When the futurist Alan Kay said – “The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” he was right; the technological advancements over the last decade has brought us to a point where we can predict the future with greater confidence, using an array of tools at our disposal.
In the field of sales and marketing, this ability to predict is beginning to take hold. We’re seeing the application of big data science being applied in the marketing and sales domain. The current activity surrounding the concept of lead scoring using predictive analytics is gaining serious momentum in many sales organizations. As competitive intensity escalates across all sectors, sales and marketing organizations are turning to data scientists to help the sales rep assess the buying likelihood of thousands of prospects. Today, sales reps don’t just need leads but qualitative leads that can turn into long term business relationships.
Welcome to the new age of sales enablement!
All About Predictive Lead Scoring
Predictive lead scoring methodology combines historic and internal data with external data such as social media, web and third-party data sources to build-up customer profiles. Based on these details, predictive lead scoring sieves through an organization’s existing leads and pulls out those profiles that it analytically perceives to be of value. Predictive lead scoring’s ultimate goal is to weigh prospective clients’ profiles and intelligently predict as to how many of them are likely to buy a company’s products or services. In short, it gives great insight to a company’s sales and marketing department to let them decide whom to pursue among the bundle of leads.
Predictive Analytics – What’s In It for You?
A report from SiriusDecisions, a global B2B research firm, showed that 68 percent of companies employed traditional lead scoring technologies, however, such method yielded value to only 40 percent of the sales people. As evident, the traditional lead scoring technology is fast losing the trust of sales reps due to its false positives. Thus, investing in such outdated technology is economically less viable, particularly when most of the successful organizations are turning to predictive analytics.
Eye-Catching Numbers
SiriusDecisions reported that the number of B2B organizations using predictive lead scoring, has grown 14 times over the last four years. Further, a survey conducted as part of this research, established that 88% of the respondents acknowledged that predictive lead scoring was driving value-creation. Also, 90% of the survey respondents found predictive lead scoring more effective over the traditional lead scoring techniques.
Predictive lead scoring has already made its place in B2C companies while it is in the process of taking shape in the B2B market. Since the adoption of predictive lead scoring is still at its nascent stage, there are abundant opportunities left to catch up with the trend.
How Can BuzzBoard Help You?
If those numbers excite you and you are thinking of how a predictive lead scoring tool could be of help to your sales team, then think BuzzBoard. Our proprietary state-of-the-art predictive algorithm – BuzzRank – will equip you with all the essential insights about prospects with the highest propensity to purchase. BuzzBoard helps you obtain a comprehensive analysis of your customers’ web and mobile presence, as well as other digital indicators based on sophisticated analytics. Unarguably, BuzzBoard will bolster your qualified sales pipeline, which can translate into higher rate of closed wins.
