In today’s competitive marketplace, it is more important than ever for sales and marketing teams to be armed with the right buyer intelligence needed to support lead generation efforts. From Working from Home to the great resignation, new challenges throughout the pandemic have meant that sales and marketing professionals have needed to adapt their strategies quickly. Sellers need to make it as easy as possible to identify potential buyers and follow up using the right tools and at the right time. Impactful and accurate lead generation is a vital component that marketers must have at their disposal to contribute to the company’s overall revenue growth.

Our recent survey of software decision-makers in the UK revealed that nearly 8 in 10 IT buyers are dissatisfied with their existing software services. Yet, only 2 in 10 have changed to a new vendor, despite a third stating that a well-timed approach from a competitor would be enough to consider a move. With this in mind, B2B marketing and sales representatives are missing out on a huge opportunity to win new customers and contribute to the bottom line success of their organisations.

From knowing your potential buyers inside and out to finding the best way to approach them, here are some actionable insights to help B2B software sellers find opportunities in today’s emerging post-pandemic economy.

Know your prospects

The last two years have made people think about life and work; burnout from the pandemic has contributed significantly to the great resignation as almost one in four UK workers are planning job changes. With so many people changing jobs, it is frustrating to spend hours cold calling only to find that sales targets are no longer at the company or responsible for product buying. To avoid this, ensuring teams have access to high quality, up to date data is crucial—allowing teams to track who is the right person at each organisation to contact without wasting anyone’s time.

Beyond knowing who to contact, insight into when to contact them is another significant pain point for sales and marketing teams. While 70% of buyers review the tech stacks they are responsible for at least every quarter, 52% of buyers’ purchasing cycles are under a month. With a short window of opportunity to dialogue with buyers when they are actually in the market, sellers must know when to act.

Further, according to our research 37% of people prefer email contact, while 33% prefer approaches through a social platform such as LinkedIn (fortunately for sellers, only 2% said they don’t want to hear from potential providers). This data highlights the need for marketing and sales teams to access all of this information, whether it is a link to someone’s LinkedIn profile, email address or proper phone number. Without this, teams will be hamstrung as they try to contact potential buyers on platforms they do not prefer.

By utilizing this information, they can create effective strategies to reach out and engage with prospects. Companies are often organizing sales training for insurance agents in order to teach them how to make the most of the data they gather. By understanding their preferences for communication and timing, teams can tailor their approach to ensure a higher chance of success in catching the attention of potential buyers.

Finally, demonstrating an understanding of what potential prospects need is crucial. Sellers must highlight how they can provide better value and offer the latest technology, with 37% and 35% respectively stating these aspects are key for being persuaded to make the switch. Knowing what buyers value will make the sales process much easier and cut down on time spent creating messaging on the wrong issues.

Timing is everything

For successful multi-channel attribution, highly accurate data intelligence is required. The right data solutions will help ensure marketers can reach the right people at the right time. Hundreds of participants in our survey validated the tenet that “Timing is Everything,” especially when 33% of the buyers reported that an opportune call from a sales rep is enough to sway their decision to switch software suppliers. With the right data and contact information when targeting buyers, marketers save time and maximise their chances of the lead being converted into a customer.

B2B companies that arm their sales and marketing professionals with insights on who is in-market for their solutions and when will not only increase their organisation’s potential to reach and convert buyers, but they will also optimise pipeline generation efforts and maximise ROI.

A trusted provider

With over half of software buyers assessing their tech stack at least every quarter, there will be greater pressure on providers to maintain high standards of service. Quality of service will be doubly as important in 2022. Many businesses were forced into buying any technology they could during the first two years of the pandemic. Now, business leaders and software buyers will be looking at whether they made the right choices and if the technology they purchased is meeting expectations. Those that are found wanting will fall by the wayside.

Many customers are waking up to the different ways that businesses collect and use their data, and are understandably concerned about privacy and security and dissatisfied with how some sales teams approach them.

To identify leads in this evolving era of heightened privacy and compliance, sales and marketing teams that use intelligent data models and analytics that also adhere to strict compliance standards are highly desirable. Synthetic data that augments real data does not compromise personal or sensitive information and provides training data for AI models to accurately manage real-time behaviours, provide personalised experiences at scale and manage pipeline activities.

Using buyer intelligence in such a way is crucial for B2B software sellers looking to rise above competitor noise. These software providers will build and maintain trust with their clients while improving the success of their demand generative initiatives.