Or “determining future performance based on current and historical data” (Investopedia).

That’s predictive analytics.

Predictive analytics models are the (often very sophisticated) tools used to perform this analysis.

Real-world applications of predictive analytics modeling can be found across various industries with many use cases. A few examples: 

• Healthcare – assessing patient risk
• Finance – reviewing creditworthiness
• Retail – predicting demand and sales and managing inventory
• Manufacturing – predicting when a machine will need maintenance (or replacement)
• Marketing – segmenting customers based on potential buying behavior, preferences, and customer value

Modeling is the secret weapon, the special sauce that ensures the predictive analytics is as close to spot-on as possible.

How predictive analytics modeling works in practice

Data. It all starts (and ends) with data. 

Predictive modeling starts with data collection — gathering relevant data. This data can come from historical records (think CRM), real-time feeds (social media, BI tools), structured data (spreadsheets), unstructured data (text, images, etc), and more.

Next up: Data cleansing. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out” (or “bad data in, bad data out”). Your data must be squeaky clean. This step cannot be overlooked or rushed. Find missing values. Remove duplicates. Transform data into an analysis-ready format.

Now, choose the features (or variables) most relevant to the outcome you are trying to predict. This may also be where your team realizes you need to add more features to the model to improve its accuracy.

Pick your model! The model you choose depends on the problem you are attempting to solve. Note: We’ll dive into the various models in the next section.

Training is not just for athletes. Ensuring your model is “trained up” and ready to go is essential. Start this process with a small sample of the data. This is when the model learns to recognize patterns or relationships between the features and the outcome.

Time to test and validate. Feed in a different set of data from the one used during training. You are assessing the model’s accuracy — how well does it perform with new, unseen data?

It’s time to fully deploy your model in a real-world environment where it can start making predictions.

Predictive modeling is not a “set and forget” situation — it requires constant monitoring and updating. Some models degrade over time as data (and patterns) change.

To recap (or TL; DR), here is the 7-step modeling process: 

1. Data collection
2. Data cleansing
3. Feature selection
4. Model training
5. Testing and validation
6. Deployment
7. Monitoring, updating, iterating

There is no one-size-fits-all model. There are different predictive models for various situations.

What are the various predictive models?

There is more than one way to crack an egg (model predictive analytics).

Below is a brief recap of the 6 most commonly used models.

1. Classification Model

This model categorizes or classifies data into predefined labels or classes. It can be binary (two categories) or multinomial (several categories). 

• Binary example: check an email and classify it as “spam” or “not spam.” 
• Mutilnomial example: categorize customer support tickets into various types such as “billing,” “technical support,” or “general inquiry.”

A classification model is beneficial when the output (the prediction) assigns each input data point to one of the discrete categories or classes. 

In marketing, this model is often used to predict customer behavior categories.

2. Regression Model

This model predicts a continuous outcome or numerical value based on one or more input features.

They are often used for predicting quantitative outcomes like stock prices, sales and revenue forecasts, customer lifetime value, etc.

In sales and marketing, regression models can be used to analyze customer behavior — identifying key factors that influence customer purchasing decisions.

3. Time Series Model

This model is a statistical technique for forecasting future values based on historical data, especially when the data is sequential and time-dependent. In time series forecasting, data points are collected at consistent intervals over time.

In the marketing and sales world, time series modeling can be effective in: 

• Understanding seasonal trends (When do most leads enter the pipeline? Which months/quarters see the most significant bumps? etc.).
• Predicting sales growth. The time series model can predict future sales volume by analyzing past sales data, reviewing market trends and economic indicators, and studying consumer behavior.
• New product launches, performing marketing campaign analysis, forecasting customer demand, and more.

4. Clustering Model

This model groups data points with similar characteristics. 

The two areas cluster modeling are used most often in marketing and sales are: 

• Customer Segmentation: Segmenting customers into distinct groups based on purchasing behavior, demographics, tech stack, and engagement levels. 
• Optimizing Sales Strategies: Sales teams can use clustering to identify which customer segments are most likely to respond to specific sales tactics or which products are often purchased together.

5. Anomaly & Outlier Detection

This model identifies unusual patterns (anomalies or outliers) in data sets. 

Outlier detection models can help uncover unusual sales patterns —sudden changes in sales that aren’t explained by typical trends or seasonal variations. 

This model is also used for market and competitive analysis. Anomalies in market data can provide early warnings about changes in the competitive landscape or shifts in market dynamics.

6. Decision Tree

This model uses a tree-like structure of decisions and their possible consequences. 

Simple, yet powerful.

In a decision tree, each internal node represents a “test” on an attribute, each branch represents the outcome of the test, and each leaf node represents a decision.

This model is often seen when performing churn analysis, helping identify critical factors contributing to customer churn and empowering businesses to take proactive measures to retain high-risk customers.

So which is the best predictive model? As with most things in business (and life), it depends. More than anything, the “it depends” is related to the problem you are trying to solve. And often, these models are used side-by-side, not simply as one-offs.

Demandbase runs on predictive models

Predictive models are a powerful and effective way to forecast future events (sales, marketing trends, etc.) based on historical and current data. 

Using the FIRE method, Demandbase customers use our B2B predictive analytics tools to set up models for scoring accounts based on company Fit, high Intent actions, journey stage to nurture the Relationship, and Engagement across your website, email, inbox, CRM, and marketing automation (FIRE).

Get on a path to predictive revenue today.

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So what does the Super Bowl have to do selling and marketing? Well, we asked a few seasoned sellers and B2B thought leaders what their opinions and predictions are for the 2024 Super Bowl (these conversations happened in mid-January 2024), alongside their personal anecdotes and predictions for B2B sales trends in 2024.

We chatted with Chaniqua (Nikki) Ivey, Client Success Coach at Stimulyst, and Aaron Wallace, Account Executive at Chili Piper to get their expert opinion on these hot topics.

Here’s what they had to say…

Who do you predict will be playing the Super Bowl this year?

Nikki: I would like to say the cowboys because they’re my favorite. I think based on how this team is playing now, the Ravens. But Cowboys all the way!

Aaron: As an Eagles fan, I wish it would be the Eagles, but I think it will be the 49ers versus the Ravens.

What do you predict will be the biggest sales channel used this year? 

Nikki: It’s gonna have to be Linkedin DMs. When we think about LinkedIn and social selling, a lot of the time it’s just that. We talk about how people respond to our content and what we can bring in in terms of demand. But as a hard sales channel, Linkedin DMs is where it’s at. You can do everything – voice notes, videos, etcetera and get directly to your buyers. That’s always been the case, but I think this year and for all people will wake up to that and start using it more than other channels.

Aaron: Companies are going to find ways to build awareness first through inbound content that’s engaging, maybe a little funny, but also educational. In terms of outbound, I think it depends on the company and who you’re selling to. For us, and Demandbase, we sell to sales and marketing teams. I think LinkedIn is already a big channel for that and will continue to grow.

Which brands do you predict will have the most memorable and impactful commercials during the Super Bowl this year?

Nikki: Doritos actually does really good commercials. I remember they did one with a model where she does a cartwheel and catches a Dorito in her mouth. The impact it made on me was incredible! I’ve always loved Pepsi, too. Pepsi is always on brand with their ads so that’s one I look out for too.

Aaron: I feel like Doritos always has good ones. Ram has the emotional ones. I remember Gong had a really good one last year.

What brands or sales strategies do you think will be the most impactful in the Saas industry this year?

Nikki: I think we’ll be seeing an evolution in video saas. Meaning video saas moving away from just an extension tool…it’s a very limiting set of things you can do and now that space is getting more crowded. So folks are going to have to do things like find their own ways to filter through that. I saw something cool recently where someone came to a website and they were able to video chat with sales then and there. So I think that we’ll see videos showing up in places we hadn’t before. It’s keeping up with this theme that it all comes down to relationships. People don’t always trust sales people, it’s an unfortunate truth. But they trust people, and all these categories that put sellers in the best possible light as human beings are going to be trends that we see this year.

Aaron: I think it’s going to be the brands that help you identify who’s interested and help you reach those people the quickest, which relates to Demandbase. We’re in an era where people are educating themselves. They’re coming to your website, educating and digesting, and then they show that intent, and then we need to get to them as quickly as possible. So I’d say it’s about the brands that help people educate themselves and then help sellers get to them quicker.

What was your favorite Super Bowl game?

Nikki: The Cowboys in the 95’ Super Bowl. It was a time in my life when I really fell in love with the NFL and with the Cowboys themselves. I was an army brat, so America’s team really was “America’s team” and their games were playing everywhere. It was the golden age of the Cowboys.

Aaron: The one where the Eagles won! I was at Buffalo Wild Wings.

What has been your favorite sale ever?

Nikki: I have to go all the way back to my first year of selling. It was a one-call close. I don’t think those really exist anymore, but we were doing tons of cold calls a day and again, this was my first ever Saas job. We took folks from being strangers to letting us impact their business in a matter of 20 minutes. And the very first time you have that conversation with a person, lead them through your pitch, and end with a sale, there’s nothing else like that in the world. What I was selling was email marketing for small business owners. Say you’re a realtor, you sold a house in a given neighborhood to some people last year, then you find out that they’re buying a new house a couple years later, but they aren’t buying from you. Why didn’t they buy from you? Because they forgot all about you. This was the conversation I had with the folks on the phone. How do you make the impact question? How do you make sure that the people you’ve done great work for before refer you and come back to you? This was stumping people. And it became such a clear value prop, an intersection of a really smart script, the ability to infuse my own personality into that script, and to really understand the actual impact that this service was going to make for these people. Obviously, it stuck with me a decade later.

Aaron: I had one where I was up against a competitor and was able to show the value that Chili Piper brought against that competitor. It felt good to me in that moment, seeing how we stood out.

What are your predictions for the Super Bowl halftime show? Any surprise guests or memorable moments you anticipate?

Nikki: I predict one of the best halftime shows we’ve ever seen because what can’t Usher do? I heard at his Vegas residency he rollerskates. He’s memorable.

Aaron: I’m sure there will be some surprise guests. They may try to tame it down a bit, to make it more family-friendly.

How do you plan to create surprising and memorable moments in your sales outreach this year?

Nikki: One of the things that we do when we do sales outreach is we want to get a reply. We don’t necessarily need them to buy or meet with us right away. Instead I’m thinking creatively about what my reply has to be. Do they have to reply to a direct sales question? Maybe not. You can start a conversation, and then it becomes a pattern of questions that may not have to do with the sale itself, but more so questions about themselves so I can see what information I can find out about people that gets them excited and passionate to open up about. So if I see that somebody talks about the NFL in their content, the initial message could be as simple as asking them their thoughts on a game. And I could be saying that to them on one channel, and then on another channel the message is subtly different that’s more geared toward a sales conversation. I’m telling the story that this is an entire human being, and as a seller you’re allowed to be an entire human being too. It’s “inviting” people to be human. The next frontier is getting people to play along, to trust us and have enough fun to play along. It comes down to identifying what they’re passionate and excited about and engaging with that enthusiasm.

Aaron: For me, it’s important to just be human and build relationships with people. In sales the goal is always to book a meeting. But for me, it’s really to advance the conversation and to show them that I’m here to help and educate and when they’re ready, I’m here.

The post Touchdown Tactics: Super Bowl Predictions Meet B2B Sales and Marketing Strategies appeared first on Demandbase.

CMOs – The new Swiss Army Knife

Get ready to be inspired by Kimberly Kaminski in this episode of the Sunny Side Up podcast! As a seasoned expert in the field, she shares her insights on the critical role of CMOs in today’s economic landscape. Her passion for marketing shines through as she stresses the importance of a well-rounded knowledge base and assembling a strong leadership team to allow for a laser focus on strategy. With a thoughtful approach, she highlights the power of alignment, focus, and prioritization across teams to enable organizations to adapt quickly to changes. Tune in for an informative and friendly conversation that will leave you feeling confident and optimistic about the future of marketing.

GTM Strategy – The Balancing Act

Get ready to learn valuable marketing strategies from Neil Dowling, the CMO of WritePoint, who shares his expertise on navigating economic uncertainty with confidence and optimism. Dowling covers several key topics, including the importance of clearly articulating marketing’s value and ROI, integrating brand and demand generation efforts, building alignment by collaborating with sales pursuits, prioritizing simplicity, and focusing on supporting team members. His insightful advice will help you adapt your marketing approach to do more with less and prove its effectiveness. With Dowling’s friendly and thoughtful approach, you’ll feel motivated and excited to tackle any marketing challenges that come your way.

The Journey of Transforming a Brand

Andrea Winkle takes us on a journey through Insight Enterprises’ brand transformation and how they successfully evolved from a reseller model to a solutions integrator. Through the values of hunger, heart, and harmony, Insight has matured its brand and better positioned itself to serve customers. Andrea’s insights into how Insight is adapting to economic uncertainties by simplifying complex challenges and leveraging automation are truly fascinating. Give it a listen to feel empowered to apply these valuable lessons in your business endeavors!

The Future of Martech

Scott Brinker talks about the future of marketing technology. Brinker discusses how the rapid pace of tech change creates challenges for marketers and organizations to keep up. He talks about concepts like Martech Law and how companies must prioritize which new technologies to adopt. Brinker also covers trends like the rise of horizontal platforms and applications, the importance of data, and how marketing is blurring with other functions like product and revenue operations. The discussion provides insights on navigating the complex martech landscape and staying ahead of changes.

Streaming into the Future

Jordan Rost from Roku discusses the streaming media landscape and the future of television advertising. Jordan explains how streaming has become mainstream and surpassed traditional TV viewing. He discusses new types of interactive and shoppable ad experiences only possible through streaming. Jordan also talks about how marketers are leveraging streaming for both consumer and B2B advertising and how the economic downturn is impacting advertisers’ strategies.

The Modern CMO’s Guide to Success

Christy Garcia, the Chief Marketing Officer of Impact, discusses the qualities needed for modern CMOs, including being data-driven, having digital marketing expertise, and maintaining creativity. Garcia emphasizes the importance of partnerships for growth and revenue. She also focuses on empowering her internal team and advises up-and-coming CMOs to stay current on trends and understand perspectives across the business.

ABM-driven Strategies for Thriving in Today’s Market Space

This Sunny Side Up podcast episode features Mary Gilbert discussing navigating the new marketing landscape with ABM-driven strategies. She discusses how agility has become important for CMOs due to rapid changes in digital environments and buyer behaviors. Mary emphasizes the importance of engagement as the new currency for driving the pipeline and provides tips on integrating third-party and first-party intent data. She advocates for an ABM approach combined with digital marketing to bring personalization and scale. Mary also offers advice on organizational design, empowering teams, and shifting from outreach emails to more holistic buyer engagements.

Insights and Strategies in Modern Marketing

This podcast episode features Siara Nazir discussing her background in marketing and how she now focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence and data science to help marketers. She talks about her experience with mixed media modeling and how it can provide insights beyond traditional attribution. She also discusses building an AI chatbot and how it accelerates a customer’s purchase process. Finally, she provides recommendations for how marketers can optimize their technology stacks and marketing strategies by incorporating AI.

Full Stack Marketing and AI

Carolyn Crandall discusses how the role of marketers has evolved. She talks about how marketers now need to think more holistically about the customer experience and act as full-stack marketers. Crandall also discusses how AI is impacting marketing work by making processes more efficient and enabling new types of predictive analytics and content creation. She recommends marketers learn about and experiment with AI tools.

Mastering Engagement and Measuring Success

Alex Donics, Global Director of Demand Marketing at Spotify, discusses how the streaming giant masters engagement through personalization and discovery. Alex reveals how platforms like Discover Weekly evolved from internal hackathons to become core to the Spotify experience. He also explains their approach to podcasting and investments in robust first-party and third-party measurement solutions. Advertisers will learn how Spotify enables precise targeting across industries to reach deeply engaged audiences through the podcasting medium and streaming ad insertion technology. It’s a must-listen for marketers seeking to understand engagement in digital audio.

For more insights like these, check out Demandbase Central, our collection of the best resources on B2B go-to-market, including blogs, videos, ebooks, and podcasts.

Subscribe to the podcast: Apple | Spotify | Google | Audible

The post The Best Podcast Conversations of 2023 That Marketing Shouldn’t Miss appeared first on Demandbase.

Constructing an Indomitable Sales Team

Benjamin White, VP of Business Development at Ironscales, discusses how he has constructed an indomitable sales team by building personal relationships and focusing on continual learning. He emphasizes the importance of intrinsic motivation over metrics and shares his process for hiring passionate people. Ben also provides insights on adapting to remote work and avoiding burnout. Ben shares lessons from his career and offers wisdom gained from mistakes he has learned from, such as asking questions when uncertain.

Gazing into the future: B2B Sales

Julia McClatchy discusses key findings from McKinsey’s research on B2B trends. She highlights that buyers are more savvy and demanding, sales is increasingly digital, and talent retention is challenging. Julia shares that putting customers at the heart of growth surprised her as the right approach. She provides examples of listening to customers and personalizing experiences. Julia also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between marketing and sales. When asked about 2023 plans, her advice includes championing the customer’s voice, leveraging analytics, and being open to new approaches. Overall, this episode provides valuable insights on adapting to changes in the B2B landscape.

Modernizing the Sales Process

Mike Head, Chief Revenue Officer at Impact.com, discusses modernizing sales strategies. Mike shares Impact’s focus on delivering a delightful customer experience and bringing new products to market. He emphasizes understanding the buyer’s perspective and providing transparency about a solution’s fit and flaws. Mike also discusses adapting messaging to the current economic climate by focusing on profitability metrics that appeal to CFOs.

Unleashing the Power of Customer Experience Optimization

Derek Hall, Sr. Director of Solutions Engineering at ServiceTitan, shares insights from his career journey in sales and leadership. He discusses how he transitioned from a sales development role to becoming a successful sales engineer and leader. Hall emphasizes the importance of team selling and building trust between account executives and solutions engineers. He also stresses adopting a consultative, problem-solving approach focused on the customer’s needs rather than just presenting features. Hall recommends training salespeople using the Challenger Sale methodology. Overall, Derek Hall delivers valuable perspectives on revolutionizing sales through customer experience optimization and unleashing the power of team selling.

Journey of a Sales Titan

Kevin, VP of Sales Development at PureFacts, shares his journey from starting as a door-to-door salesperson at age 21 to becoming a VP in just a few short years. He discusses the importance of finding one’s “why” to stay motivated through rejections. Kevin also provides advice for sales development reps on leveraging AI and technology to improve efficiency without replacing human skills. Additionally, he emphasizes the value of physical self-care, understanding one’s goals, and learning from mentors to avoid burnout. This episode inspires listeners with Kevin’s story and gives practical tips for cultivating long-term motivation and well-being in a sales career.

For more insights like these, check out our resource page – our collection of the best resources on B2B go-to-market that includes blogs, videos, ebooks, and podcasts. Additionally, if you’re curious about discovering the ingredients for ROI success, check out the ROI Cookbook. 

Subscribe to the podcast: Apple | Spotify | Google | Audible

The post The Best Podcast Conversations of 2023 That Sales Shouldn’t Miss appeared first on Demandbase.

For this month’s blog, I snagged a few moments with one of the busiest people in Demandbase, Mark Walter, leader of the Demandbase Technical Consulting Team. After working with hundreds of clients across a myriad of industries, Mark and his team have some pretty unique capabilities. They’re able to paint a vision of how to solve a client’s business needs, through technical demonstration, analyzing client pain points, and creating a compelling strategy. In short, they have the technical chops to address even the most complex technical challenges for our clients.

Here’s what Mark has to say about Demandbase Technical Consulting Services…

What does a technical consulting team do?

Our mission is to surprise and delight customers by delivering technical content in a way that interests and excites our clients based on their role in their organization. Beyond that, our team plays three primary roles. First, we’re involved in the foundational service packages that bring us into contact with many of our clients on a quarterly or monthly basis — where we provide technical guidance on platform setup and optimization. Next, we support our enterprise customers through ongoing hours-based projects. We serve as a technical resource to guide our clients through best practice usage and platform utilization. And lastly, we support customers with technical integrations that occur after they’re out of the implementation phase to ensure the new integrations are set up correctly.

What backgrounds do they have?

All of our technical consultants (TC’s) come from technical backgrounds, of course, but each one also brings a unique ability to communicate and interact with customers — something that is rare in a technical persona.

What superpowers do they possess?

One of the things we have unique knowledge of, because we’ve seen so many client tenants, is the implications of decisions made in the platform. We have an insider view of so many customer configurations, and we’ve waded in the technical weeds with so many clients that it’s easier for us to identify problems quickly or head them off altogether. Easier than it would be for you to do it on your own. 

Compared to the implementation team that works with our clients for the first few months, overseeing the initial configuration of the platform, we come in a bit later and have the opportunity to see the more prolonged downstream impact of platform setup. This puts us in an excellent position to help refine and optimize for our clients, really taking their performance to the next level and aligning it with their business strategy.

Are there specialties within the team?

Each of us has found our niche inside of the platform. One of our team members focuses on journeys and scoring models, while another has expertise on intent and the new workspaces feature. For me, I focus on the analytics-how we present the data in charts and graphs, helping our clients learn from the data.

What value do you bring to customers?

We all enjoy our client interaction, and bringing the platform to life for customers is our specialty and passion. We help you get excited about Demandbase, not only because we help you build confidence in how the software is set up, but because we teach you how you can see results on your own through analytics, intent dashboards, reports, etc. 

What is something unique you do to engage clients in a virtual meeting?

One of the things we have brought to Demandbase is the way in which we conduct our technical sessions. We have the client log in and share their screen. In this way, we help the user learn the platform, with our guidance, and this really helps with knowledge transfer, and retention and keeps everyone engaged in our sessions.

What three words describe Demandbase Technical Consulting best?

• Confident :  I like the word confident because it’s essential for building credibility and rapport with our clients. And we’re confident in our skillset and technical competence for sure!
  
• Comprehensive : We need to know so much about the platform to be ready to answer any question on the spot. Good thing, we have a ton of knowledge that we pack into our brains that we’ve learned along the way as both users and technicians of the platform. This depth and breadth of knowledge helps us react and learn with our clients in any number of technical and business discussions.
• Analytical : Not only do we analyze from a technical perspective, but we’re also always gauging how deep we can go in the conversations with people we’ve just met. Are they execs who need us to explain things in a simple, non-technical way? Or are they technical individuals who want and need to dive deep into the platform details?
  

What’s your favorite part about leading the technical consulting team?

Our team is a wonderful group of people, with top-notch talent, and we all get along well. We get feedback regularly on our team members, and (not to boast) we’re all excelling in our roles. While we have a lot of work, we’re always hungry for more!

The post Meet the Team with Hidden Superpowers: Demandbase Technical Consulting appeared first on Demandbase.