In case you missed it, leading business software review site, G2, is launching their Fall 2019 reports on September 30th. But, these grids will look a little different than prior ones because G2 announced changes to vendor evaluation algorithms.
Considering I worked with G2 for several years, I’m comfortable saying they are extremely fast-moving. They want to be the first to market for everything – new tools, product categories, vendor profiles, and more. However, the problem with this pace is that most vendors, aka their clients, operate at significantly slower speeds. It also means their team produces products or changes categories and vendor profiles before they alert account managers and clients. As a Customer Marketing Manager, it’s never a great feeling waking up to see significant changes to your G2 presence that you didn’t know about.
Recently, however, G2 went through significant changes of their own. They acquired two companies, Sifterly and Advocately. It seems as though after actually going through acquisitions themselves, G2 finally understands the immediate impacts of such breaking news. Nothing.
The truth is, Mergers and Acquisitions take time. Nothing is immediate. And, the impact a M&A has on the product is certainly not the first thing to be finalized.
With that said, now that they’ve been through a couple, it seems like they finally understand that their instant gratification approach may not be the best. That’s why I’m thrilled to see these processes being considered more accurately in G2’s algorithms.
Here’s the official statement from G2:
“The Fall 2019 update to the Market Presence algorithm focuses on improving our ability to measure market share and company size accurately following mergers and acquisitions. The algorithm accomplishes this by leveraging data from Crunchbase. By identifying M&As as they occur and gradually applying the impact to all affected products over an 18-month period, the updated algorithm and Market Presence scores provide buyers with a more realistic view of the impact these events have on the products and companies involved.”
Congratulations to G2 for recognizing this flaw in their algorithm and making the necessary changes to continuously improve.
If you’re wondering why these kinds of changes are significant to your business, see recent post: How to Get Customer Reviews: Take Control of Your Brand’s Reputation to Drive Sales, Marketing, and Business Initiatives.