Challenge: Buyers of fixed income pricing data had more options than ever before as the market for pricing data was exponentially increasing every year. A pricing data provider had to compete for the mindshare of Wall St traders, brokers, portfolio managers and pricing service providers looking to gain an edge in the market. Its GTM team needed a standardized approach for uniquely positioning their offering in the market.
Solution: The sales enablement team developed a series of battlecards with input from sales, marketing and competitive intel. They sought to understand the strengths of weaknesses, differentiators and messaging of each competitor. The battlecards were used to direct action when sales found themselves in deals looking to beat, or displace, a competitor. The competition fit into three broad categories.
- Enterprise Pricing Services: Some of the biggest companies in the market including Refinitiv, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Bloomberg provided cost efficient alternatives to premium pricing data.
- Niche Data Providers: Niche data providers differentiated based on expertise in select asset classes and regions but couldn’t deliver on big promises about the quality of data and service they provided.
- Homegrown Solutions: Many firm’s developed proprietary technology in house over the years to capture and aggregate data. These solutions, though not perfect, were deeply embedded in processes which made them hard to untangle.
Results: The sales team used these battlecards to beat competitors more often. Keys to success included:
- 10% higher win rates due to the head to head wins with major competitive threats
- 20% larger deals due to fewer discounts being required to get deals done