What is Buyer Intelligence?

Every vendor is fighting for the same attention. Sales and marketing teams are under pressure to reach the right buyers, say the right things, and make every interaction count. Yet most still rely on assumptions about who their buyers are and what they care about.

Buyer Intelligence changes that. It is the process of understanding your prospective customers in real depth. It looks at their organisation, the people involved in decision-making, and how those buyers view your brand. It takes the guesswork out of marketing and sales by revealing how buyers think, what matters to them, and what influences their choices.

When done properly, Buyer Intelligence becomes the foundation for more effective go-to-market strategies. It helps marketing teams build campaigns that resonate, sales teams target the right accounts with confidence, and leadership teams make better commercial decisions. It replaces assumptions with insight and transforms data into clarity and action.

At Viewpoint Analysis, Buyer Intelligence is one of the two central pillars of our work. It sits alongside our Technology Selection services, which help organisations choose the right technology. Together, these two sides bring clarity to both buyers and sellers and help them engage with confidence.

Why Buyer Intelligence Matters

Technology buying is complex. Buying groups are larger than ever, procurement cycles are longer, and the competition is relentless. Yet too often, marketing and sales teams rely on outdated personas or generic market data.

Buyer Intelligence gives you a more accurate picture. It helps you understand the organisations and individuals you are trying to reach, how they make decisions, and what drives those choices. It allows you to see both the rational and emotional factors that influence technology purchases.

Imagine knowing which strategic initiatives your target account is focused on, what outcomes the CIO is measured against, or how the head of applications feels about your product category. Imagine being able to anticipate the objections that will surface in the buying process or the themes that make one vendor stand out from another.

That is the power of Buyer Intelligence. It gives you clarity about the market and your buyers, so you can engage in a more relevant and credible way. It allows your teams to move away from a one-size-fits-all message and instead build conversations that truly connect with the people you want to reach.

The Core Elements of Buyer Intelligence

Buyer Intelligence is not a single activity or report. It is a structured approach that combines three key areas: account intelligence, buyer group intelligence, and market intelligence. Together, they provide a rounded view of the buyer landscape.

Account Intelligence

Account intelligence focuses on individual organisations. It explores the company’s structure, strategy, technology environment, and priorities. It helps answer questions such as: What is this organisation trying to achieve? Which systems are in place today? Where are they investing? Who are the decision-makers and influencers that matter?

With a strong foundation of account intelligence, sales teams can prioritise their efforts and tailor outreach with accuracy. It gives sellers context and helps them align their message to the business and technology goals of each account.

Take a look at Viewpoint Analysis and what we do in the account intelligence area.

Buyer Group Intelligence

If account intelligence tells you where to focus, buyer group intelligence tells you who to engage. Most technology purchases are made by a group rather than a single person. This group often includes a mix of IT, procurement, finance, and operational leaders, each with different motivations and perspectives.

Buyer group intelligence explores how these individuals interact, what they value, and what they think about your company and competitors. It looks at their roles in the decision process, their pain points, and their priorities. It also reveals how your messaging lands with them and what might need to change.

By understanding the buyer group, marketing and sales teams can craft more precise and relevant messaging, build stronger engagement strategies, and approach each stakeholder with the right perspective.

Learn more about Buyer Group Research.

Market Sentiment

Market Sentiment takes a broader view of the overall environment in which you operate and why you are winning, losing, and how your customers perceive you. Interviewing customers, lost deals, recent wins, partners, experienced sales heads - and more, can give a comprehensive viewpoint that can hone marketing messaging and improve sales performance.

Learn more about our market sentiment Voice of the Buyer 360 here.

When combined, these three areas create a comprehensive understanding of both the accounts you want to win and the broader market that surrounds them.

Buyer and Customer Intelligence: Two Sides of the Same Coin

At Viewpoint Analysis, we see Buyer Intelligence as closely connected to Customer Intelligence. Together, they complete the full picture of how your brand is viewed, both by those who might buy from you in the future and those who already do.

Buyer Intelligence focuses on the future customer. It looks at how your brand is perceived in the market, what awareness and understanding exist, and how prospects compare you with others. Through our Voice of the Buyer services, we help vendors uncover what potential customers think, what influences their decisions, and what might encourage or prevent them from engaging.

Customer Intelligence looks at your existing clients. It focuses on service delivery, satisfaction, and renewal likelihood. Through our Voice of the Customer services, we interview customer stakeholders to understand what they value, where there may be challenges, and how the relationship could be strengthened.

Together, these two perspectives give technology vendors a complete view of the customer lifecycle. From awareness and consideration to retention and renewal, they help you understand how your brand is experienced at every stage and where improvements can be made to drive growth.

Who Benefits from Buyer Intelligence

Buyer Intelligence has relevance across almost every part of a technology vendor’s business.

• For marketing teams, it provides the insight needed to create campaigns and content that reflect how buyers think and what they actually care about. It supports better segmentation, stronger messaging, and more effective targeting.

• For sales teams, it provides practical knowledge about accounts and buying teams, helping them identify priorities, prepare for conversations, and engage with confidence. It gives them context and relevance when approaching prospects.

• For revenue operations, it helps align the organisation around a shared understanding of the market. It gives leadership and strategy teams the data they need to measure effectiveness and make better go-to-market decisions.

• For renewals and customer success teams, it highlights early warning signs. Understanding how buyers and customers feel about your brand helps you identify risks before they become renewal issues and take proactive steps to address them.

In short, Buyer Intelligence brings the entire revenue organisation closer to the reality of the market. It ensures that every decision is based on what buyers truly think and not just what the business believes.

Where Viewpoint Analysis Fits

At Viewpoint Analysis, we sit between technology buyers and sellers. On one side, we help business and IT leaders find and select the right technology through structured and independent processes such as our 30-Day Technology Selection and Rapid RFP programmes. On the other, we help technology vendors better understand those same buyers through our Buyer Intelligence work.

This position gives us a unique perspective. We see how buyers make decisions, what influences their choices, and how vendors can communicate more effectively. We bring independence and clarity to both sides of the market, helping each make better decisions and build stronger relationships.

Our mission is simple. The technology market is crowded, buyers are confused, and sellers are guessing. Viewpoint Analysis provides clarity for both. Whether that means helping a buyer select a new system or helping a vendor understand their market, our role is to bridge the gap and ensure every decision is based on insight rather than assumption.

We would love to speak to you if you're interested in our Buyer Intelligence work. Please request a call and we'll be in touch as soon as possible.