Supernova Award Category

The Problem

There was both an opportunity and a challenge that led us to seek out a predictive analytics solution. A challenge we faced was that our sales team needed helping keeping pace with a rapidly expanding sales pipeline.

From an opportunity perspective:  As we have been focused on generating active trials from a digital perspective, we needed a way to identify potential customers that have not yet started a trial, and drive other types of engagement.

The Solution

We use Fit & Behavior scores to identify which prospects are a good fit for New Relic software analytics, & currently exhibiting strong buying behaviors. Specifically, we use these scores to identify who is most likely to convert to an active trial lead, & of the active trial-ers, who is most likely to convert to a sales qualified oppty.

Our two-dimensional approach to score leads helps the team find what would otherwise be hidden segments of leads, interpate buying behavior & prioritize daily sales engagement. We use the letters A-E to represent high-to-low behavior groups of prospects, & the numbers 1-5 to represent high-to-low fit. We immediately route any incoming free-trial leads that score high in both categories directly to sales, which supplements the flow of leads from high-value forms or ‘contact me’ requests. These scores create a filter that improves the efficiency of spend by only accepting leads that meet a certain scoring threshold.

The results

As a result of implementing predictive analytics into our sales and marketing stack, the marketing team now has insight into, and can more effectively target, the most valuable personas and segments for greater impact. Immediately after implementing, we were able to identify and convert great leads that had been buried in our nurture database. This has led to success with higher-scored leads that convert better and faster and result in more revenue.

Our data handling and manipulation have had a direct impact on improving lead generation and prioritization by helping our sales team focus its time appropriately.

Metrics

We’ve experienced the following results:

• Increased conversion performance by 9.6X for top leads
• Identified A-Leads that made up 51% of won business
• Achieved 30% higher deal sizes by doubling down on the high-value prospects
• Surfaced deals that close significantly sooner and more often than average

The Technology

Disruptive Factor

The biggest challenge for us is around the rollout. I believe in a very collaborative approach with Sales, and, during rollout, the sales enablement piece is key. We find the score is very useful as a focal point for conversations around lead quality and prioritization, in addition to using predictive scoring to increase raw marketing efficiency. I have found the key is to run the score without changing Sales behavior for the length of an average Sales cycle, then use the learnings to decide how best to incorporate the score into the workflow for reps. You really need to focus on front-line managers, as they're the ones directing the day-to-day activities of Sales reps.

Shining Moment

One of the most useful things we have learned is that a predictive mechanism for both sales & marketing to qualify and prioritize leads (that's accurate & consistent) can radically increase the efficiency of your demand generation activities.