Professional services firms see huge potential in machine learning

Business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses have made it a priority to incorporate machine learning into customer-facing functions, integrating it into sales and marketing. For business-to-business (B2B) companies, however, translating data into actionable marketing strategies can be a more difficult proposition. Selling to organizations invariably requires embarking on a much longer and more complex journey, culminating in an order of much higher value than in the consumer realm. With hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars at stake, a misguided marketing investment could lead to financial losses. "The availability of data and the importance of having the focus on the full customer journey is coming a little later to the B2B world," says Laura Beaudin, a partner at Bain & Co. "A lot of expectations in terms of customers manifested themselves in the consumer world before they brought those expectations to their business-purchasing world."