Insights and Research for Marketing, Sales Development and Sales

At the end of every year, TOPO reviews the data we’ve gathered through client interactions and industry surveys to analyze trends and make predictions for the coming year. What sets TOPO apart is that we work with high-growth organizations, meaning the data we review is from businesses that are often far ahead of typical companies. We monitor the early adopters of many innovative technologies and processes, which gives us a unique perspective into what other organizations can expect to happen.

Every sales development rep (SDR) needs to do research as part of their prospecting and the more guidance their leaders can provide around this process, the more efficient SDRs can become. A clearly defined process for each stage of prospecting research can help SDRs accomplish one set of tasks then move on to the next set of tasks, rather than wasting time bouncing back and forth between the internet, CRM, and sales engagement platform for prospect information.

The first step in any account based go-to-market program is to create a target account list. Whether based on a formal Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) or not, the target account list represents an organization’s definition of the best accounts and those most likely to become customers. But in reality, marketers really only communicate with a subset of the account list at any one time, and even struggle to cover the full list over the course of a year.

Sales technology changes constantly and rapidly, which is why TOPO analysts continually gather data, talk to companies, and study the entire sales landscape to pinpoint the latest market trends. Considering how much of their budgets sales organizations spend on technology, it is crucial to have guidance about the areas of tech that are most important and what other sales leaders—especially competitors—are doing about them.

The sales technology stack follows the strategy for how an organization goes to market. It is the collection of software tools that help sales teams develop, enable, implement, and manage sales programs that resonate with prospects and customers. A tech stack is built like a house, according to a plan, with every component designed to serve a specific purpose. The tools should interact with each other in ways that create maximum efficiency.

Sales development leaders spend their time developing their prospecting strategies and touch patterns, managing and coaching their teams of sales development representatives (SDRs), and measuring the team’s success at scheduling meetings so they don’t have time to do the work required to keep up with all of the latest sales development technology trends. Technology constantly undergoes rapid changes and that’s why TOPO analysts gather data, talk to companies, and watch the sales development technology landscape to discover the latest market trends.

The sales development technology stack supports how an organization prospects, regardless of the go-to-market (GTM) strategy used. It is the collection of software tools that help sales development leaders develop programs and processes for the sales development representatives (SDRs) who—in turn—plan, execute, track, and optimize their interactions with prospects and customers.

Marketers spend their time developing their marketing strategies, executing their orchestrated programs, and measuring their account based success, so they don’t have time to do the work required to keep up with all of the latest marketing technology trends. Marketing technology constantly undergoes rapid changes and that’s why TOPO analysts gather data, talk to companies, and watch the entire marketing landscape to discover the latest market trends.

The marketing technology stack supports every marketer’s strategy for how their organization goes to market. It is the collection of software tools that help marketers develop, enable, implement, and manage marketing programs that resonate with prospects and customers. Organizations often purchase technology as they need it, however, a tech stack should be built according to a plan with every component designed to serve a specific purpose. The tools interact with each other in ways that provide maximum efficiency.

Analyses of sales effectiveness are usually based on the views of sales leaders. While those opinions are clearly important, it is equally important to hear about the day-to-day realities of sales directly from the reps in the trenches. That is why the TOPO Sales Sentiment Index (SSI) is based on feedback from sales reps themselves.