Andrew Scott, CEO of Insight Data, explains why market intelligence has become a powerful driver of business growth.

Most businesses know who they are competing against. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t stand much chance of survival. Yet far fewer have a complete understanding of the market around them, including where new opportunities exist, which companies are most likely to need their products and how those prospects should be approached.

That distinction has become increasingly important across the fenestration and building products sector. The businesses best placed to grow are those making informed decisions based on accurate information rather than assumptions, outdated records or instinct.

When every opportunity matters, understanding the wider marketplace can make all the difference.

This was the challenge that led to the creation of Insight Data 20 years ago. When I founded the business in 2006, many companies had a short-sighted view of their potential customer base.

Sales teams relied on spreadsheets, scrappy contact lists and personal knowledge of the industry to identify prospects. I remember watching a sales director hand-write 500 addresses from a Yellow Pages – a process that would take five seconds today by working with Insight.

Marketing activity was often based on the ‘scattergun’ principle, firing indiscriminately rather than understanding who they were trying to reach.

The ambition behind Insight Data was simple: to give businesses access to reliable market intelligence that would help them make better commercial decisions.

Technology has changed dramatically since then, but the fundamental questions businesses need to answer have not. Which installers are growing? Where are the biggest opportunities? Which companies are worth targeting?

For an SME, that might mean finding more of the right customers in its local market. For a national manufacturer, it could mean identifying the installers, trade counters or fabricators with the potential to drive significant growth.

The challenge is having the intelligence to know where to look. That is why accurate data matters.
For 20 years, Insight Data has been researching and verifying the companies and people shaping the fenestration, building products and construction markets. It means businesses can spend less time chasing the wrong prospects and more time focusing on opportunities that genuinely fit their ambitions.

And that intelligence has value across the business. For sales teams, it means understanding where to focus their efforts and managing prospects more effectively. For marketing teams, it means creating campaigns based on a stronger understanding of their audience. For business leaders, it provides valuable insight when planning for future growth.

Of course, intelligence only has value if businesses can put it to work. That was the thinking behind Salestracker, launched in 2008 and now evolved into a growth platform built around a simple principle: giving businesses the information and tools they need to find the right prospects, manage customer relationships and turn insight into commercial success.

And now, as Insight Data marks its 20th anniversary, a new version of Salestracker is about to be launched, taking that evolution another step forward.

Alone, neither data nor technology creates growth. The difference comes from giving businesses the insight and tools they need to identify opportunities, build relationships and make better decisions.
It is also the thinking behind Edge, Insight Data’s 20th anniversary business growth masterclass.

The event is built around a simple idea: businesses benefit from sharing knowledge, challenging established approaches and learning from people facing the same commercial pressures.

The conversations at Edge aren’t academic or theoretical; they are the precise challenges keeping fenestration leaders awake at night. How do you identify the right opportunities? How do you make marketing activity more effective? How do you ensure your teams have the information they need to make confident decisions?

The masterclass brings together industry professionals to explore these questions through keynote sessions, workshops and practical demonstrations. What is clear is that businesses are looking for more than technology. They want practical knowledge and a clearer understanding of how to use information to support sustainable growth.

My view is that the next few years will bring further changes across the building products sector. Digital technology will continue to develop and customer expectations will continue to evolve, but the need for accurate market intelligence will remain constant.
Businesses that understand their markets clearly will be better equipped to identify opportunities, respond to change and make decisions with confidence.

That has been our focus since 2006: helping businesses replace uncertainty with insight. Now, 20 years on, Edge brings that experience, knowledge and understanding together to help businesses navigate what comes next.

The next 20 years will bring new challenges, new opportunities and new ways of doing business. Our aim is to help companies understand where to look, make the right decisions and give themselves the best possible chance of growing, competing and winning in the years ahead.