CaliberMind Releases Buyer Intelligence Software for Account-Based Marketers

Boulder, Colorado–based SaaS start-up CaliberMind today announced the general availability of its CaliberMind Buyer Intelligence software, which aims to give B2B account-based marketers and sales professionals insights into their customers' purchasing tendencies.

According to Raviv Turner, CaliberMind's cofounder and CEO, the software operates similarly to IBM's Watson, as it applies machine learning and human language analysis to data drawn from various sources—including CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, Web conferencing tools, and social media sites—to create "psychographic" buyer profiles. For example, the system can analyze data from phone calls or email conversations stored in Salesforce.com's CRM system and combine it with the information gathered within Marketo's marketing automation platform.

The data the system sifts through is synthesized to present end users with their targets' chief persona archetypes, which are drawn according to more than 30 disparate facets, including personality traits, buying journey pain points, content inclinations, and decision making methods and processes. According to Turner, these "needs-based" personas can serve as useful guideposts to marketers and sales reps, as they emphasize the distinct strategies necessary for engaging each individual involved in a deal. For instance, a marketer who consulted the system for guidance on engaging a CMO who has been labeled as "analytical" and "revenue-minded" could be advised to send him an informative article about a tool for calculating returns on investment.  

Similarly, the insights can be leveraged to help users tailor their outreach, Turner points out. If a prospect is discovered to be competitive in nature, the system might indicate that the salesperson should send an offer that highlights the ways in which competing companies have used the product in question. If the targeted persona is achievement-oriented, a marketer might send him a message that highlights his likelihood of getting promoted using the product or service.

According to Turner, the technology is stands out by going beyond demographic data such as a company’s size, the industry it fits into, or the contact’s job title. While account-based marketing strategies are gaining popularity as a way to develop relationships with buyers, practitioners require more insights into their audiences' psyches—they require the "human factor," he says, "the most important factor in a deal." This is especially true as the amount of people involved in a deal can number anywhere between  five and 17, he says, and increasingly, the input is coming from mulitple perspectives, including that of HR, finance, and legal. "We don't understand them," Turner says.

According to Turner, the solution is best suited to midmarket and enterprise firms that average $50 million a year in revenue. Paid beta testers of the product include Citrix, Convercent, and ReturnPath. According to CaliberMind, early users have seen an average of 40 percent lifts in their conversion rates, and some sales professionals have begun shortening their cycles by 30 percent, as the tools have allowed users to better tailor their communications with buyers.

The technology operates in a way that "wasn't possible a year ago," Turner stresses. He points to Persado as a vendor that enables B2C marketers to understand prospects' personal preferences, but he notes that the process is much more challenging within the B2B sphere.

Carlos Hidalgo, CEO and principal of Annuitas, a demand generation firm and Marketo partner, said in a statement that the solution is one of a kind:

"CaliberMind is the first I've seen that brings psychographic, behavioral and demographic data together. This holistic view of their buyers will help marketers dial-in their content to improve return on their demand-gen investment."

Turner mentions that it wouldn't be surprising to see such vendors as Engagio, Node.io, and Demandbase's Spiderbook following the lead with solutions that take into account more humanizing factors.

CaliberMind is available at $20,000 for companies on an annual license basis, and pricing is further determined based on the number of personas and the number of contacts it is required to analyze. Future iterations of the software will include "buyer journey visualization" maps and a "prescriptive content" function, Turner says.

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