Spiceworks has previewed a new service that matchmakes IT service providers with customers.
The firm said Account Intelligence will allow MSPs to create a profile that advertises their specialisations, skills, services and geography, and then artificial intelligence (AI) will help matchmake them with potential customers.
Manish Dixit, SVP of products and engineering at Spiceworks said the outfit was using artificial intelligence to transform buyer intent signals into actionable intelligence for technology brands.
“The more well-defined profile they have on our community, the better exposure they get”, Dixit told Microscope, adding “the more we know about the businesses, and more the data we have, the better matching. That’s why we emphasise a lot on the MSP to make sure they have a well-defined profile”.
The company points to the growing complexity associated with B2B tech purchases today. In its newly-released State of IT 2019 study, Spiceworks points out that multiple stakeholders are likely to be involved in the tech purchasing process today, with a typical four to six month decision-making timeframe.
This complexity, it says, makes it more difficult for MSPs to identify when buyers are in market and ready to purchase, often resulting in “the inefficient use of marketing and sales spend”. Efficient marketing has long been identified as a weak spot for MSPs – particularly among smaller IT providers.
Spiceworks says MSPs can also upload their own list of customers and prospects to understand current purchase intent levels, as well as providing them with in-depth intelligence on each in-market business, including their purchase intent strength, how purchase intent is trending over time, and when they’re most likely to make a purchase based on where they are in the buying cycle.
