The average company uses 137 SaaS applications. That’s a lot of technology by any standard. Yes, there might be some variations between SMBs and enterprises (the latter tend to use more tools, pushing up the average), but it’s not misleading to state that irrespective of size or industry, modern business operations run on tech stacks. Even a modest marketing department might use a dozen tools or more.
This begs an interesting question – if you know what tools a company uses, can you infer what solutions they might be interested in? Here is a hint – if a company uses an ABM platform like DemandBase, likely, they would also be looking for other marketing tools. So to answer the initial question, yes, if you know what tools a company uses, you can, to a large extent, infer their other requisite solutions and business strategies.
While that applies to businesses in all industries, it is more effective in areas where more software and tech are highly used. And no business operates in a more tech-savvy environment than those in the FinTech industry, particularly those operating in the B2B space. That is why technographic data has emerged as a foundational block for their sales and marketing outreach.
And while each company uses that data in their own way to suit their specific purpose, here are three powerful use cases for all FinTech companies.
Quick Prospecting
One of the immediate benefits of technographic data is the simplicity and efficiency it brings to the prospecting process. Since FinTech products are generally compatible with only a specific set of technologies, the prospecting process is often slow and tedious. You might research an account for hours, work hard to schedule a meeting with the prospect, only to find that they have an in-compatible tech stack.
With technographic data, you never get into those situations. In fact, you can establish the required tech stack as the litmus test and research further into an account only if they pass.
Also, it gives you the ability to easily conduct competitor research and go after their clients.
For example, if you offer payment processing solutions that are competitors to Stripe, having a list of accounts currently using Stripe is probably the best place to start your prospecting.
Technographic + Firomographic to Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
FinTech companies generally have a well-defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) owing to the specific use cases of their products. In that case, using technographic data in combination with firmographic information helps them quickly filter out the best-fit accounts.
Let’s say you want to target eCommerce companies using Magento, and you want to go after bigger clients with revenue above $100M based in North America. Typically, these two are treated as separate conditions – eCommerce companies in North America with revenue over $100M and eCommerce companies in North America using Magento. Depending on your data provider, you may need to pay separately for both lists and then take the time to cross-reference the results for your actual prospects.
But when both these technographic and firmographic filters are combined, you get a much shorter list of accounts that perfectly match your ICP and so you can start your outreach right away.
Technographic + Intent to Active Buyers
At any point in time, no more than 10% of potential buyers are actively looking to purchase. That means even if you run highly targeted campaigns and each of the prospects on your list perfectly matches your ICP, 90% of your efforts would still be directed towards buyers who aren’t actively looking to make a purchase. They need to be convinced to even consider your type of product.
That is the reason why buying signals have become so important in revenue operations.
For instance, if a company is actively searching for the kind of solutions you provide or even your competitor, you can easily infer that they are an active buyer. If you triangulate the Buying Intent data with technographic (plus firmographic for even higher accuracy) data, you easily deduce if they fit your ICP criteria.
If a company ticks all the boxes in technographic and firmographic filters plus is showing high intent, they are your most qualified opportunity.
Overall, technographic data serves as a key element for FinTech companies to identify their ideal customers and get ahead of the competition. When coupled with other related data sets, its usability is further enhanced to serve across all channels. Be it inbound, outbound, or a mix of two like ABM or events, technographic data has found its use case everywhere in one form or the other.
If you aren’t sure how you can leverage technographic data or how it would fit in your unique sales marketing operations, request a free personalized demo now.
