Amid the post-Covid bounce-back and as economies continue to recover, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are making a big comeback
According to the Office for National Statistics, dealmakers in the UK announced approximately £3bn in domestic M&A transactions, £32.8bn in outward M&As, and £10.7bn in inward M&As in Q3 of 2021.
For technology vendors, there is significant potential to be found by introducing new solutions to businesses that are consolidating their software stacks following an M&A. To take advantage of these opportunities, sales and marketing professionals need to be armed with the right insights. These insights need to pinpoint how best to reach potential buyers and software decision-makers across various channels to support their lead generation efforts. Impactful and accurate data for lead generation is a vital component that B2B marketers must have to maximize their 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. It was also found that an opportune call from a sales rep could be enough to sway their decision to switch providers.
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 rapidly expanding M&A market.
Know Your Prospects
When a business is going through an M&A, there will inevitably be a consolidation of teams. As responsibilities change hands, software stacks will be reviewed with a high possibility of switching to a new provider. Compounding this movement is the ‘Great Resignation.’ 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 that reveals the right person to contact at each organisation is crucial.
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. However, this short window of opportunity may differ when an M&A has occurred. To maximise opportunity, sales and marketing professionals need the right contact details to open a dialogue with buyers when they are looking for a new provider.
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 do not want to hear from potential providers). This data highlights the need for marketing and sales teams to access all 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.
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 a call from a sales rep when they are in-market is enough to sway their decision to switch software suppliers.
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.
Be a Trusted Provider
The fact that over half of software buyers assess their tech stacks at least every quarter puts pressure on providers to maintain high standards of service.
For companies preparing for, going through, or emerging from M&A activity this includes how current and prospective vendors handle privacy, security and compliance. Nowadays, organizations care very much about how businesses collect, provide, and use data, and are understandably concerned and dissatisfied with how some sales teams approach them.
To identify leads in this evolving era of increased privacy and compliance, sales and marketing teams that use intelligent data models and analytics that 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.
About the Author
Chris Whife is Managing Director Global at DemandScience. DemandScience is a leader in global buyer intelligence, accelerating demand generation for the world’s largest software, technology and B2B companies. Leveraging decades of experience in B2B market intelligence, analytics, content trends, and predictive intent, DemandScience delivers healthy data and prioritized buyer insights that align sales and marketing professionals with more qualified audiences.
Featured image: ©Metamorworks