Automated attachment of segmentation data to hot contact leads for facilitating matching of leads to interested lead buyers

• US 20060265259A1
• Filed: 04/25/2006
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LeadPoint Incorporated
• Original Assignee: LeadPoint Incorporated
• Inventors: Diana, Marc, Pettersen, Per
• Granted Patent: US 8,571,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

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.

Claims

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.

2. The connecting method of claim 1 wherein said promotional materials include promotional content posted on a digital network.

3. The connecting method of claim 1 wherein said promotional materials include emailed promotional content.

4. The connecting method of claim 1 wherein said promotional materials are included in broadcast signals.

5. The connecting method of claim 1 wherein said promotional materials are included in publications.

6. The connecting method of claim 1 wherein respective ones of said promotional materials present respective telephone numbers that direct potential consumers to place voicecalls to respective ones of the plural nodes corresponding at least to respective segmentations of goods and/or services and corresponding segmentations of promoters.

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:

(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.

8. The connecting method of claim 7 wherein said promotional materials include promotional content posted onto a digital network.

9. The connecting method of claim 7 wherein the classifying node is further logically pre-assigned by the call processing center to at least one of:

(b.1) a specific class of goods and/or services among a finite set of classes of goods and/or services recognized by the call processing center;

(b.2) a specific brand of goods and/or services;

(b.3) a scale of transaction indicator;

(b.4) a promotion channel identification;

(b.5) a consumer rating; and

(b.6) a geographic zone identifier.

10. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said scale of transaction indicator (b.3) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said scale of transaction indicator indicates a specific range of monetary values for goods and/or services that are to be vended.

11. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said scale of transaction indicator (b.3) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said scale of transaction indicator indicates a specific range of numbers of specific goods that are to be vended.

12. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said promotion channel identification (b.4) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said promotion channel identification identifies one of plural promotion channels employed by a corresponding promoter.

13. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said consumer rating (b.5) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said consumer rating includes a credit rating associated with the consumer.

14. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said consumer rating (b.5) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said consumer rating includes an income range associated with the consumer.

15. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said geographic zone identifier (b.6) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said geographic zone identifier identifies a location of property to be vended.

16. The connecting method of claim 9 wherein said geographic zone identifier (b.6) is included as having been logically pre-assigned to the classifying node and said geographic zone identifier identifies a residence location of the potential consumer.

17. The connecting method of claim 7 and further comprising:

(d) inducing the potential consumer to participate in an interactive automated response session where the consumer responds to one or more posed inquiries, where the one or more inquiries seek additional segmentation information from the consumer.

18. The connecting method of claim 17 wherein:

(d.1) said one or more posed inquiries are automatically selected by a missing data determining means that automatically determines what additional segmentation information is needed to complete a corresponding segmentation data package prior to submission of the segmentation data package to an automated leads-to-seekers matching system.

19. The connecting method of claim 17 wherein:

(d.2) completion of a corresponding segmentation data package is determined according to whether the segmentation data package provides serviceability information corresponding to serviceability criteria established by profiles of potential vendors and/or whether the segmentation data package provides return on investment information corresponding to return criteria established by profiles of potential vendors who use said leads-to-seekers matching system.

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:

(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.

21. The assisting method of claim 20 wherein:

(a.1) said incorporating of the guidance material includes dynamically incorporating into a web page, a telephone number which if called within a prespecified time period, will guide the call to a classifying node that is logically pre-assigned at least the given promoter.

22. The assisting method of claim 20 wherein:

(a.1) said incorporating of the guidance material includes dynamically obtaining from a web page, a telephone number which if called by the call processing center within a prespecified time period, will be identified by the call processing center as a classifying node that is logically assigned at least the given promoter.

23. The assisting method of claim 20 wherein:

(b.1) said step (b) of connecting the potential consumer to a vendor occurs after the potential consumer has navigated through one or more web pages that categorize the consumer by virtue of said navigation as belonging to a class of potential consumers satisfying predefined segmentation data.

24. The assisting method of claim 23 wherein:

(b.2) said segmentation data includes one or more of;

(b.2a) a specific class of goods and/or services among a finite set of classes of goods and/or services recognized by the call processing center;

(b.2b) a specific brand of goods and/or services;

(b.2c) a scale of transaction indicator;

(b.2d) a promotion channel identification;

(b.2e) a consumer rating; and

(b.2f) a geographic zone identifier belonging to a class of potential consumers.

25. The assisting method of claim 24 wherein said consumer rating is included in the segmentation data and the consumer rating includes at least one of:

(b.2e1) consumer self-graded credit rating of the consumer;

(b.2e2) consumer self-reported annual income or revenue stream;

(b.2e3) consumer self-reported monthly average cash flow of the consumer;

(b.2e4) consumer self-reported net assets worth of the consumer;

(b.2e5) consumer self-reported age or years in operation of the consumer;

(b.2e6) consumer self-reported gender of the consumer;

(b.2e7) consumer self-reported smoking habits of the consumer;

(b.2e8) consumer self-reported alcoholic intake habits of the consumer;

(b.2e9) consumer self-reported basic health condition of the consumer;

(b.2e10) consumer'"'"'s expectation of time to close a corresponding deal; and

(b.2e11) consumer self-reported previous experience of consumer with consummating similar deals to present one being contemplated.

26. A hot-contact processing center comprising:

(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.

27. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 wherein:

(a.1) the assigning module further inserts one or more categorizing telephone numbers into promotional material presented to potential consumers such that if a potential consumer calls at least one of the categorizing telephone numbers, the hot-contact processing center can automatically determine from the identity of the at least one called categorizing telephone number that the in-calling potential consumer satisfies one or more of the predefined segmentation data factors.

28. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 and further comprising:

(d) completion determining means for determining whether segmentation data collected thus far for a given potential consumer is sufficiently complete so as to be ready for forwarding to a corresponding matching unit for matching to a corresponding lead seller.

29. The hot-contact processing center of claim 28 wherein:

(d.1) the completion determining means tests the segmentation data collected thus far for completion of a predefined set of serviceability factors that indicate whether the corresponding potential consumer is serviceable or not by respective ones of plural potential vendors.

30. The hot-contact processing center of claim 28 wherein:

(d.1) the completion determining means tests the segmentation data collected thus far for completion of a predefined set of return-on-investment factors that indicate to respective ones of plural potential vendors what expected return on to-be invested funds the corresponding potential consumer represents.

31. The hot-contact processing center of claim 30 wherein:

(d.2) the predefined set of return-on-investment factors include one or more of;

(d.2a) an identifier of a specific brand of goods and/or services;

(d.2b) a scale of transaction indicator;

(d.2c) a promotion channel identification;

(d.2d) a consumer rating as to at least one of consumer credit and consumer income; and

(d.2e) a geographic zone identifier.

32. The hot-contact processing center of claim 28 and further comprising:

(e) interactive voice and/or tone recognition means, responsive to the completion determining means, for interactively querying the given potential consumer with voiced queries for segmentation information not yet included in the segmentation data collected thus far for the given potential consumer.

33. The hot-contact processing center of claim 32 wherein:

(e.1) said interactive voice and/or tone recognition means is responsive to promoter identification information included the segmentation data so as to play promoter-specific different queries for different ones of plural promoters.

34. The hot-contact processing center of claim 33 wherein:

(e.2) said interactive voice and/or tone recognition means is programmable by said different ones of the plural promoters so that each given promoter can define sequence and content of voiced queries and/or greetings presented by the interactive voice and/or tone recognition means to potential consumers associated with the given promoter.

35. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 and further comprising:

(d) interactive voice and/or tone recognition means for interactively querying a given potential consumer with voiced queries for segmentation information.

36. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 and further comprising:

(d) caller identification means configured for determining geographic origin of an inbound call and for using the determined geographic origin for forming a segmentation data package having verified geographic origin information.

37. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 and further comprising:

(d) 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 wherein the matching unit includes an instant survey engine for gathering lead rating information at the end of a hot-contact session.

38. The hot-contact processing center of claim 26 and further comprising:

(d) an assembler unit that derives segmentation data from data accumulated from responses of the potential consumer.

39. The hot-contact processing center of claim 38 wherein said assembler unit performs one or more of mathematical calculations, rule based logic operations, lookup table operations, knowledge base inferencing operations, Boolean logic operations to derive at least part of said segmentation data.

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:

(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.

41. The joining method of claim 40 wherein the given potential consumer is connected to a live telecommunications channel beforehand and the matching potential vendor is found after and further connected to the live telecommunications channel so as to thereby form the live telecommunications connection.

42. A manufactured segmentation data signal package comprising:

(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.

43. The manufactured segmentation data signal package of claim 42 and further characterized by being logically linked in a hot-contact processing station to a live telecommunication activity passing through one or more telecommunication pathways that have been assigned respective classifying roles by the hot-contact processing station.

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.