The MRP Rebrand and the Promise of Predictive Customer Acquisition

MRP has been in business for 15 years, and we’ve experienced pretty solid growth.  Not only organically, but also through the acquisition of several businesses.

Amidst all this expansion, we found ourselves in a situation that I suspect is fairly common among fast-growing companies.  We were presenting ourselves to customers the way we were organized internally, instead of the way in which customers consume our products and services.

Technology has changed market and buying dynamics forever.  We all know it’s the age of the customer, and the companies that aren’t abiding by this reality face a lot of risk.  Ironically, while our customers were focused on transforming their customers’ experiences, we needed to make sure we were focused on the same thing.  We had to take a step back and make sure the way we go to market supports our customers’ experiences.

The Rebrand

The rebranding took about six months of getting to the heart of the value we provide to our customers.  And this is what we learned through the rebranding exercise.

Learning #1:  Predictive Customer Acquisition.  This is the guiding principle that will take us into the next decade.  B2B predictive customer acquisition is relatively new to market, but it aligns with trends in the B2C space where an algorithm is driving sales and marketing.

MRP’s commitment is to help our customers continuously make better predictions about who their next customer is, how to understand where they are in the buying cycle, and how to acquire them more efficiently.  Ultimately, our goal is to help them transform their sales and marketing organizations, if not the business itself.  Our drive and commitment to do this makes us a valuable long-term partner.

Learning #2:  The combination of software and services.  Our predictive analytics software is the key that starts everything.  But during the rebrand, we interviewed several customers to learn what they value the most about our partnership.  Hands down, it was our vast array of ABM services that support their software subscription.

Our customers are overwhelmed with platforms. Oftentimes, what they really need is fast access to specialized resources that can quickly fill an execution gap in their strategy.  This is exactly what our ABM services and methodology provide, and it is how we help our customers pull data from our software through their pipeline and measure it at every step of the way.

Learning #3:  The reorganization of our services.  This is where our ABM experience bubbled up.  We’ve been doing ABM for 15 years, and anticipate we’ll be doing it for another 15 years, because it works.  We know the sales and marketing executives we work with want to migrate to an ABM framework.

So with the help of our analyst partners, Forrester and Sirius Decisions, as well as our involvement with relevant ABM organizations, we created our own ABM marketing framework that mirrors the industry best practices and aligns with the needs of key roles within marketing and sales organizations.

The Customer Journey

The ABM framework outlined below follows the customer journey; our software, products, and services support each step along the way.

1. Discovery: The first step of the journey is to identify the right accounts. Then we identify the right contacts within those accounts.  Finally, MRP Prelytix is able to locate the precise buying centers that are showing activity.
2. Insights:  Information about buying intent flows continuously into our platform.  Our machine learning algorithm allows us to easily segment and filter that intelligence – in real time – so it can be acted on.
3. Orchestration: Data streaming is dynamic and real-time. Marketing and sales need to respond quickly in order to get to customers when their buying interest is the highest.  Programmed orchestration, straight out of the MRP platform, accomplishes this.
4. Execution: Once a response has been programmed, our ABM framework ensures that all ABM tactics – display, e-mail, direct mail, and inside sales – are executed consistently, seamlessly, and globally.
5. Analytics: Finally, MRP Prelytix measures the success of each program – MQL to SQL conversion – across multiple countries, hundreds of sales people, and thousands of partners.  Algorithms are adjusted as needed to improve program results.

The rebranding exercise is done.  It was eye-opening, frustrating at times, and absolutely necessary to position us for the future.  An amazing thing happened:  at the conclusion of the rebranding exercise, our unique position in the market was crystal clear:

Bringing this all together … predictive software and ABM services … in one partner, is the promise of our brand.  It is predictive customer acquisition, and it’s only here at MRP.