Possible Futures Part 2
The other day, my accountant informed me I had to send a tax document via fax to the state for swift processing. She says this without any pause as if it were given that I still owned a fax machine. Hold on. What? Fax? Really? I don’t even have a landline. I mean, I do own a 35mm camera with half a roll of used film, but that’s only because I find it somewhat amusing, and I keep promising myself I’ll have it developed. BUT, it got me thinking about how we take for granted that we no longer need to snap a photo, gamble on exposure settings, and then wait for the outcome to develop. Can we all acknowledge that we live in a nearly instantaneous world and overlook the potential of an actual real-time world?
At best, the data we use to derive insights is close to near-time and only represents a small portion of the consumer’s story. Of course, we do our best to interview and observe behavior. Still, even then, the information is biased and dated by the time we process it through our models and create our visualizations. We still base our forecasts and spending on it.
Allow me to illustrate a real-time world. A world where consumer behavior is continually analyzed for anomalies and sentiment and integrated with traditional syndicated data. What opportunities does this present? Picture being able to view consumer sentiment in real-time and reacting accordingly. Imagine comprehending the true impact of a promotion as it happens and making adjustments in real-time.
Easier said than done. There are a few significant obstacles here. First, let’s be frank. Marketing and sales departments aren’t typically best friends. If these two played better together, outcomes would improve even if nothing else changed. Forming an integrated team is nothing new. Call it RevOps or MadTech, as coined by David Rabb back in 2015.
Here’s how Salesforce describes “RevOps (or ‘Revenue Operations’) is a B2B function that uses automation to help teams make decisions that grow the business. RevOps unifies everyone — from marketing, sales, service, customer success, and finance — around three shared objectives: pricing for better conversion and margin, reducing revenue leakage, and using customer data to identify new revenue opportunities.”
Raab on Mad Tech “In the MadTech model, anyone with a budget will have equal access to data and delivery, available as external services. This means the only real differentiator appears in the decision layer, where marketers will compete to make the smartest decisions about which messages to deliver to which customers in which media. This will result in a renewed focus on core marketing skills such as branding, positioning, value definition, and even — gasp — creative development. “
There are other similar concepts, like DevOps: “DevOps is the amalgamation of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high speed: evolving and enhancing products at a quicker pace than organizations using conventional software development and infrastructure management processes. This velocity enables organizations to better serve their customers and compete more effectively in the market.”
Implementing a RevOps/DevOps/MedTech model could be a key to game-changing market domination. I’m not exaggerating. The world is moving fast, and customers are fickle. Every company wants to gain a competitive edge. Implementing emerging technology (this is the game changer-more on this below) and integrating advertising and marketing teams will leapfrog a company’s operations, align its teams, increase revenue growth, improve customer acquisition and retention, increase efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the customer experience.
Generative AI tech, like ChatGpt, is the next wave. We’re like beachgoers unaware of the approaching tsunami of AI advancements. We’ll only grasp its full impact once the waters have settled. Connecting sentiment, syndicated data, and creating new real-time data models using Generative AI, is just the beginning. Fortunately, we live in a world with many data scientists. These technologies will provide companies with new actionable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and needs. Soon, this will become the new business norm. Consider this fair warning. You heard it here first. Let’s call it Real Time Integrated Analytics or Real-Analytics.
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