Industry
Computer Software
Client
Since 2019
Employees
1,001-5,000
Company
Progress provides the leading products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact business applications.
About Gregg Shupe at Progress Software.
What do you do, and what are your responsibilities? What does your team structure look like?
I’m a digital experience thought leader that helps develop strategy and pushes new ideas and concepts for the company.
I also act as an outward speaking voice on how we perceive digital experiences, what the most important parts are, how we invest in that to recoup the investment and to make gains in competitiveness, market share as well as revenue and cost effectiveness.
What does your team structure look like? Who do you report to?
I sit in-between sales and marketing and report to the demand generation and field marketing teams to deliver top of funnel leads and inquiries.
From a corporate standpoint, I work with the strategy teams to make sure that our products are aligned with the market and that our corporate strategy has the vision of where we need to go.
eMarketer Questions
What are your top 3 goals? How do you use eMarketer to reach your goals?
My number one goal is to increase the mind share of digital experience and its importance. I glean through eMarketer reports to keep me pulsed into the market, to get new ideas and to understand where the analysts are coming from. I’m then able to generate and provide topical content that make it really relevant for digital experience.
I also want to increase credibility in my public speaking engagements. I do a ton of public speaking around the country so data is everything. We need to have data and eMarketer provides me with that to really help me tell stories.
I love being able to show an eMarketer chart and then talk through the data, why this chart happened, and how it's relevant to people’s businesses. So being able to have access to this data is super, super helpful for me.
The last one is generating increased interest in Progress Software’s products. When I do bid defenses and RFP defenses, I bring a lot of forecasting and benchmark data with me.
It’s really interesting when I sit in these boardrooms and say ‘the market is growing at X percent’ then asking these executives ‘how fast are you growing’, and seeing them get uneasy knowing that they don’t meet the benchmark and are losing market share. I’m able to utilize eMarketer data to help companies quickly change direction and place more importance on their digital experiences.
What are your top 3 challenges? How do you use eMarketer to overcome your challenges?
My biggest challenge is creating content at scale. I do a lot of writing and talking. I try to keep up with white papers, media articles, public presentations, blog posts, social posts, you name it, to get our message out there. So creating all this content is very challenging and that’s where eMarketer comes in. They supply me with that one go-to-place that I can do my research and get ideas to utilize that data and riff on whatever topic I’m on.
Another challenge is data sourcing for multiple geographies. We’re a global company so I don’t just sit in the United States, I go around the world for both talking and writing. Having relevant data on different geographies is super, super important for me; it helps me bring more credibility and relevance to my talks and my papers as I approach new markets.
Lastly is lead nurturing campaigns. With my field marketing, demand generation and sales teams, the challenge is to increase leads and opportunities to stay fresh and in touch with prospects and partners. We do so by integrating these nurture campaigns that provide data points and thoughts on what is happening in current events. This allows us to have a continuous flow of content to these prospects and partners.
What made you start looking for research vendors? What was your research process?
We have a couple of research vendors, but I’ve been using eMarketer for several years with a couple of different companies. It’s good for me to have not only multiple resources, but to have that single resource that I can expand from; and that’s what I use eMarketer for. With content creation at scale, it’s much easier to have that one place that I can go.
How did you hear about eMarketer?
So I actually came into a company that was already utilizing eMarketer at the time. I was able to secure a seat and get working on it.
As I was developing my team at this company, I incorporated a lot of the eMarketer data to help us analyze and understand the market landscape and changes. It was very helpful to get this data and insights to educate my team and company, as well as our customers’ clients.
What was the decision making process in purchasing eMarketer? What role did you play?
I’m what we consider a ‘traditional champion’; I brought eMarketer into the budget and requested access to it.
But this was quickly overcome as I explained what I’ve done in the past with eMarketer and the benefits of having a second validating source of information which quickly transpired into being the primary source.
It was a minor obstacle but very much manageable as we explore different opportunities to integrate eMarketer into, especially with our nurturing campaigns which have been extremely successful for us.
What features did you use as decision criteria to evaluate and compare eMarketer and other research alternatives?
For me, it’s the global data. We have other resources specific to North America, Europe, or something like that, but eMarketer provides me with a scope across the globe.
So if I’m presenting in Asia, Australia, or Western Europe, I can make my data and story more relevant to who I’m talking to. Having the ability to dive deep into country specific information across the global is super helpful for me.
For collateral: eMarketer provides me with a scope across the globe. Whether I’m presenting in Asia, Australia, Western Europe, I can make my data and story more relevant to who I’m talking to.
What results were you expecting from an eMarketer subscription? In other words, what does a “successful” experience look like?
From a success factor, eMarketer makes my job easier, myself more relevant and credible, and having the data is very, very important to me. I don’t have to spend all my time on Google looking at data trying to find out if it’s credible or not.
To sum it all up, in 1-2 sentences, why do you find eMarketer valuable?
There’s so much happening out in the world today as we’re coming out of this era of disruption and businesses are scrambling trying to figure out what to do. They know to integrate and deliver digital experiences but don’t understand the importance of what that brings to the market. And that’s what I’m using eMarketer for.
To gather all the data, forecasts, and benchmarks to tell a compelling story backed with credible data and help usher companies into a better engagement model with their customers.
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