The Power to Predict: Predictive Sales Technology's Two Halves
This past July I attended an industry event on predictive technology and its applications to the sales funnel. The range of participants, across multiple industries and geographies, are testament to the fact that predictive technologies have come mainstream.
Much like the cloud trend that accelerated in the 2000s, the predictive world has reached a level of maturity where it’s not about ‘predictive’ in a vacuum. Rather it’s about the technology’s application to address business challenges. That application of predictive technology is what convinces me it’s poised for broad adoption.
The theme of the event was the use of data to identify buyer intent. That is, using prospect behavior to predict who is most likely to buy – and hence who sales should focus on. This is a critical development because of the challenge of sales focus. What does that mean?
- Predict 'Who' to speak to
- Predict 'What' to pitch
Using Predictive to Focus on “Who” to Speak to
A key measure of sales effectiveness that Sirius Decisions tracks for its clients relates to core selling time. That is, how much of a rep’s day is spent actually selling. Every minute that they are focused on administrative work, travel, or any other non-productive task is less time spent increasing revenue. And just as important is what they are doing with that core selling time. If they are prospecting and presenting to prospects that just aren’t ready to buy, they’re wasting core selling hours.
Predictive technologies reduce noise -- helping reps and marketers focus on what will convert to revenue.
Predictive technologies reduce that noise. They help reps focus on engaged and interested prospects. They let managers dedicate coaching time to real prospects. They ensure that feedback from the market to product and marketing teams is based on interesting prospects, not overly influenced by tire kickers. And they increase the accuracy of sales forecasting – an essential tool for executive leadership.
Using Predictive to Know “What” to Say
Knowing who to talk to is powerful. Queuing up the hottest leads for reps to pursue is extremely valuable. Now think of what’s next in your sales process. What are your reps communicating to your hot prospects? Do they know what messages open dialogs? Do they know how to address competitive or product questions? Are they able to build and shape the business case for your solution?
If the answer is no – or more likely, no for most of your reps, then you should look at the other pillar of predictive: predicting what to say to advance a deal.
84% of sales reps saw content as critical to their sales process. But what content?
Different messages will resonate with different audiences. A CMO will respond to one pitch, while a CFO might to another. A case study in the financial services industry may be meaningful to a bank, but not to a manufacturer. What combination of scripts, training, questions, and content will advance your deals?
A survey of hundreds of sales people found that 84% of sales people felt that sales content was essential to their sales process. A similar number felt that their closed deals were heavily influenced by thought leadership and other materials they provided to prospects. So your reps want to message effectively to their prospects. They just don’t know how. Reenter predictive.
True Predictive Needs Real-World Inputs
Effective predictive models are built around real-world results. And content is a perfect match for this approach. Which content did your top performing reps use to advance deals? Which messages carried the day and converted the deal? What business cases were best practice that tipped the sales scales in your favor?
Predictive models use that data about content effectiveness (i.e. what content was correlated with winning deals or advancing leads) to match content and sales materials with each sales situation. Then, the most effective materials can be automatically pushed to reps to support them as they communicate with prospects. That means each rep is able to position your solution most effectively with their prospects.
The net result? Predictive sales technology eliminates distractions from identifying ‘who’ to speak to. And it increases forward momentum once those conversations start. You know ‘who’ to talk to and ‘what’ to say.
That means core selling time is increased and each engagement in that core selling time is significantly more effective.