing intent signals and data simply requires the right tools. It’s like how the human eye can only see within a certain band of the light spectrum — imagine what you could uncover with an instrument that uncovers a world you didn’t know existed.
Let’s dive into how you can start capturing the revenue moments you might be missing, and how they can benefit your business.
Uncover Hidden Demand
B2B buyers are busy little bees on the hunt for information about products within your industry … but they don’t want to identify themselves until they think they’re ready. The problem is, you want to introduce and prove the value of your solution at the time they’re actually ready.
You can determine this state of readiness — or when the account is in-market for your solution — with the right technology to capture, identify, and analyze those anonymized revenue moments you couldn’t previously detect.
Some of the information you can uncover includes:
- The specific product and services on your website accounts are visiting
- What keywords are seeing the most engagement — including those relating to your industry, the products you offer, and topics relating to your competitors
- Industry publications, forums, and third-party review sites that your prospects trust and visit the most.
With access to this data, you’ll get a clearer picture of the types of activities your buyers are performing long before you even speak to them.
There’s great power in knowing which pages on your website are resonating with a particular audience, or what keywords in your broader industry are driving the most engagement.
But this is only half of the story. Capturing these buyer intent signals is crucial, but you must also consider capturing internal data and other deeper information that provide a richer picture of your buyers.
Know Your Buyers
As a member of your company’s revenue team, you already have a good idea of who your buyers are — their industry, the personas who influence sales decisions, the pain points they face, etc. But simply knowing that information, or storing it in a couple of spreadsheets, isn’t enough.
Maintaining a clean and functioning database is critical for efficient operations, but many companies struggle with this task. Fifty-four percent of businesses say a lack of quality data is one of their biggest challenges.
To really know your buyers, and maintain strong data, you need to leverage all of the historical data you have about past deals, deep insights into your actual buyers, and those buying signals we mentioned above.
Leveraging an AI-powered platform will help you uncover the following about your buyers:
- Historical data: What has your typical deal looked like? Analyzing data about your historical performance will shine a light on what your ideal customer looks like and how to engage with them.
- Technographic data: What technology do particular prospects use? With this information, you can easily target prospects that currently use a system that complements yours perfectly with a seamless integration.
- Firmographic data: How is the company performing? Be the first to know when a round of funding has closed and your prospects have an increased budget for your services.
- Psychographic data: What business associations is a buyer a part of? Take your personalization efforts to the next level by unlocking a deeper understanding of who your prospect is, and what they care about.
When you capture everything relevant to your sales cycle, you create an engine that gets smarter and more accurate as you collect more data. As you start to capture all of that data your teams only get better, creating a snowball effect leading to total world domination — or, more likely, just really great performance. 🙂
How Capturing the Right Data Boosts Your Business
Now that we’ve illuminated all the game-changing buyer-intent information that’s out there just waiting to be captured, let’s discuss how this data can be used to transform the way you do business.
Get Into Deals Faster
With nearly 70% of the buying process happening anonymously, most sellers are entering the process too late. Often, the buying decision has already been made and the buyer is reaching out to formally begin the purchasing process … with your competitor.
But when you have insights into the research that’s happening behind closed doors, you have the information you need to reach out at the exact right time and influence the deal. No more cold calls or close-calls — only closed deals.
Clear Picture of Your Buyers
Modern businesses need to capture more information about their buyers than just company size and industry. Capturing the right data unlocks information about the exact platforms a prospect uses, the trend their business is on, who you buying committee is and important psychographic details about individual buyers to help influence them.
Conclusion
For too long, sellers have in the dark about the research their buyers are conducting. This has led to annoying forms and bothersome cold calls. It’s time to exit the Dark Ages and start capturing all of that information to give your buyers the selling experience they deserve — and boost your company’s revenue
