Have you ever questioned why some regional brands manage to gain new business clients consistently, while others struggle to generate leads? The answer can often be found in the data. Studies prove that companies using a data-driven sales and marketing model tend to exceed revenue expectations more often than businesses relying only on gut feeling.
For many smaller businesses operating in a B2B model, the biggest challenge isn’t having a great product or service. It is knowing who to target, when to reach out, and how to personalize their approach.
Go-to-market (GTM) data solves this issue by helping companies identify qualified prospects, understand their behavior, and focus sales efforts on the right target. This article explains how GTM data can work for local brands.
Understanding Go-to-Market Data
Go-to-market data is the data that companies use to locate, identify, and connect with potential customers in the selling process. With GTM data, companies are able to focus on prospects that best fit their offerings rather than selling to everyone.
For B2B businesses, this information helps answer questions such as what companies match their ideal customer profile, who their decision-makers are, if those firms are in the market for solutions, and when is the best time to engage them. This results in a better assessment of prospects and a sales process that is more streamlined.
The Components of Go-to-Market Data
There are different types of information that work together to make for a good go-to-market strategy. Here are a few,
Firmographic Data
Firmographic data consists of information about a company, and is to businesses what demographics are to people. It includes things such as industry, the size of a company, annual sales, location, number of employees, and the age of the company.
Take a catering company that wants to expand its services to corporate events, for example. In that case, it might target firms with more than 100 employees in a specific area.
On the other hand, a software provider may focus on providing services to accounting firms of a specific size, as these businesses fit perfectly into the company’s customer persona. Firmographic information helps narrow the market to businesses that are most likely to become customers.
Intent Data
This data is used to identify the purchase intentions of firms. The activities of organizations on the web, such as search engines, product comparisons, and visits to pricing pages help identify the businesses planning to make purchases.
This information is crucial. It helps prioritize leads and direct the sales team’s efforts only to organizations that exhibit a genuine interest in specific solutions.
Contact Data
Using firmographic and intent data allows companies to identify potential clients. However, businesses need to obtain accurate contacts to connect with the people responsible for decision-making.
The contact data includes names, titles, emails, phone numbers, and professional profiles. Getting the correct data makes it possible to direct your efforts to the right people.
First-Party vs. Third-Party Data in Australia
Establishing the source of your information is a necessary step in ensuring its relevance. First-party data is obtained directly from customers while interaction takes place in the presence of the company’s representatives. This form of data includes the following:
- Client files in CRM
- Data collected through web analytics
- Subscriber information
- Data collected through inquiries and previous purchases
Gaining data from the audience ensures reliability. Third-party data relies on the work of specialized companies that conduct a thorough analysis of secondary data, collected from numerous sources. It typically includes verified contacts, company profile data, purchasing intentions, and business growth indicators.
Practical Example: A Local Distillery
Consider a local distillery that aims to boost bookings for corporate activities and branded gift baskets. Instead of marketing its services to each and every business in the area, the distillery could use GTM data to single out medium-sized and large companies within the area it is delivering its products to.
The distillery could concentrate on big brands experiencing growth or preparing for holiday celebrations. By focusing on companies most likely to need these services, the distillery can send personalized offers that feel relevant and timely, resulting in more qualified leads and higher conversion rates.
Bringing GTM Data Together with a CRM
Information is only useful when it is collected properly. CRM technology gives businesses the possibility to combine information about customers, such as contact details, behavior, firmographics, and sales activities, in a single database.
Even with basic CRM platforms, companies can learn everything important about customers’ interactions. They can handle different opportunities appropriately, schedule follow-ups, and monitor the progress of every lead.
AI Impact on Go-to-Market Data
Artificial intelligence makes GTM data much more applicable compared to conventional spreadsheets. Modern AI instruments help to process information about prospects, detect the most actionable accounts, propose follow-ups, write personalized letters to clients, and find out issues that sales teams could miss.
Companies that are willing to learn how AI GTM helps to bring together prospect intelligence and marketing automation processes can check ZoomInfo for more clarity. It provides a practical example of how AI simplifies modern go-to-market strategies.
Turning Data into Business Growth
The use of go-to-market data allows local brands to take the guesswork out of managing growth and do so through results-based decisions. Whether you are distilling alcohol for business programs, a venue seeking groups for bookings, or another B2B company trying to expand your business, knowing where to find the right customers, who are they? and how to get them becomes that much easier.
After incorporating GTM data with a CRM solution and modern AI technologies, GTM becomes more than just a contact book. It becomes a crucial tool for business growth.
