7 Data-Driven Reasons Why B2B Demand Gen Fails 5. THE ENVIRONMENT MATTERS TOO Not only do we need to analyze buyers and sellers, but also the environment in which they operate. There are many environmental forces that impact B2B transactions including the economy, technology disruptors, competitive forces, and government regulations. These environmental factors are not trivial and can have a profound impact on which buyers are most relevant to a seller at any given time. For example, an economic shock can raise the profile of some companies and put others companies out of business entirely. Understanding the environment requires more data still. 6. THE DATA ELEMENTS HAVE INTERACTIONS IN A MOVING TIME WINDOW Think for a minute about all the different data elements we have discussed. Now think of the incredible amount of data needed to track them as they change and interact. Sellers change, new products are introduced, competitors buy one another, new fiscal policy is enacted, and currency fluctuations open and close opportunities daily. The combinations of seller products with different buyer contacts is enormous. Even during the time we evaluate these two factors, five other factors might change, each of which have differing effects on buyer relevance to the seller. Data is required to see and understand these changes. As you can see, the our mountain of numbers keeps growing. If we cannot get the 7. THERE IS PULL TOWARD BIAS AND STATUS QUO data we truly need, In the face of overwhelming uncertainty, we humans tend to cling to what we know. we fall back on the If we cannot find a way to measure what truly matters, we just measure what we can data we have, whether it matters or not. If we cannot get the data we truly need, we fall back on the data we have, whether or not it accurately captures reality. whether or not it accurately captures In summary, there are vast seas of uncertainty created by the countless, unreliable, reality. ever-changing numbers that describe your markets. Sellers, sailing these high seas, are often tempted by the siren call of small islands of good data. Unfortunately, heading to these islands comes at a serious price—bias. Sure the data is good but what is missing from this data? Not surprisingly, most sellers have already docked on these islands instead of assembling their own high quality data. Therefore, the entire B2B seller market all lives on the same islands of biased data. What was true for ancient explorers is true for B2B sellers. If you want to discover great treasure, you have to go where others won’t go. Great explorers use the little data they have to sail their ships into uncharted territory where they create their own data. This data is hard won but it ends up yielding real treasure in today’s economy—proprietary data assets. www.leadcrunch.ai 6 www.leadcrunch.com