Technographics Data Analysis: Unlocking Business Insights

Technographics might not be a genre of music (even though it sure sounds like it), but it can make your sales and marketing sing (and have you singing hallelujah when that new deal comes in). It’s a powerful tool that can light the way to customers who want your products. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not – and it’s also not too complicated, if you know where to look.

What is technographic data?

Technographics (a combination of the words “technology” and “demographics”) are a type of intent signal related to the technologies that a company uses. Technographics are analyzed to build profiles of prospects and hopefully make them part of a marketing funnel or sales pipeline. Technographic information is like a hint about other kinds of products that an organization might want to buy.

Virtually any kind of technology can be included in un-segmented data, from enterprise-wide applications such as messaging platforms and timesheet reporting, to specialized areas such as AI and Blockchain. The challenge is to figure out which “hints” are relevant to you based on the product they sell.

Why are technographics important?

For any vendor that sells technology, the value of technographics is pretty clear. By knowing what a target company has purchased, you can:

• Approach them as a superior solution and replacement for what they already have
• Understand if your product can be an add-on to their core technology
• Notice a gap in their technology stack that you can fill

But a less obvious use of technographic information is its potential as a buying signal. Buying signals reveal the likelihood of someone making a purchase. A creative marketer or salesperson can look at technographics and interpret signs that a prospect might be interested in purchasing all kinds of things, whether they involve technology or not. For example:

• Businesses that have just invested in a large amount of technology are growing, or are about to. There’s a good chance that they need more new products.
• When a company invests in different technologies, they may be trying to up their competitive edge, or develop a new product line, or completely change their strategic direction – and you can be right there with them.
• If a target firm has just done a total replacement of their systems to the newest and best, they might be taking advantage of a surge in profit and interested in buying more stuff (or they might have burned through their cash, so tread carefully).

How do you collect technographic data?

The first step in using technographics is to gather raw data. But before you do, it’s important to understand that technographic information on its own isn’t enough. Let’s say that you are selling a high-end database, and your strategy involves positioning yourself as an upgrade to legacy technology. Simply identifying a company that uses an old database isn’t enough, because, with a high-end system, your prospect needs to have a big budget. So in this case, you need to back up technographics with data about prospect revenue.

There are essentially three ways to gather technographics:

1. Third parties. There are  many kinds of intent data (and many companies that sell it). You’ll want a provider that supplies a range of information so that you have as much background as possible as part of your prospect research. To this end, the top intent data providers (ahem–like Lusha) also supply technology filters so that you get a technographic profile of whatever companies you are looking at.

2. Contacts and surveys. It’s tough to get people to complete surveys. Asking a busy technology manager to discuss their stack and budget with someone they don’t know can be tricky. But once you’ve  established a relationship, it’s easier to get a friendly manager to complete a questionnaire or to call them once in a while to discuss their immediate needs and what’s going on in their industry.

3. Web scraping. This is a method of gathering data– which can include technographics –from websites across the Internet. It’s usually done with specialized technologies, but you can also get free versions from Google. This can be a bit complicated for the untrained, so it’s better to rely on an expert.

How to use technographic data

Applying technographic information means going through a process similar to most lead generation flows.

The first stage is collection, as we mentioned. The result of this phase can be a mass of unsorted data, unless you have customized your search according to something like an ideal customer profile. This is already a type of filtering and helps you get practical results faster.

The second stage is segmentation. This is where you sort the categories supplied in the collected reports according to relevance. It’s helpful to be well-versed in your product’s value proposition, which should be defined in your go-to-market strategy. Some of the technographic data might not be of much value because the prospect is totally unconnected to what you are selling. The rest needs to be ranked so that the best prospects are contacted first.

The third stage is targeting, which prioritizes the segmented results according to buying potential. You’re probably familiar with basic filtering methods, such as lead scoring and intent-based targeting. At the end of this step, you should have a list of highly relevant prospects.

What is an example of technographic segmentation?

Let’s illustrate with an example. Say your third-party technographic data indicates that Company X has just purchased a brand new CRM system that is known for scalability. It’s also an expensive technology, so Company X is serious.

These are three hints from just one bit of technographic data: a sales technology upgrade that can accommodate rapid growth by an organization that has a healthy budget. Maybe Company X is on the verge of building a bigger sales team…and maybe they have the cash to enhance the team’s capabilities. Perhaps they’re in the market for something that you just happen to be selling.

Key takeaways

• Technographic data details the types of technologies that a prospect uses and is a way to interpret their purchase intent.
• Technographics are ideal for vendors selling technology, but can in fact be used by many salespeople if they know how to translate the information.
• You can collect technographic data through third parties, surveys, and web-scraping, and then it needs to be segmented and ranked according to buying potential.