2016 predictions from Lattice Engines, SiriusDecisions, Hubspot, Terminus, Engagio, Brainshark and more.

1. PREDICTIONS
2016How will marketing and
sales professionals become
more data-driven in 2016?

2. For the past four years, we’ve connected with some of the leading minds in B2B
marketing and sales to predict what’s next in B2B.
This year, we’ve brought together more than a dozen thought leaders, analysts and
practitioners to gather predictions for the New Year and asked them one question:
How will marketing and sales
professionals become more
data-driven in 2016?
From account-based marketing to virtual selling,
we have just about everything covered! We hope
you enjoy reading through these predictions.
Cheers to another great year!
- The Lattice Team

3. @jonmiller
Jon Miller
CEO and
Co-Founder,
Engagio
Data Will Drive ABM
The critical first step in account-based marketing is choosing
your target accounts. But don’t just make a list – prioritize
your accounts into tiers (perhaps Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3).
Then be sure to align the company around:
• How much effort will go into accounts at each tier
• How much revenue you expect to get from accounts at
each tier (and when)
Without that alignment, ABM is doomed to fail.
In 2016, we’ll see companies turn to data to drive this
process. Instead of just asking reps for 20 target accounts,
more companies will use technographics, engagement and
intent data combined with predictive to align around the
RIGHT accounts for each tier.
1

4. Data-driven marketing organizations are proficient at
finding and nurturing net new customers through the sales
funnel. However, 2016 will be the year that companies
recognize the funnel doesn’t stop there anymore.
Tomorrow’s marketing teams will continue nurturing and
engaging with customers, to create happy advocates who
are interested in increasing their usage. This will cause the
traditional sales funnel to become a thing of the past and
the bow tie funnel will come into prominence, as marketing
becomes a key driver of customer success and advocacy.
@ShashiSF
Shashi
Upadhyay
CEO,
Lattice Engines
Advent of the Bowtie Funnel
2

5. @NipulC
Nipul Chokshi
Head of Product
Marketing,
Lattice Engines
2016 is the year that the most sophisticated marketers
will go from lead-based marketing to account-based
marketing (ABM). Many marketers have attempted to
implement ABM strategies in the past, but the right kinds
of data and data-crunching algorithms necessary to scale
it were missing. Now that this infrastructure is readily
available (predictive analytics, big data collection, etc.),
ABM will explode in 2016.
ABM goes Mainstream
3

6. @draab
David Raab
Principal,
Raab Associates
2016 will see democratization of data science, as
individual salespeople and front-line marketers are
provided with direct access to useful information.
This will happen as systems convert raw inputs into
actionable outputs such as predictive model scores
and offer recommendations. These will appear in end-
user systems such as sales automation, marketing
automation and websites. They will let people with no
data-science skills take advantage of what real data
scientists produce.
Democratization of Data Science
4

7. How healthy is the sales pipeline? This is one of those eternal
questions that sales leaders consistently ask sales operations
leaders. The dilemma continues to be whether or not a sales
rep’s intuition is better than the science (e.g. data analysis).
The right answer is this: neither is better, but sales operations
must utilize both to best understand the pipeline.
Sales organizations must transition from using all of its data
to analyze opportunities to understanding what is the right
data and how can it be correlated to provide sales intelligence.
This requires looking at opportunities with some distinction
and defining opportunity types in order to support, influence
and validate what the sales rep’s intuition is driving.
@MarkBLevinson
Mark B
Levinson
Service Director,
SiriusDecisions
Pipeline Analysis:
Data-Driven Intelligence5

8. @heinzmarketing
Matt Heinz
President,
Heinz Marketing Inc
Data-driven marketers will prioritize and leverage deeper
segmentation based on target personas and buying
stages, real-time modeling and scoring, and cross-channel
integration of precise messages/content are becoming
“need to have” requirements for marketing automation
professionals. These won’t always come directly from the
core platforms, which means the ecosystem of add-on
tools will continue to deeper & diversify.
Further, especially among account-based marketing
programs, look for direct mail to make a big comeback
over the next several months.
More Segmentation
6

9. @sangramvajre
Sangram
Vajre
CMO and Co-founder,
Terminus
I believe marketers will finally get a grip on the way B2B
needs to operate i.e. account-based. With using predictive
technologies, companies can identify the right types of
personas and accounts to go after but the main question
they will need to answer is, what's next? Will we continue
to email and call as we have been doing for past decade or
will we challenge the status quo, and engage personas on
their terms and influence the entire account as opposed to
just one lead? The answer to this question will separate the
leaders and followers in 2016.
Predictive Fuels ABM
7

10. @Megan_Marie_T
Megan Tonzi
Director of Marketing,
QuotaFactory
I feel that in 2016 marketing and sales professionals will
find themselves having to evaluate and choose the 'right
tools' that will allow them to become more data-driven
and focused. Everyone wants a clear picture of their ROI
however, there are numerous tools that claim they can
paint the most accurate picture – the question is, are they
able to do so within YOUR company's sales and marketing
structure? One tool does not fit all organizations, so for
2016 it's going to be about finding the right partner to
support and help you successfully implement a data-driven
approach to your sales and marketing strategies. Research,
evaluate and choose wisely!
Finding the Right Partner
8

11. @BrennerMichael
Michael
Brenner
CEO,
Marketing Insider
Group
Do you know which marketing programs work and which
don’t? In the age of ad blocking, DVRs and banner
blindness, there will be a massive correction coming in
the advertising market that will drive bigger budgets for
(and expectations of) content marketing. This shift will
require a real commitment to understanding the ROI of
marketing overall.
The Year of Marketing ROI
9

12. @megheuer
Megan Heuer
Vice President and
Group Director,
SiriusDecisions
In 2016, marketing and sales will be more focused than ever
on what happens after customers buy, because they have
to be: SiriusDecisions research shows customer experience,
direct and indirect, is the biggest driver of purchase decisions
in b-to-b. Experience is the most important differentiator
for any company. New insights and analytics are required to
fuel the post-sale experience engine, and 2016 is the year
companies must make progress or risk losing out to those
who build actionable customer knowledge faster.
Customer Experience Rules
10

13. @b2bcmo
Jon Russo
Founder,
B2B Fusion
In 2016, an account-based marketing approach of
execution and measurement becomes reality. While
the marketing automation side of ABM plays catch up
to industry needs, the combination of accurate data
and correct global hierarchies enable marketing to
drive more revenue. In the ABM model, marketers will
continue to optimize sales/marketing business process
to close more revenue.
The Reality of ABM
11

14. I think marketers are going to look closer at how content is
used in the sales process to evaluate ROI and effectiveness.
So much of the analytics marketers monitor are tied to “top
of the funnel” content interactions and their own channels
– inbound, email, social, etc. But salespeople use and share
the content that marketing creates as well, to engage
buyers and advance sales conversations after a lead has
been generated.
Sales content effectiveness is typically a “black hole”,
but I expect 2016 to be the year that more marketers use
technology and analytics to better understand how content
is used by salespeople, and paint an even clearer picture of
the direct impact their content is having on closed deals.
@brencournoyer
Brendon
Cournoyer
VP Corporate Marketing,
Brainshark
Sales Content that Works
12

15. @annekeseley
Anneke Seley
CEO and Founder,
Reality Works Group &
Coauthor "Sales 2.0"
As subject matter experts and consultants in inside sales
design and implementation projects, we predict that in
2016, sophisticated data-driven and technology-enabled
virtual selling organizations will continue to grow. More
large companies will recognize that market share, margin
and shareholder value goals can be achieved with stronger,
re-imagined inside sales capabilities.
Virtual Selling to Grow
13

16. @denispombriant
Denis
Pombriant
Managing Principle,
Beagle Research Group,
LLC
They won't – It would be great if they'd begin using
all of the information generated by the data (many are
tardy) but I hope they'll stay out of the data weeds. It will
start when more managers use analytics reports to tell
them what's important and to stack rank opportunities
and deals leaving reps with more field time and
fewer meetings. In other words, it's time for practical
application of the great stuff we already have.
Stay Out of the Weeds
14

17. @markroberge
Mark Roberge
CRO,
HubSpot
More and more sales organizations will recognize that
today's buyer is far more empowered by the Internet.
The company elevator pitch, information on product
features and highlighted case studies no longer cut it
from a value-add perspective. The 2016 salesperson will
transform their tactics by understanding the modern
buyers' unique context and personalizing the entire sales
process to their perspective.
The New Standard of Selling
15

18. @CaitlinHelen650
Caitlin Ridge
Director of
Communications,
Lattice Engines
2016 will be the year that companies operationalize data
collection and move beyond insights that sit in a data silo
without being used. In 2016 companies will find ways to
ensure insights are easily consumable by all teams, and
information is put into action. This will include different use
cases like ad targeting, nurturing and better ROI for inbound,
making sales more effective. It will no longer be enough to
have a data point or predictive score. End users want to be
given specific actions to take with that information.
Last Mile of Data
16

19. @jgraymatter
Justin Gray
CEO,
Lead MD
In 2016, there’s going to be a good degree of consolidation
from a technology perspective (both from M&A and tech
stack partnerships) and it speaks to the need to create a
highly process oriented engagement strategy with all of
these critical tools optimized. That’s easier said than done
so the #1 area I predict sees growth is investment and
training in education for the marketing department. No
other area will yield as high of a result. We are putting some
very complex technology in front of today’s marketing
departments and we are asking them to learn on the job and
it’s costing hundreds of millions of dollars not only in time
and materials but opportunity costs.
Consolidation of the Stack
17

20. @jtrondeau
Justin
Rondeau
Director of
Optimization,
Digital Marketer
Last year I was right about personalization becoming one of
the big marketing buzzwords of 2015, but to be frank that’s
all it became – a buzzword. Great personalization comes from
advanced segmentation and clean data, something most
companies don’t do well.
I’ve noticed many small/medium sized businesses beginning
to question the accuracy of their data sets and seek out data
professionals or advanced training. In 2016, more businesses will
seek out data professionals (consultants or technologies) as well
as education (certification & accelerated learning) to ensure they
have clean data sets to make better business decisions.
2016 will be a massive year for data education and
certification to empower organizations to make the best
data-driven business decisions.
Advanced Segmentation
and Clean Data18

21. Lattice’s complete set of marketing and sales applications predicts who
will buy, what they are likely to buy and when. As the market leader,
Lattice’s proven applications combine billions of buying signals and
apply advanced machine learning to help drive predictable marketing
and sales performance. Companies of all sizes including Dell, Staples
and SunTrust Bank use Lattice to deliver proven value, ultimately
resulting in increased conversion rates and accelerated revenue growth.
Lattice has headquarters in San Mateo, California.
About Lattice Engines
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