Why Data Will Eat the World

Demandbase’s CMO on why every great go-to-market team stands on a foundation of great data.

It’s been almost 10 years since Marc Andreessen proclaimed that “Software is eating the world.” Back then, he claimed that we were undergoing a broad technological and economic shift in which software companies were poised to take over large swathes of the economy.

And while that’s certainly proven true over the last decade, all the software has led to a new wave: data. Over the last 10 years, the amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed increased almost 5,000 percent, and the amount of data created over the next three years will be more than the data created over the past 30 [IDC].

Andreessen talked about the companies that are winning — Apple, Netflix, LinkedIn, Amazon, Google, etc. — and pointed out these are really software companies. I’d argue they are actually data companies. How does Netflix predict what movie you want to watch next? Data. How does Google return the best search results? Data. And LinkedIn’s value, at the core, is its social graph — once again, data.

These companies are still winning, but now it’s their data that’s driving the disruption. The winners of tomorrow will take advantage of the rich data that’s available, using it as an input to drive better predictions and personalization. The software itself is increasingly being commoditized — you can easily get your hands on open-source predictive analytics, and any data scientist will tell you about the importance of clean and accurate data and that more data usually beats better algorithms.

The best software solutions run on the best data. The best AI runs on the best data. And, it turns out, the best go-to-market strategies run on the best data.

Today it’s data that is eating the world. Or perhaps it’s even more accurate to say that data is FEEDING the world.

“Data is the new application.”
Frank Bien – CEO, Looker, 6/19

Data in B2B go-to-market (Sales and Marketing)

Sales teams used to use their experience and intuition to know which accounts to focus on. But starting in the mid-2000s, companies began to use data to help prioritize time on the hottest leads (e.g., lead scoring). And about a decade later, predictive analytics came on the scene: first to score leads, and later to help companies identify the best targets for their account-based efforts.

These early efforts showed the power of data to help Marketing and Sales teams win. Data can tell you where your revenue will come from — or should come from. And data can tell you the right experience for each account, at every stage of the journey (aka “Account-Based Experience” or ABX). The companies with the best data about their accounts are able to focus on the right accounts at the right time, with the right message — delivering outsized growth, win rates, and retention.

Or, put simply, she who has the best data, wins.

Easier said than done.

If data is so great, then why aren’t more companies using it more effectively?

The answer is simple. Up until today, it’s been too hard. The data has been fragmented across multiple vendors. Buyers have had to go to one source for intent and account identification, another for firmographics and contacts, and yet a third for technographics. It hasn’t always been easy to integrate all these sources, and it’s been near impossible to keep it up to date and maintained.

Bringing together the best B2B data

That’s why I’m so thrilled to announce that Demandbase has made the bold move to acquire not just one leading B2B data provider, but two: InsideView, the leader in sales and marketing intelligence including firmographic and contact data, and DemandMatrix, the best provider of technographic data and intelligence. Adding these capabilities to Demandbase’s existing leadership in account identification and intent data creates an unrivaled solution for identifying, understanding, and engaging the accounts that matter.

With InsideView, we are acquiring the largest private provider of B2B firmographic and contact information – and a clear leader in both the recent Forrester Wave: B2B Marketing Data Providers Q2 2021 and the G2 Grid® for Sales Intelligence, and the winner of TrustRadius Top Rated awards in Sales Intelligence Software and Market Intelligence Software.

And with DemandMatrix, we are acquiring the best provider for technographics — we know this because our data scientists tested all of them, and found that DemandMatrix not only had the most complete and accurate data, but also their data was often the #1 factor in our predictive models for our customers.

All this amazing data comes together as the new Demandbase Data Cloud, a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution for all five critical components of B2B data — firmographics, technographics, intent, account identification, and contacts. And we’re also announcing the Demandbase Sales Intelligence Cloud, which embeds real-time B2B data and intelligence directly into sellers’ daily workflow so they can find new prospects, engage more effectively with buyers, and close deals faster.

Beyond Account-Based Marketing

Demandbase has long been a leader in Account-Based Marketing, and recently we introduced Account-Based Experience (ABX), a customer-centric rethinking of the account-based go-to-market that combines the engageability of inbound marketing with the precision of ABM.

But today’s announcements show we didn’t stop there. Because markets don’t stand still. And neither do we. With these new capabilities, Demandbase moves from being ‘just’ a leader in account-based programs to being the definitive leader in B2B go-to-market. We now provide:

• A data solution serving Operations and Data Science
• An Account-Based Experience (ABX) solution critical to Demand Gen and Marketing Operations
• A B2B advertising solution activating Digital and Field Marketing
• A sales intelligence solution driving Sales and Sales Development

This is bigger than Sales and it’s bigger than Marketing. It’s about the next generation of technology to help B2B companies with all aspects of their go-to-market. We now have the most comprehensive suite of B2B go-to-market solutions to help the biggest and fastest-growing companies to collaborate faster, share intelligence, and experience explosive growth — and I couldn’t be more excited.