Image by mindjet via CrunchBase
This and other insights were gained recently from a conversation with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Mindjet, Jascha Kaykas-Wolff. Jascha explained how Mindjet is using predictive analytics to understand which leads are of the highest quality and have the highest probability of turning into sales. With several thousand leads and trials being generated every week, traditional lead scoring techniques were not reliably segmenting out which leads had the highest probability of closing. With over dozens of attributes included in their lead scoring application, Mindjet still wasn’t effectively providing the sales team with highly qualified and prioritized leads. “With traditional lead scoring techniques, mathematically, we couldn’t get the volume of ‘highly scored’ leads refined enough for the sales team to contact them all. Consequently we dealt with to many ‘poorly qualified’ opportunities according to our sales team.” Jascha explained.
The Future of Marketing Is Being Defined by Predictive Analytics
Getting only the highest qualified leads to sales so they can make the most of their selling time is a high priority for Mindjet marketing. This required the marketing team to get beyond lead scoring and determine what factors most and least contributed to lead quality. Mindjet chose Lattice Engines to improve lead conversion and gain greater insights into marketing and lead generation effectiveness.
Image by None via CrunchBase
What’s noteworthy about Lattice Engines is their unique approach to bringing data science to sales and marketing. Combining advanced predictive analytics and the ability to aggregate, analyze and classify data using advanced algorithms tailored to marketer’s unique requirements, Lattice’s predictive analytics and modeling technology improved the Sales Qualified Opportunities (SQO) at Mindjet 4.4 times. The following graphic shows the improvements in SQO by leads qualification quintile at Mindjet. You can read more about how Mindjet is using predictive analytics to increase lead conversions in an excellent article by Lattice Engines CMO Brian Kardon, The Curse of Abundance: How Mindjet is Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Conversions on CustomerThink. What’s fascinating about speaking with Jascha Kaykas-Wolff is how he sees analytics becoming the foundation for marketers to blend the art of selling with the science of predictive analytics, which is emerging rapidly as the future of marketing.
Lattice Engines has been designed to reduce the uncertainty that marketing and sales faces when attempting to prioritize which leads should get the most sales attention. Using big data aggregation, analysis and integration techniques to unify external social network data, industry data, and internal enterprise CRM, ERP and other systems, algorithms look for patterns that most reliably predict the probability of a sales lead converting. The company has also applied these algorithms to contextual intelligence aspects of each lead, giving sales topics and data they can use to initiate conversations. The following graphic explains how Lattice Engines is designed to provide Predictive Lead Scoring, leading to the probability of a lead converting to a sale.
Understanding which attributes are most predictive of an account buying also serves as a catalyst for advanced reporting and follow-on data analysis. These attributes are used in the context of data science algorithms to segment sales leads into quintiles as is shown in the following dashboard. Having this insight into which leads have the highest probability of conversion saves valuable selling time, increases the potential for up-sell and cross-sell, and leads to higher Average Contract Values (ACVs) and greater customer satisfaction.
Note: Lattice Engines and Mindjet have never been clients, and the company I work for today isn't a customer of either of them.
