Seven Steps for an AR Strategy to Support Up Market Expansion

Step 1: Understand enterprise needs

A critical first step in the journey to moving up market is to ensure your company understands the specific needs and challenges of larger enterprises. Vendors should execute market-specific inquiries with analysts in your space to better understand customer and buyer requirements, pain points, and expectations for vendors. The insights gathered from these interactions can support investment in various areas of the business, such as product development, go-to-market strategy, customer support, etc. to support up-market growth.

Step 2: Learn about your competitors, and where you fit in the market

Analysts can help you analyze competitors that have been successful in the enterprise space and identify gaps that your solution can fill. Vendors can leverage published research and analyst inquiry to better understand competitor strengths and weaknesses. Following the publication of evaluative research, execute an inquiry campaign or advisory aimed at gleaning competitive intelligence and informing the business.

Step 3: Identify (and talk about) what makes you unique

A huge part of breaking into an established market of vendors serving enterprises is to clearly articulate the unique value proposition and differentiation of your solution for enterprise customers. When speaking with analysts, it’s critical to highlight features and benefits that resonate with larger organizations, such as scalability, customization, security, and compliance. Providing customer case studies, and testimonials, or offering to have customers meet with the analyst directly can go a long way!

Step 4: Ensure consistent messaging

Make sure all company messaging and approaches are consistent in targeting enterprise customers (as analysts will absolutely notice inconsistencies in messaging). This includes updating the website, creating targeted marketing materials, and participating in industry events that attract enterprise-level attendees. Analysts should clearly understand your goals and approach for moving up market in order to speak to it on end-user inquiry calls.

Step 5: Build relationships with key analysts

Analysts’ opinions carry significant weight with enterprise decision-makers, so it’s important to identify and build relationships with analysts who influence your target market. Engage with them regularly to share updates, insights, and the company’s roadmap. Making company executives available can help build credibility and foster relationships. Engaging in inquiry or advisory sessions are a great way to encourage two-way dialog with the analyst, glean relevant insights for your business, and demonstrate that you are leveraging analyst feedback in your journey.

Step 6: Showcase progress with case studies and real-world examples

You will need to show analysts (and the market) proof points of progress against your journey up market. Develop and promote case studies that demonstrate successful implementations of your solution in enterprise settings. Highlight specific challenges that were addressed and the measurable outcomes achieved. You may also consider highlighting competitive replacements and reporting out on growth metrics to demonstrate progress over time.

Step 7: Demonstrate industry thought leadership

To continue to build awareness and highlight differentiation, consider producing whitepapers, research reports, webinars, and blog posts that address current trends and challenges in the enterprise space. Commissioning an analyst voice to support these demand-generation initiatives can provide important third-party validation in the market.

Remember the journey will likely take time

While the decision to move up market holds great potential for tapping into new revenue streams and achieving business growth, it demands careful planning and strategic execution. It’s imperative for businesses embarking on this journey to adopt a patient and thoughtful approach and leverage the expertise of analysts. By doing so, they can navigate the challenges of selling and servicing enterprise customers more effectively, ultimately leading to sustained success in the higher-tier market segment.