Systems and methods for scoring sales leads

• US 8,027,871 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2007
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions, LLC (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Williams, Richard, Hughes, Lawrence J., Kirgan, Maria Luisa, Hajikhani, Rasoul, Panigrahi, Damodar, Kong, Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett; Scott L
• Application Number:
  US11/671,424
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109445A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,695 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/7.11
• US Class Current: 705/7.31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities

Abstract

A client transmits one or more lead records to a lead enhancement module that is configured to enhance the received lead records and return enhanced lead records to the client. The lead enhancement module may return a contactability score for each lead record, indicating a likelihood that the individual identified in the lead may be contacted using the contact information provided in the lead record and/or additional contract information located by the lead enhancement module. The lead enhancement module may also receive additional data items associated with leads from one or more data sources. Additionally, statistical models that may be customized for each client may be applied to information associated with lead records in order to determine one or more propensity scores for each of the lead records, where a propensity score indicates a likelihood that an individual will take a particular action, such as purchasing particular goods or services.

Claims

1. A method of enhancing a lead record, the method comprising:

receiving a lead record from a requesting entity, the lead record comprising a plurality of data items including at least a surname field for storing a surname data item and a contact field for storing a contact information data item, the contact information data item comprising at least one of;

a telephone number, a facsimile number, a pager number, and an email address;

determining, by a computer system, a contactability score associated with the lead record, the contactability score indicating a likelihood that an individual associated with the lead record is associated with the contact information data item, wherein the contactability score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between the contact information data item that is associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record;

wherein determining the contactability score further comprises;

retrieving a plurality of additional contact information data items for the lead record based on whether the contactability score meets a threshold;

determining a contactability score for each of the additional contact information data items retrieved; and

designating for inclusion, in an enhanced lead record to be generated for the requesting entity, a contact information data item of the additional contact information data items that has the highest contactability score,

selecting a data bundle indicating one or more additional data items associated with the lead record that are to be retrieved from one or more data sources;

transmitting, by the computer system, at least a portion of the data bundle to the one or more data sources;

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items indicated in the data bundle;

generating, by the computer system, a propensity score that is customized for the requesting entity, wherein the propensity score is based on at least one of the data items of the received lead record or the additional data items received from the one or more data sources, the propensity score indicating a propensity of an individual that is of interest to the requesting entity, the propensity score being generated based on one or more statistical models customized based on criteria and desired scoring output specified by the requesting entity;

generating the enhanced lead record comprising at least a portion of the lead record received from the requesting entity, at least a portion of the additional data items received from the one or more data sources, and the generated propensity score; and

transmitting the enhanced lead record to the requesting entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the propensity score indicates a propensity to purchase a particular product offered by the requesting entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises an educational institution and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to enroll at the educational institution.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises a product retailer and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to purchase one or more products offered by the product retailer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises a service provider and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to request one or more services offered by the service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a customized statistical model for the requesting entity; and

automatically selecting the determined customized statistical model for generation of the propensity score.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a personalized data bundle to be associated with the lead record, the personalized data bundle comprising indicators of one or more additional data items to be requested from one or more data sources, the indicators being selected by the requesting entity;

transmitting the personalized data bundle to the one or more data sources; and

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items indicated in the personalized data bundle.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the personalized data bundle comprises indicators associated with additional data items that are not included in a default data bundle.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing pre-processing of the lead record in accordance with one or more business rules provided by the requesting entity, the business rules indicating a manner of pre-processing the lead record that is particular to the requesting entity.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the data bundle further comprises:

retrieving a first additional data item associated with the lead record;

determining whether the first additional data item associated with the lead record meets at least one of a plurality of criteria provided by the requesting entity; and

in response to determining that the first additional data item meets at least one of the plurality of criteria, retrieving a second additional data item associated with the lead record.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the data bundle selects the one more additional data items based on one or more business rules provided by the requesting entity, the one or more business rules providing specific additional data items to be selected in accordance with the data items of the lead record.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the pre-processing comprises at least one of the following tests:

syntax check of the data items in the lead record, spoof check of the data items in the lead record, duplicate check of the lead record, or data validation of the data items in the lead record.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the business rules specifies that the pre-processing of the lead record be omitted if the lead record fails the at least one test.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the business rules specifies a time period and the duplicate check comprises:

locating a number of lead records that are duplicates of the lead record and generated within the specified time period prior to a date of generation of the lead record; and

determining a desirability of the lead record based on the number of duplicate lead records located.

15. A method of enhancing a lead record, the method comprising:

receiving from a requesting entity a lead record comprising a plurality of fields and data items associated with at least some of the fields, the data items including a contact information data item comprising at least one of;

a telephone number, a facsimile number, a pager number, and an email address;

determining, by a computer system, a contactability score associated with the lead record, the contactability score indicating a likelihood that an individual associated with the lead record is associated with the contact information data item, wherein the contactability score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between the contact information data item that is associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record;

wherein determining the contactability score further comprises;

retrieving a plurality of additional contact information data items for the lead record based on whether the contactability score meets a threshold;

determining a contactability score for each of the additional contact information data items retrieved; and

designating for inclusion, in an enhanced lead record to be generated for the requesting entity, a contact information data item of the additional contact information data items that has the highest contactability score,

determining one or more additional data item indicators to include on an enhancement list, the enhancement list being configured for transmission to one or more data sources and specifying one or more additional data items to be retrieved for the lead record;

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items corresponding to the indicators on the enhancement list;

selecting a customized statistical model from a plurality of statistical models that are customized for the requesting entity, the selected customized statistical model being selected based on one or more business rules specified by the requesting entity, the business rules specifying model selection based on criteria that are met by the lead record;

generating, by the computer system, a propensity score for an entity associated with the received lead record, the propensity score being generated using the customized statistical model, wherein the propensity score is based on at least one of the data items of the received lead record or the additional data items received from the one or more data sources, the propensity score indicating a propensity of an individual that is of interest to the requesting entity; and

transmitting at least the propensity score and at least one additional data item or one additional contact data item retrieved for lead record to the requesting entity,

wherein the method is performed by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the propensity score indicates a propensity of an entity associated with the lead record to purchase one or more goods or services offered by the requesting entity.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the entity associated with the lead record comprises one of:

an individual, one or more individuals, a business, and a family group.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the requesting entity is a client of an enhancement provider that performs one or more of the performing, determining, receiving, selecting, generating, and transmitting steps.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the additional data item indicators are determined based on one or more of:

an identification of the requesting entity, content of one or more data fields of the lead record, and information included in a header of the lead record.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the additional data item indicators are determined based on a vertical business market of the requesting entity such that the additional data items included on the enhancement list are relevant to entities in the vertical business market.

21. A computerized system for enhancing a lead record comprising a plurality of data items, the system comprising:

a data source comprising information regarding an individual associated with the lead record including one or more contact information data items, each contact information data item comprising a telephone number, a facsimile number, a pager number, or an email address, the data source in data communication with a network;

a computing device comprising

a processing unit,

a storage device, and

an input/output interface in data communication with the network and configured to receive a lead record from a requesting entity;

a hygiene module executed by the processing unit, the hygiene module being configured to perform;

determining a contactability score associated with the lead record, the contactability score indicating a likelihood that the individual associated with the lead record is associated with the one or more contact information data items, wherein the contactability score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between the one or more contact information data items associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record, wherein determining the contactability score further comprises;

retrieving a plurality of additional contact information data items for the lead record based on whether the contactability score meets a threshold;

determining a contactability score for each of the additional contact information data items retrieved; and

designating for inclusion in the enhanced lead record for the requesting entity a contact information data item of the additional contact information data items retrieved that has the highest contactability score,

an output bundling module executed by the processing unit, the output bundling module being configured to determine one or more additional data items to be requested from the data source, based at least partly on one or more attributes associated with the lead record, and to transmit a request for the determined additional data items to the data source via the input/output interface, the output bundling module further configured to receive one or more of the requested additional data items from the data source and to generate an enhanced lead record comprising at least some of the additional data items; and

a custom model module executed by the processing unit, the custom model module being configured to generate a propensity score that is customized for the requesting entity, wherein the propensity score indicates a propensity of an individual associated with the lead record based on data associated with the lead record including at least one of the data items included in the received lead record and additional data items, the propensity score being generated based on one or more statistical models customized based on criteria and desired scoring output specified by the requesting entity,

wherein the computing device is configured to transmit the enhanced lead record and the propensity score to the requesting entity.

22. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein the hygiene module is further configured to perform one or more of:

determining whether a first group of data items within the plurality of data items are valid,

determining whether a second group of data items within the plurality of data items comprise one or more spoof words, and

retrieving additional contactability information associated with the lead record.

23. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein the network comprises both private and public based networks.

24. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein indicators of the one or more additional data items are included in a data bundle that is selected by the output bundling module based at least partly on a vertical business market of the requesting entity.

25. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein indicators of the one or more additional data items are included in a data bundle that is customized by the requesting entity.

26. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein at least some of the additional data items to be requested from the data source are determined according to rules that are based at least partly on an attribute of the received lead record.

27. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein the attributes of the received lead record comprise one or more of:

a contactability score of the lead record, a geographic residence location indicated in the received lead record, a source of the lead record, in-the-market data associated with the lead record, a gender of an individual associated with the lead record, and an age of the individual associated with the lead record.

28. The computerized system of claim 21, wherein the output bundling module is configured to receive inputs from the requesting entity indicating additional data items to be requested from the one or more data source.