Automated attachment of segmentation data to hot contact leads for facilitating matching of leads to interested lead buyers
First Claim
1. A method for automatically connecting potential vendors with potential consumers of vendible goods and/or services following respective presentations to the potential consumers of respective promotional materials directed at least to respective classes of goods and/or services which the respective consumers may be interested in, where the presented promotional materials are logically associated at least with respective promoters responsible for content of the respective promotional materials, the method comprising:
- (a) receiving from a first of said potential consumers at least one of;
(a.1) an inbound voice call made to a first communications node specified in a first of said promotional materials, the first communications node being part of an array of communications nodes to which potential consumers can place voice calls and the first communications node being logically pre-associated to the first promotional material and not being logically pre-associated to others of promotional materials that are directed to different vendible goods and/or services and/or different classes of potential consumers; and
(a.2) a first contact-back node at which the first consumer can be reached plus at least one additional piece of information linking the received first callback telephone number to the first promotional material whereby the first callback telephone number is logically associated to the first promotional material and its respective promoter at least by said additional piece of information;
(b) in response to said receiving step (a), automatically assembling a segmentation data package that logically links a voice call carried by way of at least one of said first communication node or said first contact-back node, where the assembled segmentation data package comprises an identification of the first promoter and an identification at least of the class of goods and/or services to which the first promotional material is directed; and
(c) automatically submitting the assembled segmentation data package to an automated matching system that matches profiles of lead seekers to segmentation data for leads which the seekers seek by virtue of their respective profiles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In an automated leads-and-bids matching system, bid profiles are defined to describe desires of lead buyers. Received leads are matched to active ones of the bid profiles whose specifications the leads substantially match. Lead segmentation data is captured on-the-fly for example by inducing potential consumers to navigate their way through tree-organized web sites that categorize the consumers according to their geographic location, income/revenue range, class of products desired and/or other attributes. Live voice or other telecommunication connections to the pre-classified consumers are coupled to corresponding, pre-classified telecommunication nodes of a call processing system. The call processing system deduces the segmentation data of the consumers from the identities of the pre-classified nodes through which their connections pass. The deduced segmentation data is passed to an automated matching system or auctioning subsystem that finds the highest bids for each given lead. A quality rating database rates the quality of leads provided by different sellers. A price discounting engine discounts the amount paid to sellers who are hot-rated as sources of inferior leads.
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Citations
44 Claims
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1. A method for automatically connecting potential vendors with potential consumers of vendible goods and/or services following respective presentations to the potential consumers of respective promotional materials directed at least to respective classes of goods and/or services which the respective consumers may be interested in, where the presented promotional materials are logically associated at least with respective promoters responsible for content of the respective promotional materials, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving from a first of said potential consumers at least one of;
(a.1) an inbound voice call made to a first communications node specified in a first of said promotional materials, the first communications node being part of an array of communications nodes to which potential consumers can place voice calls and the first communications node being logically pre-associated to the first promotional material and not being logically pre-associated to others of promotional materials that are directed to different vendible goods and/or services and/or different classes of potential consumers; and
(a.2) a first contact-back node at which the first consumer can be reached plus at least one additional piece of information linking the received first callback telephone number to the first promotional material whereby the first callback telephone number is logically associated to the first promotional material and its respective promoter at least by said additional piece of information;
(b) in response to said receiving step (a), automatically assembling a segmentation data package that logically links a voice call carried by way of at least one of said first communication node or said first contact-back node, where the assembled segmentation data package comprises an identification of the first promoter and an identification at least of the class of goods and/or services to which the first promotional material is directed; and
(c) automatically submitting the assembled segmentation data package to an automated matching system that matches profiles of lead seekers to segmentation data for leads which the seekers seek by virtue of their respective profiles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for automatically connecting a potential consumer of vendible goods and/or services to a potential vendor of such vendibles, the method comprising:
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(a) causing presentation to a potential consumer of promotional material directed at least to one respective class of goods and/or services which the respective consumer may be interested in;
(b) inducing the potential consumer to participate in a live telecommunications interaction that passes through a classifying logical node of a call processing center where the classifying node is logically pre-assigned by the call processing center to at least a respective promoter responsible for content of the presented promotional material; and
(c) in response to the potential consumer participating in the live telecommunications interaction passing through the classifying node, automatically connecting the potential consumer to a vendor seeking a lead characterized by segmentation data pre-associated with the classifying node. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method of assisting promoters of vendible goods and/or services in directing hot contact traffic to potential vendors of such vendibles, the method comprising:
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(a) incorporating into promotional material provided by a given promoter, guidance material for guiding a potential consumer who is exposed to the promotional material towards participating in a live telecommunications flow that passes through a call processing center, where the call processing center identifies plural nodes as classifying nodes and a first classifying node through which the live telecommunications flow passes is logically assigned by the call processing center at least to the given promoter; and
(b) in response to the potential consumer participating in the live telecommunications flow passing through the first classifying node, automatically connecting the potential consumer to a vendor having lead-seeking profile that matches lead segmentation data pre-associated with the first classifying node. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A hot-contact processing center comprising:
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(a) an assigning module for assigning to respective ones of plural telecommunication pathways, respective classifying roles that indicate to the hot-contact processing center that live telecommunication activities passing along one or more of the assigned pathways correspond, at least during a predefined time period, to potential consumers satisfying predefined segmentation data factors;
(b) segmentation data attaching means that detects which one or more of the assigned pathways a given live telecommunication activity passes along and that responsively, logically attaches corresponding segmentation data to the given live telecommunication activity depending on the classifying roles assigned to the detected one or more of the assigned pathways, where the attached segmentation data is forwardable to a matching unit that matches the forwarded segmentation data with active profiles of potential lead seekers that indicate the seekers are seeking leads having segmentation data matching the profiles; and
(c) a transfer switch for coupling a matched lead seeker to the given live telecommunication activity that has the attached segmentation data attached to said activity. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method of joining a potential consumer and a matching potential vendor in a live telecommunications interaction, the method being machine-implemented and comprising:
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(a) collecting segmentation data that identifies consuming desires and/or purchasing characteristics of a given potential consumer, said segmentation data further identifying a promoter responsible for initiating the process of collecting the segmentation data;
(b) using the collected segmentation data to find a given matching potential vendor having a machine read profile indicating that the found vendor desires to make contact with one or more potential consumers having part or all of the consuming desires identified by said collected segmentation data and/or having part or all of the purchasing characteristics identified by said collected segmentation data; and
(c) forming a live telecommunications connection between said given potential consumer and said found matching potential vendor. - View Dependent Claims (41)
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42. A manufactured segmentation data signal package comprising:
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(a) serviceability data indicating whether a corresponding potential consumer is serviceable or not by respective ones of plural potential vendors; and
(b) return-on-investment data indicating to respective ones of the plural potential vendors what expected return on to-be invested funds the corresponding potential consumer represents. - View Dependent Claims (43)
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44. A hot-contact telecommunication transmission characterized by passing through one or more telecommunication pathways that have been assigned respective classifying roles by a hot-contact processing station and characterized by passing through a connection switch controlled by the hot-contact processing station, said control being responsive to a matching of the assigned respective classifying roles of the one or more telecommunication pathways to a profile of hot-contact seeker.
Specification