When key assembly line equipment breaks, costs pile up fast. The same is true for broken marketing and sales pipelines. It may be less visible than an equipment malfunction, but wasted dollars and lost opportunities can cripple results.
Predictive maintenance systems are helping inform companies when their machines need repairs — before they ever break. These systems save manufacturers from thousands of hours a year in down-time and costly repairs.
This same type of predictive strategy can be brought to a manufacturer’s marketing and sales motions.
With the right technology and processes, manufacturers can implement a system of predictive sales and marketing using the signals and actions buyers generate while researching suppliers. This information uncovers buyers that are in-market, most likely to purchase, and the products they’re most interested in.
Here’s how you can shift your sales and marketing strategies toward a more predictive, and effective, approach.
Intent Data Fuels Your Predictive Machine
Predictive maintenance requires an innate understanding — and close monitoring — of the machines used in production. Predictive sales and marketing takes a similar approach to your buyers.
A longtime problem facing manufacturers is that much of the buying process now happens anonymously through online research. About 70% of the buyer’s journey now unfolds on third-party websites, social networks, messages boards, and digital trade publications. This traditionally untrackable activity occurs far from the eyes of your sales and marketing teams.
Even when potential customers visit your website, only 3% are likely to ever raise their hand and reveal who they are.
To gain the deep level of understanding about your buyers necessary for a predictive approach, you have to capture those anonymous activities.
These “intent” signals consist of:
- Visiting pages on your website
- Internet searches for topics related to your offerings
- Reading third-party websites within your industry
All of that activity adds up to reveal a buyer that is actively searching for a product similar to what you offer. AI can then identify which accounts are most likely to purchase based on the signals they are giving off and how those signals compare to the behavior of past customers.
This is where the “predictive” aspect comes in. You’re able to predict which of your accounts and prospects will be most receptive to outreach.
Predictive Sales and Marketing Builds Better Campaigns and Boosts Engagement
Once you’ve begun capturing those signals through a data intent provider and processing them through an integrated sales and marketing platform, you’ve got the information necessary for predictive sales and marketing engagement.
Rather than building campaigns based on static, arbitrary lists, or reaching out to prospects that aren’t in-market, your sellers and markets can proactively:
- Determine the customers or prospects who are ready for outreach
- Tailor your outreach to the topics and products they’re already interested in
- Build automated campaigns that target your audience based on their real behaviors.
- Create personalized experiences for buyers on your website and other relevant sites.
Predictive strategies point a big flashing arrow at the accounts that will generate the most positive impact.
Manufacturers that place an emphasis on predictive sales and marketing will be rewarded with higher levels of engagement, more efficient budgeting, and more informed conversations with your audience.
Learn more about how 6sense helps manufacturers
[oms_cta id=19234]
