Technology Market Research | SIS International
Enterprise Technology & SaaS Intelligence

Technology Market Research That Asks the Buyer, Not the Vendor

Vendor pitch decks overstate adoption curves. Analyst reports aggregate survey data from respondents who may never have evaluated the product. SIS International interviews the IT procurement directors, CIOs, and engineering leaders who actually select, deploy, and renew enterprise software. We conduct win/loss analysis, vendor evaluation studies, and go-to-market research across 135+ countries so technology companies understand how buyers really make decisions.

Technology market research: enterprise software buyer interview for win/loss analysis
Where We Operate

Six Research Lanes for شركات التكنولوجيا

Win/Loss Analysis for Enterprise Software

SIS interviews the prospects who evaluated your product and chose a competitor, and the ones who chose you over alternatives. We document the decision criteria, the evaluation process, the competitive shortlist, and the specific moment the deal tilted. Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Workday all run structured win/loss programs because CRM pipeline data shows what happened but not why. A cybersecurity vendor discovered through SIS win/loss interviews that procurement teams consistently ranked them first on technical evaluation but lost the deal at the CISO level, where the competitor’s managed services positioning resolved a staffing concern the product-only pitch could not address.

SaaS Go-to-Market Research

SIS interviews prospective buyers in the target segment to validate go-to-market assumptions before launch investment. We test pricing models (per-seat, usage-based, platform fee), sales motion fit (self-serve, inside sales, enterprise field sales), and competitive positioning with the actual personas who sign purchase orders. A vertical SaaS company entering the construction management category used SIS research to discover that their usage-based pricing model, which worked in software development, confused construction project managers who budget by project, not by consumption. The pricing architecture was rebuilt before the GTM launched.

AI Adoption and Readiness Assessment

Vendor projections for enterprise AI adoption do not match what IT leaders report when interviewed independently. SIS conducts structured interviews with CIOs, VP Engineering, and data science leads to assess actual AI deployment status: which use cases are in production versus pilot, what integration barriers stalled adoption, and where ROI has been demonstrated versus assumed. Microsoft Copilot, Google Duet AI, and Anthropic Claude are entering enterprise evaluations simultaneously. SIS documents how procurement teams are structuring those evaluations and what criteria determine which platform wins the deployment.

Platform Ecosystem and API Monetization Research

Platform companies like Twilio, Stripe, and Shopify generate revenue through developer adoption and ecosystem partner engagement. SIS interviews developers, ISV partners, and integration architects to map ecosystem health: API adoption friction, documentation quality, developer experience satisfaction, and the competitive pull from alternative platforms. A payments infrastructure company used SIS research to identify that their API documentation gap, not their feature set, was the primary reason mid-market developers chose a competitor’s platform during the integration evaluation phase.

Vendor Evaluation and Software Selection Research

SIS interviews enterprise buyers who have recently completed a vendor selection process in a specific software category: ERP, CRM, ITSM, cybersecurity, data platform, or collaboration. We document the evaluation framework, the shortlist criteria, the proof-of-concept process, and the decision-maker hierarchy. The output is a buyer decision map that product marketing and sales enablement teams use to align positioning with how the buyer actually evaluates. Gartner Magic Quadrants show where vendors are placed. SIS research shows how buyers use those quadrants and what other factors override them.

Net Revenue Retention and Churn Intelligence

SIS interviews churned customers and accounts that downgraded to identify the specific triggers: product gaps, integration failures, support dissatisfaction, pricing changes, or competitive displacement. We also interview expanded accounts to understand what drove upsell and cross-sell. The output is a churn driver analysis and expansion driver analysis that customer success and product teams use to prioritize retention investments. A data analytics platform client discovered through SIS interviews that their largest churn cohort left not because of product dissatisfaction but because their champion left the organization, and no account management process existed to rebuild the internal relationship.

PRODUCT & GTM INTELLIGENCE

Three Intelligence Gaps That Cost Technology Companies Deals and Renewals

DIAGNOSIS 01 //
CRM DATA WITHOUT BUYER EXPLANATION
The Win/Loss Black Box
The CRM records a closed-lost deal with a disposition code: “price,” “timing,” or “competitor.” The sales rep selected the code in 30 seconds. Nobody asked the buyer what actually happened. SIS win/loss interviews consistently reveal that the real reason differs from the CRM disposition. “Price” often means the buyer could not justify the ROI internally. “Competitor” often means the competitor’s SE built a stronger relationship with the technical evaluator. Without structured buyer interviews, the product and sales teams optimize against the wrong signals.
DIAGNOSIS 02 //
PRICING MODEL ASSUMPTIONS FROM HOME MARKET
The GTM Transfer Problem
A SaaS company’s per-seat pricing model works in North America, where IT procurement teams budget by headcount. The same model fails in Japan, where enterprise buyers expect named-user discounts at volume thresholds that do not exist in the vendor’s pricing grid. It fails differently in Germany, where data residency requirements force architecture changes that alter the cost basis. SIS interviews buyers in each target market to validate pricing model fit, sales motion alignment, and competitive positioning before the GTM plan is finalized.
DIAGNOSIS 03 //
CHURN CODED AS “COMPETITIVE” WITHOUT ROOT CAUSE
The Champion Departure Blind Spot
Customer success teams attribute churn to competitive displacement when the Salesforce record shows the account switched to a rival product. The real sequence: the internal champion who drove the original purchase left the company. No relationship existed with anyone else in the account. The replacement evaluated the category from scratch and selected the vendor with the strongest current sales engagement. SIS churn interviews reconstruct the actual decision timeline to separate product-driven churn from relationship-driven churn, because the retention strategy for each is completely different.
PRIMARY RESEARCH DELIVERABLES

What SIS Delivers to Technology Product and GTM Teams

01
Structured Win/Loss Programs with Buyer Interviews

15-20 interviews per quarter with prospects who evaluated your product: wins and losses. Each interview documents the evaluation process, shortlist criteria, competitive comparison, and the specific decision trigger. Delivered as a quarterly intelligence package with trend data across deal segments.

02
Go-to-Market Validation with Target Buyer Research

Interviews with prospective buyers in the target segment to validate pricing model, sales motion, and competitive positioning before GTM investment. The output is an evidence-based GTM architecture document that replaces internal assumptions with buyer-sourced data on purchase process, budget authority, and evaluation criteria.

03
AI and Enterprise Software Adoption Studies

Structured interviews with CIOs, VP Engineering, and data science leads documenting actual deployment status, integration barriers, and ROI evidence for specific AI and software platforms. The deliverable separates vendor-reported adoption from buyer-reported reality across named enterprise accounts.

04
Churn and Expansion Driver Analysis

Interviews with churned, downgraded, and expanded accounts to reconstruct the actual decision timeline and isolate root cause. Product gaps, integration failures, champion departure, competitive displacement, and pricing triggers are separated and quantified. Customer success and product teams receive a prioritized retention investment roadmap.


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