I love this. I have been saying the same thing for years. ABM created the illusion that you can signal everything about a buyer.
Firmographics they pull these from combined with inaccurate third party data vendors that I won't name but looking at the segments wanted me to pull my hair out, is outdated.
I think contextual nuances and the sentiments are more towards how the SaaS buying committees operate.
All the average 22 people get into the journey all together at the same time = legal doesn't wait for procurement to ask for 3 RFPs while the champion and the end user are heavy deep in POC.
Also all the buying committees engage when they have a first set deal consideration list already.
So from where I am looking at marketing talks personas, sales talks ICP, boards talk segments. Same product different definitions.
Combining contextual signals works wonders because they give you more back knowledge about the buyer.
If legal, procurement and the end user are all moving at once, a static account list tells you almost nothing about where the deal actually is. Contextual signals at least show what people are reading and researching right now, which is much closer to what the committee is doing than headcount or an industry code. I get excited by channels like YouTube for this signal richness - actual contextually useful signals coming out of certain videos.
Totally with you on the data inaccuracies - they are scary. Classifications are a borderline joke in places, enrichment signals violently disagree etc. Its a minefield for those trying to licence a dataset and crack on
This part I get- if as a brand you don’t have programmatic techies on your team, you rely on your big holdcos to do the job for you because both the retainers you pay to the in country team and the outsourced team are enormous; you expect them to know what they are doing.
It is absolutely the opposite. They used to send me these off the charts third party targeting segments. The odd part is them not checking either.
If I and my team hadn’t had experience with tech, data, targeting, bid streams and TTD, we could have been easily going after a CFO that is 25, with 5 kids, still in college, has a mortgage and works at a big SaaS enterprise all at the same time.
It is tragically funny so why not:-) That is the current state.
And what is more tragic is we will have a wider middle gap in all these professions in about 5 years due to AI- little to no training whatsoever.
So I wonder, if at that point, that CFO is actually a squirrel living with its 5 babies, having a mortgage at Central Park, attending community college while building his nut factory …..
I love this. I have been saying the same thing for years. ABM created the illusion that you can signal everything about a buyer.
Firmographics they pull these from combined with inaccurate third party data vendors that I won't name but looking at the segments wanted me to pull my hair out, is outdated.
I think contextual nuances and the sentiments are more towards how the SaaS buying committees operate.
All the average 22 people get into the journey all together at the same time = legal doesn't wait for procurement to ask for 3 RFPs while the champion and the end user are heavy deep in POC.
Also all the buying committees engage when they have a first set deal consideration list already.
So from where I am looking at marketing talks personas, sales talks ICP, boards talk segments. Same product different definitions.
Combining contextual signals works wonders because they give you more back knowledge about the buyer.
Great piece!
Thanks Ayse, glad it landed!
If legal, procurement and the end user are all moving at once, a static account list tells you almost nothing about where the deal actually is. Contextual signals at least show what people are reading and researching right now, which is much closer to what the committee is doing than headcount or an industry code. I get excited by channels like YouTube for this signal richness - actual contextually useful signals coming out of certain videos.
Totally with you on the data inaccuracies - they are scary. Classifications are a borderline joke in places, enrichment signals violently disagree etc. Its a minefield for those trying to licence a dataset and crack on
This part I get- if as a brand you don’t have programmatic techies on your team, you rely on your big holdcos to do the job for you because both the retainers you pay to the in country team and the outsourced team are enormous; you expect them to know what they are doing.
It is absolutely the opposite. They used to send me these off the charts third party targeting segments. The odd part is them not checking either.
If I and my team hadn’t had experience with tech, data, targeting, bid streams and TTD, we could have been easily going after a CFO that is 25, with 5 kids, still in college, has a mortgage and works at a big SaaS enterprise all at the same time.
Same with ABM segments.
It is wild out there!!
I’m laughing but I shouldn’t be. It’s the Wild West. It makes the whole channel/s look bad when it’s negligent in its use of them.
It is tragically funny so why not:-) That is the current state.
And what is more tragic is we will have a wider middle gap in all these professions in about 5 years due to AI- little to no training whatsoever.
So I wonder, if at that point, that CFO is actually a squirrel living with its 5 babies, having a mortgage at Central Park, attending community college while building his nut factory …..
Who knows….