For the past few years, we have all be hearing and reading about the importance of Big Data. It is the fuel that propels us from traditional reporting, which is descriptive and can tell us what happened in the past, to predictive analytics, which can help us make inferences into the future. And the models get smarter as additional data is added (i.e. Big Data sets.) It is interesting to note that the human mind works a lot like predictive analytics models. The "BiG" difference being the models can you 1000s of data points.
It is important to note that predictive analytics does not tell us the future! People will still need to be involved in the interpretation. What is exciting is that the next step is what is described as Prescriptive Analytics. Prescriptive Analytics can tell us what will happen and then tell us what you can do to change the outcome! Coming back to Big Data. The more we know about the history the more accurate the predictions. That is why companies should have a strategy for what they are doing with all the data they collect.
So how does this apply to sales? Imagine what you can do with all the data being tracked about each prospect. Just like Othot helps universities determine who is most likely to enroll, predictive analytics in sales can help determine who is most likely to buy your solution. And the more data you are collecting about your prospects all the way through to closed won or closed loss, the more fuel for your models.
And consider the impact this has on resource allocation. People can apply their time to those opportunities and in turn become more productive.
John's message is clear - Go do this now - predictive and prescriptive will change the way we work. Get out ahead of this. Have a strategy. Start to understand. Collect the data. And lastly, if you have kids, encourage them to get into data science.
And don’t worry, one of the biggest myths - that Predictive Analytics will take over our jobs is not true. Predictive Analytics will be a lot like reporting. It will augment decisions. It is like saber analytics in baseball.
Connect:
Connect with John LinkedIn and learn more about Othot by visiting www.othot.com.
Connect with Greg on LinkedIn and check out Omedym’s website and their LinkedIn and Twitter
