Most sales teams know who bought from them last month. But do they know which qualified customers they are missing? Which contractors are preparing to buy? Which projects are moving toward a quote? Or when a salesperson should make the call?
That was the focus of a recent webinar hosted by David Bauders, who was joined by Ryan Brown to demonstrate how Trade Hounds Market Insights gives companies a clearer view of their markets and helps sales teams turn better information into revenue.
The webinar also included a separate look at Trade Hounds Pro, which helps general contractors and subcontractors find projects, manage bidding activity, and connect with the right partners.
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Most companies rely heavily on their own sales history to find opportunities.
That information can help identify products a customer has not purchased or suggest additional products to cross-sell. But it is still based on past transactions. It tells salespeople what customers already bought, not everything happening in the market around them.
Market Insights takes a broader approach.
It combines a company’s sales history with market data from the Trade Hounds platform. This helps sales teams see the total market they could serve, rather than limiting them to the customers they have historically served.
That distinction matters because many companies may be selling to only a portion of the customers that fit their business.
During the webinar, David Bauders said that a typical distributor working with the company sells to approximately 30% to 40% of its eligible lookalike prospects in a given geography. That means a large portion of the market may never make it onto a salesperson’s call list.
Market Insights helps expose those missed opportunities.
One of the main Market Insights demonstrations focused on identifying best-fit prospects.
The platform looks at the customers and products a salesperson is already successful with. It then compares that information with companies across the Trade Hounds market database to identify similar prospects.
In the webinar example, a salesperson was doing business with about 45 customers. Market Insights identified several thousand potential best-fit prospects based on similarities between the salesperson’s successful customers and other companies in the market.
Instead of giving every prospect the same priority, Market Insights can help sales teams evaluate factors such as:
The spend profile may be based on purchasing behavior observed through the platform or a match with a similar company participating in the purchasing platform.
This gives salespeople more than a long list of company names. It helps them understand which opportunities may be worth pursuing first.
Finding a good prospect is only the beginning.
Salespeople still need to understand the prospect’s likely needs, connect those needs to their company’s capabilities, and start a relevant conversation.
Market Insights includes firmographic information and a built-in sales coach trained on value-based selling approaches from SPARXiQ’s sales training program. During the demonstration, the tool created prospecting and cold-call statements connecting a company’s potential pain points with the salesperson’s capabilities.
The platform can also provide contact information for key influencers and buyers. Salespeople can use that information to request meetings or pursue invitations to quote with relevant companies.
The result is a more focused approach to prospecting:
As David Bauders explained during the webinar, buyers do not wake up wanting to be sold to. Strong salespeople connect what their company can do with a buyer’s real needs. Better data makes that conversation more specific and useful.
Traditional sales data shows the outcome of a buying decision. It does not always reveal the steps that came before it.
Market Insights is designed to surface “pre-commerce” data. This includes activity that can happen before a transaction appears in an ERP system, such as:
The Trade Hounds platform can track timestamps and activity during quoting workflows. It can also capture wins, losses, and stated reasons for an outcome, including brand preference, price, availability, or a customer’s preference for another distributor.
This gives salespeople a better chance to act before the decision is finished. Prospecting gets easier when you call someone at the right moment.
Market Insights is not just for individual salespeople.
Marketing teams can use the same data to identify companies that fit the business but are not currently buying from it. A company can zoom into a specific market, identify missed prospects, and target the relevant buyers with email campaigns.
The data can also support:
Instead of marketing to every company in a broad industry category, teams can concentrate their budget on businesses that more closely match the customers they want.
Manufacturer reps may be able to use Market Insights to see relationships and activity earlier in the buying process. That includes understanding which general contractors are bidding with end customers, which subcontractors are receiving invitations, and where conversations may influence an opportunity.
This information can also help reps support their distributor partners. For example, a rep could help a distributor identify an active opportunity or give a qualified subcontractor earlier notice about work that may fit its capabilities. Some subcontractors may miss opportunities because they do not see available projects or understand which work they are qualified to pursue. That turns market data into something more useful than a report. It becomes a way to help channel partners act.
A clearer view of the market can support decisions beyond prospecting. Companies can use Market Insights to understand where they may need more inventory. It could also help leaders evaluate where additional sales coverage may be needed and what types of salespeople could be appropriate for a particular geography.
For companies managing multiple branches or territories, this provides a more local view of opportunity. Leaders can examine what is happening in an individual market rather than relying only on company-wide averages.
The webinar then shifted from Market Insights to Trade Hounds Pro. These are different products with different primary use cases.
Market Insights helps manufacturers, distributors, manufacturer reps, marketers, and sales teams understand the market, identify best-fit prospects, prioritize opportunities, and improve outreach.
Trade Hounds Pro helps contractors, office buyers and field techs order materials at nearby supply houses, submit requests for quotes (RFQs), create estimates for their customers and manage invoices. Distributors use Trade Hounds Pro to respond to RFQs and support customers through the buyer journey.
The Trade Hounds Pro bid board gives users visibility into open projects posted by general contractors and bidding activity from subcontractors. Depending on what has been included in a project’s bid package, users may be able to review information such as invited subcontractors, bidding participation, blueprints, and deadlines.
Trade Hounds Pro also includes matchmaking capabilities that help general contractors find subcontractors based on the type of project work they perform.
The biggest lesson from the webinar was not simply that companies need more data. They need better visibility into what is happening before the sale.
Knowing which customers bought yesterday is useful. Knowing which qualified companies are missing from your customer list, which projects are starting, which buyers are active, and which opportunities deserve immediate attention can change how a sales team works.
Market Insights helps companies stop relying only on past transactions. It gives salespeople a more complete picture of their market so they can focus on the right companies, deliver a more relevant message, and reach buyers at a better moment.
Because the best prospect is not just a company that fits your business. It is a company that fits your business and has a reason to talk right now.
Find out how you can benefit from Market Insights?