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Senior Telecom Industry Leaders Join Tethr Board to Drive Next Wave of AI-enabled Communications Innovation

Sales & Marketing

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October 12, 2018

Senior Telecom Industry Leaders Join Tethr Board to Drive Next Wave of AI-enabled Communications Innovation

Strategic telecommunications industry appointments bolster leadership for communications intelligence and enterprise listening company and establish basis for next phase of growth

Tethr, the leading AI-powered communication intelligence and listening platform for enterprise insight centers has announced the expansion of its board of directors and advisory board with the appointment of veteran telecommunications industry leaders Admiral William Owens as a director and Roy Chestnutt and Martha Bejar as strategic advisors. In addition, long time Tethr advisor and board director Steve Elfman has been appointed to role of non-executive chairman. The combination of these senior executives with Tethr’s existing board of industry leaders has created a leadership team with decades of telecom experience and connections to spur the next wave of industry growth around AI-enabled enterprise listening and insights.

These additions to Tethr come at a time when the company is experiencing tremendous growth in the telecommunications industry via direct relationships with carriers and major BPOs serving the market. These organizations are using the Tethr cloud-based AI platform to undercover insights from their customer interactions in a single view across internal and outsourced operations. These insights are driving substantive improvements to sales conversion, customer experience, customer loyalty, operational efficiency and regulatory compliance.

Steve Elfman is a founding partner of TAP Growth Group and the former president of Network Operations and Wholesale at Sprint. Elfman has been working with Tethr since its inception as a strategic advisor and has served on the Tethr Board since 2016. A proven leader and innovator in wireless technology, Elfman has a wealth of expertise in wireless applications and Internet business models. Elfman joined the Sprint senior leadership team in May 2008 from mobile data technology services company Infospace where he was executive vice president of Infospace Mobile. Following the acquisition of Infospace Mobile, Elfman served as president and chief operating officer of Motricity. He also has held leadership positions at Terabeam, as executive vice president of operations, and AT&T Wireless, where he was chief information officer (CIO). Prior to that, Elfman was the CIO at GE Capital (Fleet Services Company) as well as head of information technology at 3M Company for International Operations.

New Tethr board member Admiral William (Bill) Owens is co-founder and executive chairman of Red Bison Advisory Group, a company which identifies opportunities with proven enterprises in China, the Middle East and the United States and creates partnerships focusing on natural resources, real estate and information and communication technology. Owens brings decades of telecommunications expertise to Tethr, most recently as the chairman of the board of CenturyLink, the third largest telecommunications company in the United States. He has also served on the boards of Wipro, Telstra, Nortel Networks and Polycom. Owens was the CEO/Chairman of Teledesic LLC, a Bill Gates/Craig McCaw company bringing worldwide broadband through an extensive satellite network and prior, was the president, COO/vice chairman of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and the CEO and vice chairman of Nortel. He has also served on over 20 public boards and advisory boards for companies including Daimler, British American Tobacco and SAP USA as well as on the boards of the non-for-profit organizations Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Brookings Institution and RAND Corporation. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a four-star US Navy veteran, having formerly served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the United States’ second-ranking military officer.

New Tethr strategic advisor Roy Chestnutt is the former executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Verizon Communications where he was responsible for development and implementation of Verizon’s overall corporate strategy, including business development, joint ventures, strategic investments, acquisitions and divestitures. Chestnutt joined Verizon in 2011 from Motorola Networks where he served as corporate vice president of the Americas and helped lead the successful transition of the business unit to new ownership by Nokia Siemens Networks. Chestnutt was previously chairman and CEO of Grande Communications, a communications provider in Texas, and before that senior vice president of National Field Sales and General Business for Sprint-Nextel. Chestnutt also served on the board of the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) and chaired the strategy committee of 25 Global Telecom Heads.

Also joining Tethr’s advisory board, Martha Bejar is a veteran in the information and communications technology market. She is the co-founder and CEO of Red Bison Advisory Group. Bejar also serves on the board of Mitel Networks, CenturyLink, Commvault, Rainier Scholars, and is a member of the President’s Advisory Group at EastWest Institute. Bejar has been the CEO and Director of several private companies: from December 2016 to March 2017, Bejar was the CEO/Director at Unium Inc. Unium’s software delivers fast, uninterrupted, secure, Wi-Fi wireless connections to the internet. In March 2018, she closed on the stock sale of Unium to Nokia Corp. She was also the CEO and Director of Flow Mobile, a broadband wireless access solution service provider. In December 2015, Bejar closed on the sale of Flow Mobile’s operations to Consolidated Telecom in North Dakota. Prior to joining Flow Mobile, Bejar was Chairperson/CEO of Wipro Infocrossing Cloud Computing Services (A Wipro Company). Prior to Wipro, Bejar was with Microsoft Corp., where she was the corporate vice president for the Communications Sector, and prior to Microsoft she was one of the business presidents at Nortel Networks.

“Despite supporting the largest communications dataset on the planet, the telecommunications industry has been unable to drive business-changing insights from the data for its customers. Tethr is changing all of that by revolutionizing access to insights from the voice channel and driving significant business upside for its customers,” said Owens. “I’m honored to work with the Tethr leadership team and all of the talented people who have helped the company create a game changing platform that is enabling enterprises to unlock powerful insights and value from phone conversations.”

“Bill, Steve, Martha and Roy are outstanding leaders with demonstrated experience in innovation for some of the largest and most influential companies in the telecommunications industry. The market has never had an autonomous listening capability to understand the customer’s voice and how that impacts financial outcomes. This team understands the power of AI-powered communications intelligence and the Tethr platform to deliver significant and meaningful returns to our customers and carrier partners,” said Mike Mings, CEO of Tethr. “Their deep industry backgrounds are a perfect complement to the telecommunications and carrier expertise represented on our existing board. We’re thrilled by the opportunity to add fresh insights to our business as we continue our rapid growth and momentum.”

Pluto TV Selects Tru Optik as Partner to Bolster Direct Sales Efforts; Powering Guaranteed Audience Delivery Across Connected TV Inventory

Sales & Marketing

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

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Pluto TV Selects Tru Optik as Partner to Bolster Direct Sales Efforts; Powering Guaranteed Audience Delivery Across Connected TV Inventory

Pluto TV to leverage Tru Optik’s OTT Data Management Platform and Cross Audience Validation (CAV) services for both direct and programmatic campaigns

Pluto TV, the leading free Internet television service in America, announced today that it has selected Tru Optik, the leading audience intelligence and data-management platform across over-the-top (OTT) and connected TV (CTV), to power audience-based advertising and campaign measurement across Pluto’s OTT and CTV inventory.

As part of the deal, Pluto TV is now leveraging precision audience targeting, validation and measurement powered by Tru Optik’s OTT Marketing Cloud, mapped to over 75 million U.S homes. Pluto TV will not only enable advertisers to reach consumers based on age and gender guarantees, but provide thousands of customized consumer segments available through its direct sales channels. This enables, targeting based on advanced audience characteristics covering every major advertising vertical including demographic, auto, finance, CPG, entertainment, travel and more, and can be combined with an advertisers’ first party data. In addition, direct advertisers will have access to daily CTV/OTT analytics to measure unique household reach and frequency via Tru Optik’s CAV (Cross Screen Audience Validation) solution.

“By leveraging Tru Optik’s household graph, we will provide every brand partner with an unparalleled targeting, measurement and validation offering,” states Rich Calacci, Chief Revenue Officer, Pluto TV. “As the leading ad-supported streaming service, Pluto TV has received unprecedented demand from national advertisers striving to reach cord cutters and cord shavers. As a result of this alliance, our entire viewable inventory has increased in value and effectiveness at reaching specific audiences via data-led direct sales efforts and, at the same time, Tru Optik’s household-level targeting options will seek to reduce duplication and increase yield for all of our programmatic sales channels.”

With Tru Optik’s CAV solution, Pluto TV can provide advertisers with post impression measurement that includes: how many unique households they are reaching; how many times households viewed ads; where the ads are being served or seen, and what percentage of the audience and impressions were in-target.

“Pluto TV is one the largest and fastest growing OTT publishers. We look forward to strengthening their advertising capabilities and leveraging the full power of CTV through the integration of our data DMP and CAV solutions,” said Frans Vermeulen, COO at Tru Optik. “Tru Optik was founded with the belief that OTT and CTV would rapidly proliferate. Given that Pluto TV is also a ‘Connected TV-first’ publisher, our respective solutions are perfectly aligned, and we look forward to powering its advertising business as Pluto captures a significant piece of a market that is set to reach $20.1B by 2020.”

Tru Optik’s audience validation offerings are fully privacy compliant, with all U.S. homes scrubbed against OptOut.TV, a privacy register that allows consumers to opt out of audience-targeted OTT ads across all CTV devices and platforms in their home.

INBOX25 Further Sweetens SugarCRM With a Built-in Marketing Automation Solution and A.I.-Infused Functionality

Pipeline Management

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

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INBOX25 Further Sweetens SugarCRM With a Built-in Marketing Automation Solution and A.I.-Infused Functionality

Built-in marketing cloud solution for SugarCRM, Leadbox On-site Messaging and Vision A.I. for Lead Generation and Sales Alerts.

INBOX25, a business growth platform, today unveils a new package of A.I.-driven functionality to their marketing automation solution in addition to an all-new, completely seamless, SugarCRM module experience.

With over 10 years delivering SugarCRM marketing solutions, INBOX25’s latest cutting-edge platform is built into the CRM; sales and marketing teams no longer need to shuffle and toggle between multiple applications. Adding A.I and greatly expanding the native marketing functionality within SugarCRM, INBOX25 has created a truly unique and valuable marketing cloud experience.

“We’ve spent a lot of time examining ‘web’ as a marketing channel and how those assets are leveraged. Specifically, looking at traffic flow, engagement and conversion rates. We found that web traffic is an extremely underutilized channel. Leadbox was designed to help facilitate that conversation through targeted messaging and offers. Leadbox is capable of targeting messaging to specific segments of traffic based on referral, traffic type (organic or PPC) and even known details for known and returning visitors. Leadbox is about delivering the right message, at the right time to the right visitors,“ says Kevin Lawrie, CTO.

The new Vision-inspired Timeline report and real-time Vision-infused alerts automatically analyzes and scans contacts to deliver personal demographics, company insights and social footprint – and includes a 360-degree report in addition to dropping an email alert to an assigned sales agent in real-time.

“Further expanding upon the Vision family, INBOX25 is pleased to welcome Vision Prospector, a lead generation engine that analyzes inbound site traffic and social followers to deliver a 360-degree profile of the people and companies viewing your brand. Every second counts and Vision is there to align sales agents with prospects that are engaging with your brand,” says Alex Borack, Customer Success Manager.

Eden Capital Acquires Tour De Force Inc.

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

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Eden Capital Acquires Tour De Force Inc.

Eden Capital (“Eden”) announced today that it has acquired Tour de Force Inc. (“Tour de Force”), a growing provider of customer relationship management, sales force automation, business intelligence and business process optimization software solutions designed to help business-to-business sales organizations improve processes, from sales to support. Tour de Force will join Eden’s growing sales force automation platform, Compass Sales Solutions (“Compass”). Compass is a leading sales force automation provider for the office technology industry. Eden is a private equity firm focused on investments in sectors including software and business services.

Tour de Force develops, sells, implements, and supports a suite of CRM and BI software solutions. Based in Findlay, OH, Tour de Force was built to offer a single view of customer data and information and deliver the insights businesses need to drive sales and improve customer relationships. While the product was originally designed and developed to address the many complexities of wholesale distribution, it offers an ideal solution for any business-to-business sales organization.

“Eden Capital is an ideal partner for Tour de Force given their experience and investments in vertical software and their commitment to our vision, our mission and our core values,” said Matt Hartman, Founder, President and CEO of Tour de Force. “Through this partnership, I am very excited to be a part of continuing to build the legacy of Tour de Force alongside the teams from Eden and Compass. Together, we will continue to create value for our mutual customers through providing innovative solutions that create more efficient and more effective sales organizations.”

“We are excited to announce the acquisition of Tour de Force in our software platform,” said Dina Said, Managing Director of Eden. “Tour de Force’s leading position in its markets will enable the platform to continue growing both organically and through M&A. We look forward to working with management to capitalize on its success.”

Total Expert Raises $20 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Growth of ‘Marketing Operating System’ Software for Banks & Lenders

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

0

Total Expert Raises $20 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Growth of ‘Marketing Operating System’ Software for Banks & Lenders

Six year old company already powers marketing and revenue growth for 10% of $2 trillion per year U.S. mortgage industry

Total Expert, the fintech software pioneer powering the marketing behind billions in lender and banker revenue, today announced it has raised $20 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Emergence Capital with participation from Rally Ventures and Arthur Ventures, bringing Total Expert’s total funding to $34 million.

“We started Total Expert to ensure banks and lenders stay ahead of how customers expect to communicate, shop, and manage their financial lives in the digital/social era,” said Joe Welu founder and chief executive officer at Total Expert. “People expect digital simplicity and real human relationships, and financial services companies too often lose these relationships when they don’t engage with personalized, automated communication as people go from awareness to lead to transaction. We solve this using data to drive each customer’s journey toward a relevant transaction, then manage each customer relationship for life.”

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one piece of a complex marketing automation software puzzle. For banks and lenders to grow sales while protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive messages, CRM software isn’t enough. They must have a full Marketing Operating System (MOS) to easily create and track every tweet, text, email, postcard, etc., from first send to closed transaction, and every communication must be polished and personalized whether a customer is just starting to research a mortgage or they’re a years-long relationship who may now be ready to open new credit and deposit accounts for their teenagers.

Total Expert created the MOS software category in 2012 to address these complex needs and began with mortgage, the most technical and highly-regulated sector of consumer finance. The company already powers marketing and revenue growth for 10% of $2 trillion per year U.S. mortgage industry, and since 2016, it has multiplied its customer base seven times, which includes eight of America’s top 15 lenders like U.S. Bank, loanDepot, Guaranteed Rate and Movement Mortgage. Total Expert has also quadrupled in size to 162 employees since then, and is the fastest growing software company in Minnesota.

“We saw a massive opportunity in the MOS software category Total Expert created to turn marketing into a revenue center for lending, banking, wealth management, and insurance companies,” said Joseph Floyd, partner at Emergence Capital. “Financial services software requires specialized expertise to allow large sales forces to deploy creative, compliant marketing across all channels, and this is the DNA of Total Expert’s product, brand and vision. Their team of engineers, data scientists, designers and financial services veterans puts them in a rare position to modernize how financial institutions acquire, manage and grow customer relationships.”

With the new capital, Total Expert will accelerate marketing innovation in banking and lending, and also begin expanding into insurance and wealth management in America and around the world.

Salesfusion Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the Third Time

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

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Salesfusion Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the Third Time

Salesfusion, a leading provider of marketing automation technology for mid-sized marketing organizations, is recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the third time.

Salesfusion provides marketers with an intuitive, all-inclusive platform that integrates with the world’s leading CRM solutions. Highly focused on the unique needs of mid-sized marketing teams with an unwavering commitment to customer success, Salesfusion was recognized for its ease of use, deployment options, and cost effectiveness.

“We are honored to be named in Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management, as we believe our inclusion as a Niche player for a third year continues to validate our strategy and commitment to the success of mid-sized marketing organizations,” said Logan Henderson, Salesfusion CEO. “We focus on features that put more time back in your day, like intuitive campaign builders, robust analytics, and native CRM integrations. Marketers need speed and efficiency, which is exactly what Salesfusion provides.”

In the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management report, Gartner defines CRM Lead Management as integrating “business process and technology to close the loop between marketing and direct or indirect sales channels, and to drive higher-value opportunities through improved demand creation, execution and opportunity management.” According to Gartner, “The fundamental goal of CRM lead management applications is to deliver engaged contacts to sales precisely when they are likely to be seeking to purchase a solution—in other words, giving sales higher-value, qualified opportunities at exactly the right time.”

SAP® C/4HANA Suite Enables Businesses and Partners to Transform CRM

STS News Desk

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October 12, 2018

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SAP® C/4HANA Suite Enables Businesses and Partners to Transform CRM

SAP SE announced that Colombina S.A., AVL List GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG and MEWA Textil-Service AG & Co. Management OHG have selected the SAP® C/4HANA suite to help them drive digital transformation and deliver engaging customer experiences.

SAP is also introducing new services available in the SAP Commerce Cloud solution to help online retailers better understand customer needs and provide personalized shopping experiences that drive sales and reduce cart abandonment. The announcement was made at the SAP Customer Experience LIVE event taking place in Barcelona, Spain.

“Our customers want to have a single view of their customer — to create connected experiences and move fast,” said Alex Atzberger, president, SAP Customer Experience, SAP. “We therefore created SAP C/4HANA, the fourth-generation CRM focusing on the customer and trusted data — and not limiting it to a sales opportunity. Just recently Microsoft, Adobe and SAP jointly formed the Open Data Initiative. This initiative will unify siloed data residing across multiple systems of record from varying providers. We are on the move and shaping the future with our customers and partners.”

MEWA Textil-Service chose SAP C/4HANA to help centralize and modernize its processes and offer its customers a professional and modern buying experience across all interaction channels.

Personalized Service Leads to Customers Who Keep Coming Back

Digital shoppers expect a personalized shopping experience with relevant products and information when they need it. If they are disappointed, they will abandon a cart or leave a website — often in less than three minutes — leaving vendors little time to respond to complete a sale. The new context-driven services in SAP Commerce Cloud offer real-time customer behavior tracking (at the customer’s consent). The services allow sellers to offer customers incentives to continue shopping and complete purchases as well as remind them to return to the store. Sellers can instantaneously feature relevant products, deliver content or offer promotions.

The SAP Commerce Cloud solution runs on Microsoft Azure for customers to operate commerce software according to industry best practices.

SAP was named by Forrester Research Inc. as a leader in The Forrester Wave: B2B Commerce Suites, Q3 2018 and The Forrester Wave: B2C Commerce Suites, Q3 2018. According to the reports, “SAP Commerce Cloud delivers a full-featured suite that leverages the strengths of the SAP ecosystem and integration with SAP S/4HANA and SAP C/4HANA … SAP is a best fit for companies looking for an industrial-strength, fully functional commerce platform.”

Powering the Digital Experience at SAP and Expanding the Ecosystem

SAP C/4HANA solutions are leading the way for customers and for the digital transformation at SAP. Eighty percent of SAP customers said they want to be able to buy products from SAP and its partners in a simple comprehensive online experience. The SAP Commerce Cloud solution unifies the buying process on SAP.com, where customers can find, test and buy products and solutions from SAP and its partners.

SAP is investing in its open ecosystem by continuously training consultants — now over 100,000 — on SAP Cloud Platform Extension Factory, which offers tools for partners to integrate easily with SAP C/4HANA. It also offers SAP App Center, the digital enterprise marketplace. As an example, NatWest Markets Plc recently introduced FXmicropay on SAP App Center as a service available through the SAP Commerce Cloud solution. Available as a premium certified plug-in, FXmicropay helps support e-commerce companies — such as retailers, airlines and travel agencies — price goods and services in their customers’ local currency and remove the risk of cross-border currency fluctuations.

Nimble Rated Market Leader in Email Tracking Software by Office 365, G Suite Users on G2 Crowd

STS News Desk

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October 10, 2018

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Nimble Rated Market Leader in Email Tracking Software by Office 365, G Suite Users on G2 Crowd

Nimble Also Crowned Market Leader in CRM and #1 Small Business Sales Intelligence Tool for the Sixth Consecutive Year by G2 Crowd

Nimble – the Simple, Smart CRM for Office 365 and G Suite — announced that it has been named an Email Tracking Software Market Leader according to G2 Crowd, the world’s premier business software reviews platform. Nimble’s ranking is based on receiving a high Customer Satisfaction score (4.4 out of 5 stars) and having a large Market Presence in the category. Nimble’s email tracking is available out-of-the-box and at no extra charge to small business teams and professionals.

#Office365, G Suite Users Rate @Nimble Market Leader in Email Tracking Software, based on high Customer Satisfaction scores (4.4 out of 5 stars) #betterwithoffice

Office 365 and G Suite users also rank Nimble as a Market Leader in the small business CRM category, and #1 Small Business Sales Intelligence Tool for the sixth consecutive year, according to G2 Crowd.

Everything You Need in a Simple, Smart Sales Force Automation System

“The G2 Crowd ratings validate the power, simplicity, and value that our Sales Force Automation features deliver to Nimble users,” said Nimble CEO, Jon Ferrara. “We are deeply grateful to our many customers who continue to share their experiences using Nimble to personalize outreach at scale to their top prospects; monitor email and social engagement signals to prioritize follow ups; and assign tasks and automate reminders that help users close more deals by cultivating trusted relationships.”

Nimble’s Sales Force Automation features optimize internal processes, enabling Office 365 and G Suite users to focus on connecting with more prospects and cultivating authentic relationships with more prospective buyers in order to sell more. Among them:

Nimble’s Group Messaging empowers Office 365 and G Suite users to send templated, trackable group emails to targeted contacts complete with analytics and reporting. These contacts can be segmented based on tagged groups built using Nimble-driven social business insights. Each outreach appears as a sincere one-to-one conversation rather than a mass email blast, increasing the probability of opens and clicks.
Send Individual Trackable Emails Anywhere on the Web and Mobile: Send tracked emails with preset attachments wherever you’re engaging — inside Nimble’s web app, browser extension, Gmail, or on iOS — helping you engage with prospects and customers within all your workflows.
Detailed Message Analytics: Know exactly when prospects or customers engage with your outreach with reporting and analytics on email open rates, link clicks, and attachment activity.
Actionable Notification Signals: Get notifications on your desktop or mobile for opened emails, clicks on links and attachments, and email open rates to help you engage who your hottest prospects.
Personalized Message Templates: Personalize your message with custom templates: featuring fonts, formatting, and merge tags (First Name, Last Name, Company, Title) and preset attachments.

What Customers Love About Nimble’s Group and Individual Email Tracking

“Email tracking is nothing new. However, it helps me identify the best opportunities to engage influencers, contributors, clients, and prospects when used as part of Nimble’s SFA feature set,” said Jeff Bullas, CEO of JeffBullas.com. “With Nimble, I can grow my global network and my business, without the high cost or complexity of an enterprise solution.”

“By using Nimble’s email tracking and Google Drive or OneDrive to share proposals versus attachments, I know every time someone opens my proposal or revisits it,” explained Shane Gibson, co-founder of Professional Sales Academy. He segments prospects into three categories, and then uses Nimble’s Stay-in-Touch feature to drive ongoing touches with critical contacts: “Regularly touching A-list contacts by sharing an article, inviting them to a webinar, sending a lead their way, asking them a question, or commenting on their latest LinkedIn update is a powerful strategy for nurturing relationships to drive more sales.”

“Nimble represents a low cost of entry, high value communications platform for managing all of the key relationships you might have — from prospects to customers to industry influencers,” said Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing. “While my team relies on the many pipeline management features for prospect and influencer engagement, Nimble’s robust auto-generated profiles have been particularly effective for me by providing the insight I need to engage with my distinct audiences in the most meaningful way.”

“Nimble helps me stay on top of the most important relationships driving our business,” said Eamon Moore, CEO and co-founder of Hikari Data. “I immediately know which actions I need to take based on email, social, and pipeline signals; calendar appointments; follow-up tasks; and project milestones. The ability to access Nimble’s incredibly rich, auto-generated profiles within the deals pipeline, sales funnel, activities lists, and calendar helps me connect authentically with each individual customer and prospect; thereby driving our sales, service, and customer satisfaction.”

Gartner Says the Marketing-To-Sales Handoff Should No Longer Exist

Sales & Marketing

STS News Desk

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October 10, 2018

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Gartner Says the Marketing-To-Sales Handoff Should No Longer Exist

Experts Discuss How Sales and Marketing Leaders Succeed in Today’s New World of B2B Buying at the Gartner Sales & Marketing Conference, Taking Place October 9-11 in Las Vegas

where Gartner experts explained that effective B2B selling today is no longer about progressing a customer through a linear buying journey.

#B2B buying today is no longer about progression, it’s about completion. Because of this, the #marketing to #sales hand-off should no longer exist.

“Over the years we’ve seen B2B sales and marketing struggle mightily to progress customers through the purchase process. The problem is, for the customer, buying is not really about progression, it’s about completion,” said Brent Adamson, distinguished vice president at Gartner. “Customers today are trying to accomplish what are often nonsequential steps to complete a purchase and that has completely undermined the traditional model of linear deal progression. We are living in a post-handoff world.”

The reality of B2B buying today is not about progression, it's about completion — The reality of B2B buying today is not about progression, it’s about completion

B2B Buying “Jobs”

Gartner research reveals that B2B buyers must complete six distinct activities — or “jobs” — to successfully complete a purchase today:

Problem Identification
Solution Exploration
Requirements Building
Supplier Selection
Validation
Consensus Creation

While nearly every successful B2B purchase progresses through the first four jobs, customers simultaneously address “validation” and “consensus creation” throughout the entire process. In effect, these two jobs are always on, even while customers are working to complete the other four jobs in the process.

Gartner research shows that most B2B buyers will revisit nearly every “buying job” at least once before they make a purchase. The result: a customer buying journey that resembles more of a maze than a linear path (see Figure 1).

To complicate things further, B2B buyers utilize both sales reps and the supplier website — equally — for discovery and validation throughout their buying journey. In effect, this means it isn’t a sales problem or a digital problem that organizations should be trying to solve for. Rather, it’s a supplier problem that sales and marketing must jointly address with high-quality, consistent, cross-channel information to help customers complete the purchase jobs they need to accomplish.

“Unfortunately, the current commercial process today is not built to support this new world of B2B buying,” added Mr. Adamson. “The organizations that will succeed going forward will be those that materially simplify the purchase process for customers. It’s on marketing and sales teams to take the customer by the hand and guide them through the purchase, from start to end.

“The best suppliers assume the role of ‘buying Sherpa’ guiding customers step-by-step through the complexities of a B2B buying journey that they themselves will struggle to overcome or even possibly anticipate on their own.”

comScore Validates NinthDecimal’s Location and Visit Metrics

STS News Desk

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October 10, 2018

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comScore Validates NinthDecimal’s Location and Visit Metrics

NinthDecimal, the leading omni-channel marketing platform, announced that its visit metrics and location data have been validated by comScore. Completion of comScore’s multi-faceted review process validates the accuracy and aptness of NinthDecimal’s location data, as well as its data hygiene practices.

“It’s increasingly important for advertisers to understand what is driving foot traffic to physical venues so they can optimize their marketing efforts,” said David Algranati, senior vice president of product management at comScore. “We are pleased to serve as a source of truth for companies like NinthDecimal as they look to validate their metrics.”

comScore used the following criteria, among others, to validate NinthDecimal’s visit metrics:

Accuracy and freshness of store boundary data
Ability to contextualize raw latitude and longitude signals
Identification and filtering of false positives

“comScore is a trusted partner, which is why we engaged them to validate our location data and visit metrics,” said Todd Rose, chief business development & strategy officer at NinthDecimal. “We are honored and thrilled to pass comScore’s rigorous standards and to collaborate with them on the evaluation of cross-screen advertising effectiveness.”

NinthDecimal is the omni-channel marketing platform powering real-world conversions for Fortune 500 brands. Its customer growth engine identifies a brand’s best customers and new prospects; activates marketing strategies to drive store visits and sales; and quantifies the impact of advertising across all media. NinthDecimal has the largest real-time engine of consumer behavior based on where you live, work, shop, and play. Its platform is powered by nearly 200M US consumers seen in almost 10 billion locations per day, unlocking AI-driven consumer intelligence not visible through traditional search or social platforms.

Senior Telecom Industry Leaders Join Tethr Board to Drive Next Wave of AI-enabled Communications Innovation

Pluto TV Selects Tru Optik as Partner to Bolster Direct Sales Efforts; Powering Guaranteed Audience Delivery Across Connected TV Inventory

INBOX25 Further Sweetens SugarCRM With a Built-in Marketing Automation Solution and A.I.-Infused Functionality

Eden Capital Acquires Tour De Force Inc.

Total Expert Raises $20 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Growth of ‘Marketing Operating System’ Software for Banks & Lenders

Salesfusion Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the Third Time

SAP® C/4HANA Suite Enables Businesses and Partners to Transform CRM

Nimble Rated Market Leader in Email Tracking Software by Office 365, G Suite Users on G2 Crowd

Gartner Says the Marketing-To-Sales Handoff Should No Longer Exist

comScore Validates NinthDecimal’s Location and Visit Metrics

Popular Posts

Senior Telecom Industry Leaders Join Tethr Board to Drive Next Wave of AI-enabled Communications Innovation

Pluto TV Selects Tru Optik as Partner to Bolster Direct Sales Efforts; Powering Guaranteed Audience Delivery Across Connected TV Inventory

INBOX25 Further Sweetens SugarCRM With a Built-in Marketing Automation Solution and A.I.-Infused Functionality

Eden Capital Acquires Tour De Force Inc.

Total Expert Raises $20 Million in Series B Funding to Fuel Growth of ‘Marketing Operating System’ Software for Banks & Lenders

Salesfusion Recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management for the Third Time

SAP® C/4HANA Suite Enables Businesses and Partners to Transform CRM

Nimble Rated Market Leader in Email Tracking Software by Office 365, G Suite Users on G2 Crowd

Gartner Says the Marketing-To-Sales Handoff Should No Longer Exist

comScore Validates NinthDecimal’s Location and Visit Metrics

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