MAINSTREET
Know the businesses behind the numbers.
Mainstreet is Preference Analytics' SMB intelligence offering, built from years of research, direct conversations with business owners, proprietary frameworks, and real-world experience.
It combines proprietary SMB intelligence, an AI-powered advisor, digital twin personas, and custom research to help organizations better understand, acquire, engage, serve, and retain small and midsized business customers.
Intelligence for America's Backbone.
WHY MAINSTREET
SMBs aren't smaller enterprises.
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Small and midsized businesses operate differently.
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Owners wear multiple hats. Time is scarce. Resources are constrained. Business and personal risk can be closely connected. Purchasing decisions can be deeply personal.
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And the relationship with a provider often matters almost as much as the product itself.
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Organizations that understand those realities are better positioned to earn trust, become valued partners, and grow with their SMB customers.
LESS TIME
FEWER RESOURCES
MORE PERSONAL RISK
RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
THE FOUNDATION
Six truths that shape SMB trust.
These emerged from extensive interviews with SMB owners and decision-makers and were subsequently evaluated across hundreds of hours of interview material.
Together, these truths help explain what it takes to move beyond a transaction and build a trusted, lasting SMB relationship.
FROM KNOWLEDGE TO ACTION
The foundation becomes actionable intelligence.
The SMB Truths are the foundation.
Mainstreet builds on them with years of research, interviews, segmentation knowledge, industry insights, market opportunity, product demand, cultural understanding, and ongoing SMB learning.
AI then makes that accumulated knowledge easier to explore, question, and apply.
WHAT MAINSTREET OFFERS
Three ways to put SMB intelligence to work
Mainstreet gives organizations multiple ways to access, explore, and expand Preference Analytics' accumulated SMB knowledge.
AI SMB INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM
Ask questions. Get practical SMB guidance.
Conversational AI grounded in years of proprietary SMB research, interviews, frameworks, and experience. Ask about how SMBs operate, what they need from the companies they buy from, what builds or erodes trust, how different SMB segments behave, and much more.
EXPLORE THE 5 P SMB FRAMEWORK →
50 strategic questions across Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People.
DIGITAL TWIN SMB PERSONAS
Bring real SMB perspectives into the conversation.
Interactive digital twin personas grounded in real interviews and research with SMB owners. Explore how different types of businesses think, what they value, how they make decisions, what concerns them, and how they may respond to products, services, messages, and new ideas.
EXPLORE THE PERSONAS →
CUSTOM SMB RESEARCH
Research what's unique to you.
Custom qualitative, quantitative, and choice-based research with SMB owners and decision-makers to answer questions unique to your business—about needs, products, pricing, messaging, segmentation, market opportunities, and more.
DISCUSS A RESEARCH QUESTION →
THE 5P SMB FRAMEWORK
50 questions every company serving SMBs should be asking.
Mainstreet organizes 50 essential strategic questions across Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People. They provide a high-level framework for understanding SMB customers—but they are only a starting point. The Mainstreet intelligence platform can go much deeper, addressing many more detailed questions based on specific market, segment, industry, product, or business decision at hand.
PRODUCT
What should we build—and what will SMBs actually value and use?
Understand the problems SMBs are trying to solve, what they value, what drives adoption, and what would make them change?
PRICE
What will SMBs pay—and how do they decide whether something is worth it?
Understand perceived value, willingness to pay, ROI, pricing expectations, and what makes an offer fair.
PLACE
Where and how do SMBs want to discover, evaluate, buy and get support?
Understand the channels, advisors, platforms, buying journeys, and support experiences SMBs prefer.
PROMOTION
What earns attention, credibility, and action?
Understand the messages, language, proof, stories, and offers that make SMBs believe a company understands them?
PEOPLE
Who decides, influences, uses, resists—and ultimately determines whether trust is built?
Understand the owners, employees, advisors, cultural context, relationships, and human dynamics behind adoption.
Five dimensions. Fifty strategic questions. Thousands of ways to go deeper.
The Mainstreet 50 provides the framework. Mainstreet's AI-powered intelligence platform lets users explore these questions in greater depth--or ask entirely new ones.
WHAT MAINSTREET KNOWS
Go deeper than "the SMB market."
Mainstreet brings together accumulated intelligence across different SMBs, industries, markets, technologies, and opportunities.
SEGMENTATION
Different businesses. Different needs.
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Where the strongest opportunities exist.
INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCE
How needs differ by vertical.
PRODUCT & TECHNOLOGY
What SMBs need, use, and adopt.
DIVERSE & EMERGING SMBs
How culture and changing ownership shape the market.
WHAT'S ON THEIR MINDS
The issues and priorities affecting SMBs now.
WHEN WE NEED TO KNOW MORE
Start with what we know. Research what we don't.
