Predictive actions, behavior modeling and feedback loops for decision making
By: Ben Dixon, CEO, Naxum Online Marketing Services, LLC
When the rules of the game change, you can’t do the same thing and expect to win.
— Anonymous
The social selling space has evolved drastically over the last few years. A select group of companies has continued to dominate in the rapidly changing space and reap massive rewards, outpacing the competition while average companies are declining.
The rules of the game have changed.
To discover where the “advantage” stems from requires looking deeper into the behaviors, systems and processes that winning companies deploy. The age-old business quote is indeed true: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.”
Traditionally, most direct selling companies’ data used for decision-making comes from transactions, orders, commission payouts, and all historical events that happen when and after the sale is made. What’s missing?
All the Data Leading Up to the Sale Is Rarely Accounted for
Years ago, teams would call into team conference calls to share their “daily numbers” of dials made, presentations hosted, and follow-up meetings booked. More sophisticated teams would post their numbers into a Google spreadsheet that was shared. In the end, the corporate teams have rarely had access to the data showing what the field is actually doing to grow sales.
Because the data source of the independent promoter’s actions is not accurately tracked, corporate leaders resort to interviewing top sellers to gather data on what is working and what is not. The challenge is then enlarged since many top sellers do not have their own depth of data required and are only sharing feedback from the phone calls they have had with their own teams.
Then comes the possible awkward feeling for the corporate team if they decide not to take action on certain top field leaders’ suggestions during feedback sessions. At this point, people can become offended or feel favorites are coming into play.
How does one escape the drama of the old broken feedback cycles?
‘Predictive Action’ Technology
Companies around the globe are learning that in order to get the pre-sale data, a story is needed along with a platform powerful enough to have members actually use the system.
Presently, there are companies creating online platforms and mobile phone apps that feel like a top leader is suggesting what to do throughout the day, and this helps members imitate the modeled proper behavior.
The power of these predictive action platforms is that the field actually adopts and uses them at high rates to bring real-time feedback loops of actual data.
A brief list of applications include:
- How to invite a new contact
- How to follow up with a prospect
- How to have a customer reorder
- Training and leadership development
- Best practices for sharing in social media
- Mentorship opportunities downline
- Share streaks and consistency of the team’s behavior
Delivery Methods For Predictive Technology
The predictive applications can be delivered through web-based or app-based interfaces to members. The key is to create fun gamified experiences that hook members to engage daily in order for the data on the platform to be maximized.
Some companies position the actions they want members to take as a daily commitment and have members focus on winning the day. Members will commit to how many prospects they will reach out to, follow-up calls they’ll make, and minutes they’ll spend watching training content. Companies will gamify daily goals by tying activity to a dashboard that measures streaks and consistency for the team members taking action and will display the results to create a fun, competitive environment that engages members.
The key to the dashboards is to make them public. As Robin Sharma says, “What you focus on grows.”
Other companies will put the work in to interview top field leaders and create business rules around the kind of words to say or text to prospective customers. By organizing the actual words and phrases for inviting contacts, following up, and sharing products and services, platforms can feel like a coach that models the next thing to say or do to prospects.
When the content and business rules are wrapped with a predictive engine, the system becomes intelligent and can even “suggest” the next action for members to take. The displays for the suggestions can then be set up to maximize the member’s time, where they simply tap and follow the next suggested action and move on, instead of learning how to read reports to know what to do next.
Predictive actions allow for more activity in less time.
How Is The Data Used?
Companies with predictive action platforms can answer questions such as:
“How do the majority of our members share our story in English? And in Spanish?”
“Which social media content are members willing to share from our library? Out of what they are willing to share, which assets get the most guests to our shopping cart? Which pieces of content are driving purchasing?”
“What messaging is NOT WORKING? Where are our field reps sending everything we’ve coached them to say and are still not getting results?”
“What training content is the field actually finishing?”
“What responses to objections are most effective for our members in each language and country?”
What Are the Benefits of Daily Feedback Loops?
1) Compliance
Most organizations that deploy independent affiliates to share the company’s stories are concerned with compliance. The predictive systems not only suggest what to say compliantly, but, because the corporate teams can track the results, the content can be continually improved.
When organizations do the work to create compliant systems that are relevant and actually convert sales when promoters use them today, they remove the incentive and temptation for independent promoters to make outlandish claims to get sales.
2) Financial Savings
The feedback loop from predictive engines can guide in making content-creation plans. With the known data showing what promoters are willing to share and which styles of content are converting the best, the focus can then be shifted to the content budget for producing videos and shareables that have an increasingly higher impact.
The financial savings of knowing which content to produce, which to leave behind, what to translate into other languages for market expansion, and more are all benefits of daily feedback loops.
3) Confidence
Predictive platforms give sales teams a path to run on. When would-be promoters seek an opportunity for a side-gig or social selling opportunity, they always ask themselves, “Is this something that could lead to success?”
Because the predictive platforms present a proven path to follow, even the newest members of the social selling community can have the confidence to commit and take daily actions promoting offers.
Link to share this article: https://socialsellingnews.com/features/using-leading-indicator-data-to-change-the-referral-marketing-game
21 comments
Power of Referal Marketing with the Technology that empowers it, brings out that magic, Making Business to be Stronger & Bolder than ever before.
For someone like me who is new to referral marketing, this is quite an informative read. Thank you!
In this changing world, we must be able to cope and find ways not to be left behind. I could not agree more with this predictive action technology as a tool for referral marketing.
With this, we can use our past data for our future plans and be able to analyze the trends. Technology is continuously evolving and we must also continuously innovate and upgrade our web-based and app-based interfaces for our target consumers.
Predictive Action Technology is a great addition to the Referral Marketing field. As the competition in the business world is increasing, predictive texts and actions will improve your business and will help you strategize on how to boost and expand your business.
Great article! Very helpful for business souls to up their game using ‘Predictive Action’ Technology. In this fast paced world with a rapid upgrade to technology, we should find a way to become the leader. This technology would certainly help us become leaders in the referral marketing game
Predictive action technology helps businesses to innovate and change the game by adopting the newest way of reaching out to people and potentially gaining sales by sharing the trend in the market. No doubt, it is the easiest and fastest way to grow your market without feeling left behind by the latest trend of technology.
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.” This is a great quote that is applicable in most, if not all, businesses, especially in referral marketing. Having the ability to accurately track the activities when prospecting is a game-changer. It opens a lot of opportunities for a user to improve his actions. Data will tell you how you are doing and where you need to improve. NaXum’s technology will provide that data for you. It will help you decide on what actions you need to do to improve your business.
If you do not know what you planted, you will never know what you will gain. Or what is all your efforts are for. As Robin Sharma says, “What you focus on grows.” And in order to focus you have to know what you are doing and why you are doing it. To have your own source of motivation. Being able to accurately monitor your business and the people you are with is a big game changer and that is why Software companies like Naxum are built for. We help referral marketing to leverage what they have and what they can do more.
When the rules of the game change, you can’t do the same thing and expect to win.
— Anonymous
We cannot expect different results if we are not capable of innovation. Being creative in a way to make use of DATA and have the power to analyze it and use it as a tool in expanding its capacity to change and more techniques in the referral marketing world.
Technology today will forever change our lives. We should embrace it and let it be a part of how we shape our future!
This is awesome! You should be able to see and have concrete figures to be able to be updated in all aspects of the marketing world. It’s more than a feasibility study where you analyze the data. Here, it’s pretty straightforward!
The more you know about the future, the more intelligent you are to handle it or change its course.
NaXum’s Predictive Action Technology can uncover amazing insights at all stages of the app user lifecycle, giving marketers the ability to grow their companies intelligently – from invites all the way to retention.
Using predictive technology can help the members foresee the future and guide them into what should be their next action step by creating strategies based on the data that is provided by the tool.
This is a great read. A method of relentless pursuit of perfection on referral marketing.
Is this something that could lead to success?
Most company that offers web technology services struggles a lot because of the inconsistent and inaccurate data produce in sales. Having a predictive platforms helps a lot other company because it produces a real-time data that may help members keep track on their progress on sales and invite process. They can easily manage time without hassle becasue the platform will help you and automatically send invites to different social media platforms and promote your product to your list prospects. Allowing the platform to do the other job can help you focus on more important things like improving your products and make another ideas in the promition process that will enhance sales.
In order for us users to have a great experience, what the article here shows the truth having a gamification process will indulge us to be more active while having fun in learning the contents that we need.
Our generation today evolves on data and data is important key factors that allows us to even more update ourselves of what’s truly going on in this world.
Predictive platforms let us understand how accurate predictions can benefit, as we need to analyze the factors essential to successful predictive technology that also creates more accurate visions of real-time data to transform our lives in big ways.
What a fantastic post! Prediction action technology really helps businesses grow using actual data, especially in the field of Referral Marketing.
Great read! Predictive technology is a must-have tool right now for all direct selling companies. For someone who’s new to direct selling, having such tools that can coach you on what actions to take would be a huge game-changer.
Informative article, predictive action technology changes the game in the referral marketing fields and it was a great medium for those people who are planning to enter the referral marketing arena.
Predictive technology is a game-changer for all direct selling companies as it gives the ability to measure data and manage it that would help each individual and the business grow. As we are living in a busy world it is very crucial for us to have a technology that would help us be efficient and effective at the same time.