How to Create Unique Market Insights for Sales

I've spent 12 months ruthlessly testing AI tools for market research at Impact Theory. What did we learn? We identified market opportunities 6 months before competitors. We 10X'd our research capabilities. We turned market analysis from guesswork into science. But most people get AI market research completely wrong. They're passive. They wait for the perfect prompt. They expect AI to do the work. Those who are killing it with AI take a different approach. I use what I call the "Market Intelligence System": Step 1: Problem Verification Use this prompt: "List the top 5 urgent and painful problems faced by [your target market] with supporting evidence from Reddit, Amazon, Facebook, or other real sources." Step 2: Competitive Gap Analysis "Identify primary competitors and evaluate their strengths, weaknesses. Highlight clear opportunities to meaningfully differentiate my product." Step 3: Market Demand Assessment "Assess current market size and potential for growth. Evaluate key trends indicating increasing or declining demand with evidence from search volumes, surveys, industry data." Step 4: Pricing Intelligence "Suggest realistic pricing strategies and benchmarks. Analyze customer willingness to pay based on real data." Step 5: Validation Framework "Recommend actionable validation experiments to verify all base assumptions. List early warning signs of potential product-market misfit." The nuclear question: "What do people who disagree with these trends say? What are their best arguments?" This process takes me from zero market knowledge to expert-level intelligence in hours, not months. In a world where everyone has access to data, the advantage goes to those who know exactly how to extract insights from it. Most are drowning in information. Be the one who turns data into decisions. I built a free GPT that walks you through the whole process in 30 minutes. It will give you a step-by-step roadmap to launch your business. Try it out here: https://buff.ly/WQHxGFU

Last week I met with the CRO of a company that was last valued at $2.3 billion. He used my favorite words I’ve heard TO DATE to describe the biggest problem in sales today: “A couple years ago we were selling in a ‘demand-positive’ environment,” he said. He went on: “Today, we’re selling in a ‘demand-neutral’ and even ‘demand-negative environment.’ Those are COMPLETELY different skills.” I asked him what skills sellers need today. Here’s a few things he said: 1. Deliver a McKinsey-caliber POV. A point of view is a UNIQUE insight about an industry problem. A great POV can change how your buyer thinks. All in a way that favors a purchase. Most sellers don’t know how. POVs are thinly-veiled product pitches. There’s no insight. There’s no acumen. The best sellers deliver POVs that rival a McKinsey consultant. They subtly communicate: “I know your business. And I know this problem better than anyone.” Buyers walk out of those meetings better than how they walked in. 2. Uncover C-LEVEL pain and outcomes Open your CRM. Look at the notes in the ‘pain’ field in your deals. Now ask yourself: Are these the topics that C-Level execs talk about? Chances are: Your pain statements resonate with mid level managers. Not C-Level buyers. Uncover the need BEHIND the need. You'll land on the jackpot. 3. Uncover WHAT IT WOULD TAKE to capitalize on a priority. In a demand-neutral environment, you have to go “outbound.” That means buyers aren’t exploring your solution. The obvious step 1 is to uncover priorities (see above). But that’s not enough. You can uncover priorities until you’re blue in the face. But if you don’t know what it takes for your buyer to CAPITALIZE on them? You can't TIE your solution to them. The best salespeople don’t just uncover deep pain. They uncover how the buyer thinks about the causes. They offer insight on how the buyer SHOULD think about them. 4. Build consesus. Buying committees have gotten larger. Buying committees have gotten more risk averse. Buying committees are prone to “do nothing.” Yet sellers have the same multi-threading habits they did two years ago: Work with one, two, MAYBE three people. Stick with the most comfortable contact. Avoid the skeptics. The best salespeople don't just multi-thread. They do it in a way that creates consensus. 4. Confront and convert skeptics into champions. Weak sellers avoid the skeptics. They're uncomfortable. They ask hard questions. They voice hard objections. But the best sellers know that skeptics can become your best champions. Only people who CARE about solving a problem are skeptical about solutions. If you can win them over, they move mountains. Lean into the skeptics. Not away from them. P.S. Here's 39 (free) questions that sell in today's market conditions: https://go.pclub.io/list

Some brands will ALWAYS stay a few steps ahead. It's not because they have a big budget. Or a big marketing department.  If I were to break it down, you'd see that the ONLY distinction between leading and following comes down to one thing: The depth of market intelligence in a brand's strategy. Here's how you can copy a big brand’s strategy and use it in your company:  First, and I can't stress this enough, you have to do more than just collect the data. You have to think BIGGER. You want your insights to do more than just shape campaigns. You need to know how to read the story the data is telling you. And then turn that story into actions. The story your data is telling will help you understand: - Current trends - Consumer behaviors - Competitor strategies - Low hanging fruit - is your approach working, why or why not Once you have a strong hold on these elements, you can develop marketing strategies, campaigns and tactics to win more customers and position as a forerunner in the industry. For instance, The market is continuing to shift toward sustainability, but just plastering eco-friendly on your packaging isn’t enough. Recently, a client came to us wanting to go all-in on the sustainable movement. We used a combination of website user behavior, historical customer segment knowledge, and consumer trends data to pinpoint when in the buyer journey to introduce the sustainable value prop and where in their online presence it best aligned with that buying phase to make the biggest impact. This approach moved us beyond reactionary marketing that makes sweeping changes from general trends into a strategic approach that reacts quickly with more input for bigger outcomes. Businesses that know how to use market intelligence see a 60% increase in profits and productivity, Because their strategies are more in tune with market demands and less about guesswork. #marketing #digitalmarketing #b2bmarketing