Lattice Engines and Industry Leaders Make 2013 Predictions: The Era of Big Data Arrives to Sales and Marketing

SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Lattice Engines and an esteemed group of more than 20 Big Data, sales and marketing leaders announced their predictions for what's to come in 2013. The predictions center on the arrival of Big Data to sales and marketing organizations and its projected impact.

"Sales and marketing is the next frontier for Big Data," said Shashi Upadhyay, CEO of Lattice. "The last generation of cloud-based sales and marketing technology delivered massive improvements, but was designed in a world of data scarcity. Today's data-intensive world offers every business the opportunity to translate Big Data into big sales."

Lattice Predictions for 2013

• Big Data injects information science into relationship selling. While many large companies today leverage internal data to aid their selling efforts, in 2013, companies will take it to the next level by combining internal data (e.g. purchase history, customer service data and marketing automation data) with external data (e.g. firmographic data, company growth indicators and third party data sources such as Lexis Nexis) to make stronger predictions about which customers and prospects are most likely to buy.
• Sales and marketing professionals learn to trust predictions made by Big Data. Most organizations will start small by experimenting with new products or prospecting for new customers, but over time, they will gain the confidence to run a large part of their marketing and sales efforts informed by machine-driven predictions.
• Big Data dramatically increases the value of CRM technology. Companies using Big Data technology will increase adoption of their CRM systems by transforming them to actually help sales teams sell more as opposed to primarily being used as a tool for management. Analytics identify each sales rep's most receptive customers/prospects, recommend what to sell them and prompt them on what to say.

Industry Leader Predictions for 2013

Following is a sampling of more than 20 different predictions from Big Data, sales and marketing leaders featured in this new ebook from Lattice.

• Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index: Sales rep prospecting will be a top challenge. In 2012, companies over rotated towards lead generation being the exclusive responsibility of the marketing department. Sales has to generate their fair share of the leads. These muscles have not been used for a while and reps currently are not very good at generating their own leads. Sales departments got caught up in the hype cycle of marketing automation.
• Dave Brock, president at Partners in EXCELLENCE: High performance sales hone in on prospects. In 2013, high performance sales organizations will provide their sales people with "intelligent leads." Today, these companies are leveraging marketing automation systems, lead nurturing, lead scoring and other techniques to provide high sales accepted leads. By incorporating rich analytics, these organizations will make quantum leaps in lead quality/conversions.
• Brad Feld, a managing director at Foundry Group: Big Data is miniscule. Twenty years from now, the thing we call Big Data will be tiny data. It will be microscopic data. The volume that we're talking about today is a speck. The key for 2013 with Big Data is to figure out how you can make a difference. Don't let marketing noise obscure what's real and what isn't.
• Heidi Melin, CMO Eloqua: Companies will continue to seek a deeper understanding of buyers and the foundation for achieving this will be Big Data. Marketers will leverage their ecosystem of technology and the insight it provides to further understand their buyers' 'digital body language.'  The explosion of available data, beyond demographics, that captures a prospect's online behavior will help organizations move potential customers through the buying stages by delivering the right information at the right time in their journey from awareness to consideration to ultimately, purchase.  If marketers can take advantage of Big Data, companies will benefit from the insights necessary to drive revenue.
• Anneke Seley, CEO and founder of Reality Works Group: Without the sales insights made possible by Big Data, sales teams will waste a lot of time and alienate a large number of buyers who aren't ready to buy or will never buy. Forward-thinking "Sales 2.0" companies have recognized that selling strategies informed by data and enabled by technology lead to measurably better business results and happier customers. Big Data and analytics have already contributed to major advances across industries and functions and it's time for sales to reap these rewards as well.

More 2013 predictions from thought leaders across the industry are available in this new ebook.

About Lattice Engines

Lattice is revolutionizing sales and marketing through the power of Big Data. The company's Big Data for Sales platform, salesPRISM, delivers real-time, predictive and actionable insight to sales and marketing professionals wherever they are so they can engage the most receptive customers in the most compelling ways. Fortune 5000 companies such as ADP, Dell, EMC and SunTrust rely on Lattice to generate 75 percent more pipeline, triple conversion rates, and double win rates. Lattice is privately held and backed by NEA and Sequoia Capital with headquarters in San Mateo, CA. Learn more at www.lattice-engines.com and follow @Lattice_Engines.

SOURCE Lattice Engines