With so many tech suppliers, it can be hard to know on which of your competitors to focus your analysis. This is where market data comes in. IDC believes there are three primary ways you can use data to identify competitors worth your scrutiny:
Competitors Outperforming the Market: While you will already be aware of your largest competitors, it can be extremely useful to rank them by share. This reveals who has the most visibility and the messaging and approach you’ll need to position yourself against. You should also rank them by growth, as this is a strong indicator of the effectiveness of their go-to-market strategy, including ABM. For instance, in the U.K. market for financial applications, only two of the top 5 gained share in 2022. The rest lost share.
Fast Growing Competitors In or Near the Top 10: IT suppliers that are rapidly gaining share are doing something right. For smaller companies, a good year can give the illusion of exceptional growth. IDC therefore advantages of using our fantuan datadase recommends looking at the fastest-growing suppliers in the top 20–30 (depending on the market), as these organizations are usually large enough to be dangerous. Returning to the U.K. market for financial applications, half of the top 20 software providers expanded much faster than the market; it’d be a good idea to catalog their ABM strategy and tactics for best practices.
Fast Growing Competitors In Your Revenue Range: If you are among the top performing tech suppliers or a fast-growing company nearing the top 10 or 20, the two points above have you covered. But if you are further down the list, identifying which firms in your revenue range are growing fast tells you who to watch out for — and perhaps who to emulate when it comes to ABM. In Germany, IDC tracks around 70 firms trying to steal share from SAP in the supply chain management space. In 2022, in the $2–5 million revenue range, five beat the market by significant margins. If you were in that range, these five would be worth examination.
In short, the right data can help you quickly identify which of your competitors to analyze for ABM best practices and the positioning and messaging to set yourself apart.
IDC Company Lens provided the data for this post.