According to a recent 6sense survey of 221 manufacturers, only 10% of their buyers are nearing a purchase decision at any given time.
This stat should give manufacturers pause because, unless they know who that 10% is, they could be spending 90% of their sales and marketing efforts on accounts that have no interest (or budget, or awareness).
Simply focusing on a target list of static accounts based on geography, revenue, employee size, or industry doesn’t give manufacturers insights into which of those accounts are actively in-market.
Manufacturers need strategies and technology that identifies in-market buyers. That way, they can make sure their efforts are prioritized where they’ll make the most impact.
Let’s look at the signals that reveal an in-market account, how to correctly identify them, and how they can be used even further to predict which buyers and accounts your teams should prioritize.
Anonymous Activity Can Reveal Buying Intention
In today’s ultra-connected world, most manufacturing buyers are doing their research across the internet. Unfortunately, most of these activities are anonymous.
Anonymous buying activity includes:
- Searches for topics related to the product/service they’re looking for
- Visiting vendor websites
- Reading industry publications related to their interests
- Comparing different products and services on third-party websites
None of this research requires a buyer to raise their hand, fill out a form, or indicate that they are the unique individual taking those actions.
For most organizations, these potential customers stay anonymous. Sales opportunities vanish without sellers knowing an opportunity ever existed.
How to Tie Anonymous Activity to Real-Life Buyers
The secret to finding the 10% of your manufacturing buyers who are in-market is tracking anonymous online research activities and matching those activities to specific accounts.
6sense uses patented technology with billions of data points to match anonymous online activity to the account where it’s happening. This industry-leading account-matching ability is the missing puzzle piece that turns anonymous web activity into clear buying signals that help you target hot accounts.
When a manufacturer leverages 6sense, they gain access to an intelligence powerhouse that quickly reveals where activity is happening, what types of activities are happening, and the products or services drawing the most attention.
But there’s more value to tracking this information than just alerting you to activity at specific accounts.
One Step Further: Predict In-Market Buying Stages
6sense uses buyer activity in conjunction with your company’s unique characteristics and history to paint a picture of the accounts likely to purchase from you.
Predictive Analytics examines your past deals, including:
- How long they took to close
- The type of companies that have purchased from you
- The number and types of activities buyers performed before the purchase
- The title of your usual buyers
6sense can then predict which accounts are in-market and where they are in their buying journey. By breaking down which stage an account is in, you gain a quick understanding of your overall pipeline.
With this intelligence at your fingertips, you can start to position your sales and marketing activities to focus only on the 10% of accounts in-market.
Instead of running through a static account list, cold-calling unresponsive prospects, and sending unopened marketing emails, your teams can leverage real-time intelligence about your target audience to optimize their campaigns.
Conclusion
Because only 10% of manufacturing buyers are in-market at any given time, it’s critical that manufacturers can correctly identify that small slice of their target accounts. 6sense enables manufacturers to uncover the buying signals that reveal that critical 10% and predict which accounts they should prioritize with sales and marketing activities.
