There are millions of users in your CRM but only a few reps in your sales team. Your sales team must spend their limited bandwidth on accounts that are actually going to convert. To do this, they need information on what these accounts with the highest propensity to convert look like. This insight is provided by firmographic data. Sales teams at B2B companies spend significant time layering firmographic data into their sales processes. Firmographic data helps craft more personalized outreach in account-based marketing (ABM), messaging in all sales collateral, better lead scoring, and creating targeted demos.

Firmographic segmentation is a data-driven B2B sales strategy to identify high-value accounts and focus sales efforts on them. It allows you to tailor sales messages to the unique personality of a business and convince them that you have the best product to fulfill their needs.

I. Understanding Firmographic Data  

Firmographic data is information about the descriptive attributes of a business, such as:

• Industry type

• Company size or Number of employees

• Geographic location

• Organizational structure/Legal status (LLC, Corporation, Partnership, Non-Profit, subsidiaries)

• Capital raised

• Performance (annual revenue, profit, and loss)

There are plenty of sources for gathering firmographic data. The good ol’ Google search, LinkedIn, or other social media profiles provide firmographic data. A few usual suspects in the business intelligence space like ZoomInfo, Clearbit, SalesIntel, Lusha, UpLead, and ContactOut get you all the information you need in your sales processes in terms of firmographic data.

Grouping companies based on shared characteristics offers more clarity and direction in crafting sales conversations tailored to each group. Your sales team can more effectively engage them on their unique pain points or requirements and create the correct impressions about your ability to meet their requirements.

II. Enhancing Targeting and Segmentation

A. Customizing buyer personas with firmographics data

Ideal Customer Persona or ICP is made of different attributes and a few data points make up these attributes. Firmographic data is one of the data points that go into creating user personas. Demographic data (a decision maker’s role, title, location, etc.) is one of the other crucial data points in making this persona, along with technographic data (the tech stack of a business). These attributes enable you to gain a well-rounded understanding of your users and who your sales teams should go after.

B. Identifying ideal customer profiles using key firmographic attributes

A high-quality ideal customer profile (ICP) boosts the sales process. Firmographic information is essential to creating an ICP that helps prioritize the right prospects and accounts, increasing the likelihood of closed won deals and shorter sales cycles.

C. Tailoring sales outreach, messaging, and demos based on demographic and firmographic insights

Firmographic data helps sales teams customize the use case that a product can serve for an account. Rather than speaking to the target market, they can now engage segments of their target audience in highly relevant conversations across the sales cycle, from initial outreach messaging to sharing sales collateral like case studies, and personalized demos.

III. Improving Lead Generation and Qualification

A. Using firmographics data to prioritize leads effectively

All leads are not created equal. Firmographic information tells sales teams who the high-value leads are so they can chase after them first and more intensely than those that are not likely to convert yet. The data helps build a lead-scoring system and improves your account-based marketing efforts.

B. Increasing lead quality by aligning with ideal customer profiles

As explained, firmographic variables are important to building high-quality ideal customer profiles. Your sales team receives leads validated based on their fit with the ICP and can use the sales intelligence they have to convince them and boost the deal win rate.

C. Enhancing lead scoring models with firmographics data

Identifying the right lead-scoring data is essential to creating a lead-scoring model. The data points you choose, and the weightage you assign to each category will determine which leads score high, low, or negative points. Firmographic information is an important factor in helping evaluate leads effectively.

IV. Personalization and Customer Engagement

A. How firmographics data aids in crafting personalized sales messages

According to Salesforce, 80% of the business-to-business customer base says the experience a company provides is as important as its product. Relevant, contextualized, and personalized interactions are a big part of the customer experience. But first, your sales team must know who exactly they’re speaking to, which is only possible when they’re well-equipped with the firmographic attributes of users.

B. Building stronger customer relationships through data-driven engagement

Using firmographic and other user information is a data-driven approach to engagement and relationship-building. Knowing your users inside out makes it easier to speak to them naturally, say the right things, and position your company as a valuable partner.

C. Utilizing firmographics data to anticipate customer needs

A huge benefit of firmographic information is how it allows your sales teams to plan timely outreach, such as when a prospect is flush with cash after closing a funding round or achieving a new ARR milestone. On the flip side, you should hold on to engaging a prospect who - as their latest firmographic profile reveals - is going through a rough patch or downsizing.

V. Tracking and Measuring Success

A. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for evaluating firmographics data impact

As firmographic information directly affects lead quality and opportunities identified, KPIs such as lead value, deal win rate, and revenue can help evaluate the impact of using firmographics.

B. Analyzing sales metrics with firmographics insights

Another way in which firmographic insights are useful is how they allow you to gauge your deal wins. For example, if you’ve had a particularly good or bad quarter, you can refer to user firmographics to understand what might have worked in your favor or against it. It helps you gain a balanced and nuanced understanding of your sales metrics.

C. Making data-driven adjustments to sales processes

Based on the outcomes of sales efforts tailored to users’ firmographic and other data, you can identify gaps in your sales process, determine which messages are more effective, and refine your sales playbook in a data-driven way.

VI. Conclusion

Firmographic data is extremely valuable in improving your sales process and outcomes. It is easily accessible from data providers, so leverage it and update it to make data-backed sales decisions that greatly benefit your bottom line.