Hi Heather! I forgot that you were with Lattice now - alright, that's it, all you other players in the space might as well just throw in the towel now, it's over! ;-)
Actually in seriousness, it's just beginning. This is a really exciting new space and it's heating up fast, with several very strong players already and new entrants jumping in quickly.
Given what you've said, I'd like to elaborate a bit more on my experience with implementing Predictive Lead Scoring.
Predictive Lead Scoring (PLS) is the sort of technology that only benefits you if it changes your behavior. It doesn't do you any good to have an accurate prediction of the probability of conversion if you don't actually market differently as a result of having that information. So the real differentiator of success with PLS is, in my opinion, going to be implementation on the client side, not technological prowess of the vendor.
On the other hand, you can't go crazy making too many changes to your process at once. The problem with that is that it breaks the model. The scoring model predicts the probability of a conversion event (this could be a sale, or just conversion to an MQL or whatever) that takes place in the context of your current sales process and product offerings. If you make too many changes to process and products, the model can no longer predict the probability that the new process will result in sales of the new products.
So implementation is a balancing act and the details of how you go about it make all the difference in effectiveness.
Anyway, I draw two conclusions from all of this:
- Implementation and commitment to client success is going to be the big differentiator in this space.
- PLS needs to be implemented in an environment that is otherwise consistent and steady - that is, the product, prospect universe, and sales process should be fairly well-established and consistent before and after implementation. In particular, I would recommend freezing unrelated changes to your sales and marketing operations processes for at least one sales cycle after implementing PLS. The only changes you should be making are targeted adjustments based on feedback from the scoring model. Don't make radical changes to your product offerings or sales process, as that will break the model and you'll lose time rebuilding it.