The growth of digital data worldwide is accelerating at an unprecedented, virtually incomprehensible rate. The search engines we use constantly collate data about our browsing habits, merchant websites create a profile about the combination of products we keep returning to, and our social media accounts merge all our data to build a profile of our digital avatar. However, despite this, our scattered data is often stored in farms without a purpose, leaving us with poor recommendations and ads that do not respond to our interests and needs. This results in poor targeting and a bad experience both for buyers, who are being sold products they neither want nor need, and sellers, who are expected to sell products and services to the wrong audience. In the world of B2B, this is not simply annoying – this poor targeting ends up harming the reputation of the brand behind the seller.

That great recipe your friend cooked, your next exciting tech purchase, how to tie a bow tie -- there is almost nothing we do that we don't research first on the web. You name it, we Google it. Most of the research that a buyer conducts for a considered sale happens online, either on your company's website or worse, your competitor's website. And even if buyers ultimately buy from a salesperson or offline or at a store, they usually research their purchases online first. As a company, your best opportunity to discover and capture your customers' buying intent before they purchase all happens online, and often on your very own website.