This is the third post in a series discussing the RPM (Remediate ― Provision ― Maintain) Contact Data Management strategy. Last week we covered the first track, “Remediate,” or the proactive process of fixing problems within contact data that, among other things would at best hinder, at worst prevent effective market segmentation and different types of post remediation analysis.
The next track up for discussion is Provisioning. This hinges on post remediation analysis of firmographic and contact data to create what we call a “Smart Contact Data Provisioning Plan.” A simple way to describe this is to think of provision planning as being analogous to your weekly trip to the grocery store. One of the best pieces of advice my Mom gave me as I left the nest: “Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry … make a list first.” As time passed the benefits became clear. Checking my pantry and refrigerator to know what I did and didn’t have, and making a “fill the gap” list saved me money and time. It also ensured that at meal preparation time throughout the week I had exactly what I needed.
Post remediation analysis is the same thing. It’s an automated way of looking at your in-house data to check what you do and don’t need before you start planning your funnel-filling programs and calling list vendors to buy contact data for fuel. The different types of analysis needed to form a Smart Contact Provisioning Plan are:
Title Density Analysis – First step toward human-level segmentation. It is based on grouping contact records that have similarities in title. An effective way to structure this is to break the data by 1) IT versus non-IT records 2) departmentalization of non IT records and 3) high-medium-low ranking based on seniority of title. The results provide three useful views:
- To see if you have enough records in the right areas of existing target organizations, i.e. high-medium-low ranking titles, and by silo in IT and non-IT departments ― and provision accordingly
- To cross-tabulate contact groups with wins-analysis to see if certain contact data “sweet-spot” sets should be provisioned in similar target companies (existing & net-new) in order to replicate success
- To see and quarantine records for contacts working in areas and/or have titles which aren’t relevant to your sales and marketing mission. This helps ensure outbound efforts are not wasted in trying to engage with the wrong people
Title Clustering Analysis – Very useful in maximizing the yield of targeted data pulls when provisioning or sorting lists based on business function. This is the inclusion and sorting of custom fields to define areas of responsibility. For example, if you wanted to aim a message or program at a “Sr. Sales Leadership” audience, Title Clustering maps all associated Title Groups to the desired persona. This broadens search matches for obvious keyword hits such as “VP Sales,” as well as less direct hits where more ambiguous titles (in relation to the function) such as “VP Business Development” are less likely to surface using typical search techniques.
Contact Gap by Persona Analysis – Every sales and marketing organization needs to have an acute understanding and categorization of the various Personas within an organization’s Decision Making Unit (DMU). The science of Persona development captures and communicates relevant insights about such things as the target buyers’ roles, responsibilities, priorities and problems. Each contact record you are working through the deal making process needs to be tagged with this important information for human-level segmentation purposes. At ReachForce we use an automated Role-Title correlation application to assist customers who want –but don’t already have– Persona tags in their existing records. Once these tags are appended, your database can then be automatically examined for “gaps” to show which DMU Persona types are and aren’t present on an account-by-account basis. This information is then used to create a provisioning plan to fill the gaps.
Contact Darning Analysis – Guides the Smart Contact Provisioning Plan in terms of pinpointing which contact records are needed (by Persona) as replacements for older records that have proven to be inaccurate or outdated during the remediation process (counter-attritional).
