Techaisle's SMB and Channel Partner segmentations are much more than a simple clustering of responses. They are designed to help IT suppliers make effective decisions for both marketing and sales.
Techaisle's SMB and Channel Partners Segmentations are based on the premise that any segmentation in the hi-tech industry should be based on the interaction issues of business and technology. Techaisle's segments are multi-level clusters that are relevant to different aspects of the IT suppliers business.
1. Category Segments
These segments are generated using the attitudinal battery, designed specifically for a category. The category segments and their dynamics are of considerable use to a business planner, planning strategies to improve the company foot print within this category.
2. Product Segmentation - Marketing
The segments at this level are extracted from the category segments with reference to specific products. At this level the segment profiles will of considerable interest to marketing teams. The segment details help marketing people to strategize communication as well as media.
3. Product Segmentation – Sales
The segmentation at this level is of sub-clusters from Product Segments. The profiles help the sales team accurately target potential customers. The size of the company, the number of employees, geographical locations, IT infrastructure and decision hierarchy insights can make sales calls more effective.
In addition to providing complete profiles of these segments Techaisle can also integrate this data with customer data bases and size the business potential of the segments
Flaws with current Segmentation methodology
The main objective of segmentation is to find groups of customers and use the group characteristics to build effective marketing and sales strategies strategy. Classical Segmentation approaches like: Demographic Segmentation, Geographical Segmentation or Psychographic Segmentation has limited uses. Segmentation based on Attitudinal Batteries was popular about a few decades ago. These were quite useful in classifying a large population in to understandable groups. Much of these have been useful to sociologists and have not been found useful in marketing hi-tech products.
Approach and advantages of Techaisle's Segmentation
Techaisle's approach to segmenting the global SMB and midmarket was driven by the failure of popular approaches that eventually led to sub-optimal results. Techaisle believes that a robust segmentation:
- Is easily field implementable
- Can be deployed consistently across Geos
- Is effective in driving sales
- Is easily understood by the organization
- Can be sustained through multiple years
- A more meaningful segmentation for sizing
- Helps focus marketing and sales strategies
- Quickly identify to which segment an SMB belongs and then take a meaningful action
Techaisle's segmentation approach conducted through multivariate analysis is based on the following principles:
- No single individual is solely responsible for technology purchases and often purchases are subject to committee review
- Existing infrastructure and products have an impact on selection of future products
- Existing product ownership differentiates one company from another
- All products are not equally important to the operations of a company and that the importance attached has an impact on purchase of future products purchased
- Technology adoption is progressive. In other words, the segmentation must lay out an upgrade path
- All vendors are not treated equally. Some vendors are treated more equal than others. Vendor relationships clearly impact future sales
- Segmentation must ultimately drive increased sales
Techaisle's approach therefore focuses on capturing the existing technology infrastructure in detail and then segmenting market based on:
- Technologies owned – clear groupings of products owned that reflect the state of It in a company and an upgrade path to the next level with a clear idea of products that should be sold a company to take them to the next level
- Importance of technologies to operations: This prioritization provides a clearer picture of which products and technologies are most likely to be adopted
- Strength of vendor relationships: This takes "relationship value" into consideration
- Products likely to be purchased in the next 12 months
- Firmographics
