The Business Intelligence market is getting more and more attention in the past couple of years as businesses demand more and better access to data analytics tools.
In fact, a recent study revealed that Business Intelligence (BI), analytics and performance management have received more investment from venture capital funding is the SaaS industry than any other market. Apparently, the BI segment in the IT industry is creating a bubble. If you are a BI software provider, you cannot afford to let this trend pass without cashing in. Sure, there’s more than enough market for the product. The question is, how do you get them to engage and buy yours?
The general answer: know the market like the back of your hand.
Assuming you did your research and came up with the same conclusion as we did, then here’s how you get customers for your BI software.
There are two kinds of BI software customers:
those who are trying to move towards the use of data analytics in their business, and
those who are already using data analytics but aren’t satisfied with what they are getting.
First group:
Those in the first group are first-time BI software buyers whose business is growing, the amount of data they collect is increasing and they want to invest in tools that will help them optimize their use of that data. Their decision to invest in business intelligence software is proactive. Frankly, this is the easier group to target because the expectations are relatively low. You don’t have to bring out the big guns, so to speak, yet.
Tip: Offer a modest, functional and practical model that’s packed with value rather than high-end features.
These days, when “freemium” offers are a dime a dozen, you can’t afford not to be competitive.
Second group:
The second group is the more tricky lot to navigate. I categorized them in three sub-groups based on their pain points. That’s how we are going to proceed with our marketing strategy.
Roughly three out of 10 businesses have utilized a business intelligence software, but are in search of a new system. Here the sense is not so much that the company is growing, but that it has already grown to a level where the amount of data has become unmanageable. It is safe to say these businesses experience internal chaos and the decision-makers want to flee from the scenario as soon possible. The only viable solution is the utilization of a BI tool.
In such scenarios, if you are the supplier, package your business as the only one with a targeted approach. Identify on one very specific business metric—employee turnover rate, for example—and focus analytics on that first.
