Market strategy is always an interesting topic to me as a product and go-to-market professional. Most often I think about it from the point of view of the company strategy rather than from the perspective of the customer. After all, it’s about how your company penetrates a market right? The phrases “actions speak louder than words” and “you are what you eat” come to mind as I think about the characteristics of a great B2B Customer Data Platform. The kind of data we normalize & unify, the kind of problems we solve, the algorithms we create, and the kind of user experience we develop speaks volumes about what the product is good at – and the customers who seek that solution.
A CDP is very personal to an organization. And it’s even more personal than Business Intelligence, which more so represents the craft and strategy of the individual or department. A CDP also represents the customer acquisition and care strategy of a company. The curation of the data, the precision of the personas, the resolution of the predictions and recommendations. It’s important to think about what problem(s) you’re solving with your CDP. Even more importantly – what problem does the vendor solve and who have they solved it for? Evaluating an organization’s market approach now and in the future boils down to ranking their overall strategy and whether that fits with your strategy.
This problem has been discussed in the Market Approach category within Forrester’s recently published The Forrester New Wave™: B2B Standalone CDPs, Q4, 2021.
In their evaluation of 14 leading B2B CDP solutions, Forrester considered several factors to compare each CDP’s Market Approach. First they looked at the components that make up each organization’s vision of an ideal account profile – variables such as size, vertical market/industry, marketing sophistication, data management maturity, etc. – and how the solution’s go-to-market strategy and tactics are optimized for such target buyers. Then Forrester considered the evidence each solution has to validate the success of their go-to-market approach (revenue growth, customer growth, differentiated positioning, verticalization, geographic presence, sales presence, support for partners, etc.). Forrester looked at any potential commercial model enhancements or partner ecosystem expansions each organization is planning over the next 2 years, as well as how they intend to compete or stay relevant in the face of existing and future competition. Concluding their evaluation, Forrester differentiated Leadspace as having a leading Market Approach – now let’s take a look at it.
Our Ideal Customer Profile is model-driven by 30K companies & 50K GTM leads/contacts. The model includes scored signals with 100+ installed technologies, 200+ firmographics & 75+ specialty signals. Top verticals are B2B Software/Internet, Cloud Communications, & Computers/Technology – with high fit in all tightly adjacent B2B services, manufacturing, financial and pharmaceutical industries. We are fortunate to count as customers 60% of the top 15 ranked software companies, 7 of 12 top Computer HW companies, 3 of 4 top Cloud Communications companies. Our ABM program is focused on 1500 high fit/high intent accounts. Geographical coverage is focused on NA/EMEA, expanding to Asia. Our partner GTM leverages leading B2B agencies like Accenture Interactive and Transmission Agency. And we are ramping with OEM and re-sell partners.
With the pervasiveness of software, cloud communications and computers, our B2B Buyer Graph consists of a very broad set of small and large companies. We value tech install data as a prediction of forward-leaning investment/strategy. We have developed our 80+ off-the-shelf personas in partnership with our customers’ needs. Our customers’ strategy starts with TAM then seeks the Ideal Customer then via personas the Ideal Buyer. Our predictive FIT models look at thousands of signals to uncover the lookalike classification engine that can reason through and fuel routing, prioritization and acceleration.
We believe strongly that data of all kinds can contribute to uncovering the nature and heart of these models. As a result, we are an open platform that coexists with 1st/2nd/3rd data sources/systems of record to provide a source of truth to unify, analyze & optimize buyer/buyer teams signals. Customers use our platform standalone, as a plug-n-play intelligence layer on their CDP/data lake or embedded in their applications or commercial applications/business workflows in an OEM model.
To pull out another old phrase – the proof is in the pudding! Leadspace’s Market Approach isn’t just a plan – it’s a powerful ideal account profile & go-to-market strategy. To learn more about the benefits of implementing a CDP, and to see how Leadspace compares to other B2B CDPs in all 10 evaluated categories (and is ranked overall in the Forrester Wave), check out The Forrester New Wave™: B2B Standalone CDPs, Q4, 2021. We have every intention of being at the top of the leaderboards in our industry from our product to our approach – let us help you do the same with Leadspace’s CDP!