Insurance Client Stories-Contemporary Analysis

CAN has been fortunate to help a number of Life and Health Insurance companies work smart.  It has been a great relationship because clients from Life and Health Insurance companies understand what we do as they are experts in using mathematics to forecast human behavior on a biological side, and CAN is an expert in applying predictive analytics to forecast human behavior on a marketing and sales side.  Our customers invest in developing new products, and we use math to make sure they can distribute them most effectively.  The following are some of the solutions we have developed:
Marketing ROI with Terrain: Our clients wanted to know the ROI of their marketing campaigns, but had been struggling to develop a system that was able to determine the impact that their marketing was having on sales.  We agreed that it would be too difficult to explain the impact that a company’s marketing was having and instead we used CAN’s Terrain system to explain the impact that the economy and seasonal fluctuations had on sales.  With every predictive model their is a residual x-factor that can not be explained in detail.  So instead of including the economy, a major driver of purchasing decisions, in the X-factor, we included the company’s marketing in the X-factor.  While they did not exactly accomplish their goal of measuring the ROI of their marketing activity, we were able to explain how economics and seasonality impacted sales and the residual could be attributed to marketing, competitors and other factors.  Now our clients can get a reasonable idea if marketing is impacting sales.
 
Client Management: Using Pulse, CAN helped our clients understand and improve their client portfolio by modeling the factors of client profitability, loyalty and claim activity.  Each week we provide our client with a list of the clients that are at risk of leaving within the next 90 days, and a list of sales leads that have a high probability of being profitable and loyal clients.  Each month we provide them with a report on their client portfolio relative to the population and their goals.

Sales Management: Using Beacon, CAN has worked to connect agents and brokerages to our clients home offices.  Beacon has been used to focus the development of leads and marketing materials to best serve the needs of agents and brokerages.  Beacon also has been used to improve communications with training, regulations and promotions between home offices and agents by segmenting agents by learning styles and providing communication guidelines to our clients.

June 13, 2011 News No comments yet

The Steps to Implement Predictive Analytics

The following is the step-by-step process that CAN would use to implement predictive analytics into your business systems:

Step 1

We select from our catalog of intellectual property which mathematical formula or survey questions will be most effective to explain the activity being studied, and develops a list of potential dependent and independent variables.

Step 2

We will meet with individuals on your team to learn more about your business, employees, and customers. This meeting is intended to be a discussion to determine the independent variables that are most likely to be significant and their correlation to the dependent variables. To encourage discussion, before the meeting, participants will be given a list of proposed dependent and independent variables, a description of the hypothetical model, and how the results will be applied.
At the beginning of the meeting, the we will give a brief introduction of how the hypothetical model will be developed as well as an overview of the proposed dependent and independent variables. After the introduction, one member of our team will work to moderate the discussion and take notes. The outcome of the meeting with be a list of:

  • Important Historical Events: Understanding historical events help to identify outliers and their cause(s), such as errors in the data, changes in business paradigms, or significant events outside of the business.
  • Assumptions: No model can be perfect, and thus require a certain number of assumptions. Assumptions are non-conscious theories about how the world works. It is important to understand the assumptions so that results can be accurately produced and interpreted.
  • Dependent Variable: The Dependent variable represent the desired outcome that is being studied. The predicted dependent variable is explained by the mathematical mixing of the independent variables. The value of the dependent variable will change whenever the independent variables change, and that is why it is called the dependent variable.
  • Independent Variables: Independent Variables are variables that are hypothesized to have an impact on the dependent variable. When the independent variables change, the dependent variable changes as well.

Step 3

After the second step, the our team will collect the data for the dependent and independent variables from internal and external sources. CAN will work with your team to securely transfer the data from your internal sources. If the necessary data is not available CAN will develop a survey. Once the data has been collected it is loaded into the CAN database, cleansed, and connected to the modeling environment.

Step 4

Contemporary Analysis will study the data and present an overview to your team to ensure that we are correctly interpreting the data.

Step 5

The data will then be run through mathematical models to determine which variables have the most significant impact on the activity being studied. Models are selected based on statistical robustness, standard error, and how well they represent the data.

Step 6

A research report will be developed to provide information on the variables and why they were selected, the quality of the data, the quality of the model, and suggestions on how the research can be applied. The report is developed both as a comprehensive study and an executive summary to facilitate those who are non-specialists, but want to gain an understanding, and for those requiring a greater level of detail.

Step 7

CAN will meet with your team to present the results of the research, the report, and suggestions of how results can be implemented.  The CAN team will also work with the management team to break down results into specific and actionable tasks.
 
Please contact us to learn how we can help implement predictive analytics into your organization.

May 30, 2011 News No comments yet

How to Structure a Survey

We rely on existing data when available, however sometimes we have to collect primary data using surveys. Over the years we have developed many surveys — including a bi-lingual survey to measure the employment and consumption preferences of Omaha’s first generation latino population. The following outlines the basics of our methodology for how to structure a survey:

  • Incentives: The best surveys use social incentives instead of monetary incentives. Using social incentives requires that surveys are designed to make it easy for people to feel the satisfaction of giving their opinions and helping people. This means that surveys should be short with provided answers that clearly and completely answer the survey questions.
  • Questions: Every question needs to designed to provide the most information for the least amount of effort from the participant. This requires that only essential “business questions” are researched, and that each response provides multiple dimensions of information.
  • Answers: The best surveys provide answers that are able to completely answer the survey questions, because respondents will lose motivation if they can not truly express themselves. This doesn’t mean that you create pages of possible answer, instead it should focus how the question is answered to limit the possible answers. The format of the answers should stay consistent as much as possible so respondents don’t have to re-read the questions, and instead can focus on understanding the question and answering appropriately.
  • Security: Surveys are valuable because they provide people a protected and ambiguous line of communication. When respondents feel safe they are able to provide information that they wouldn’t disclose in normal communication.

 
Please let us know if we can help your collect and analyze data for your organization.

May 30, 2011 News 3 comments

Keeping Business Intelligence Simple

CAN does more than optimize your sales, marketing, customer services, management and strategic planning; we optimize how you learn.  Our job is not to provide you with more information, data or work.  Our job is to provide you with supported recommendations that help you run your business more effectively.  CAN helps you with business intelligence to get the insights you need so you can get back to your life.
CAN keeps business intelligence simple by:

  • No Extra Data Collection: CAN’s systems are designed to only require access to your accounting data, because it is the most accurate data that companies already have.  Any additional data is provided by CAN either through surveys or by using CAN’s databases with data on economic variables, demographics, psychographics, real estate, consumers, and businesses.
  • Implementation: CAN systems are designed to be simple enough that businesses without computers could implement our systems, and businesses with more advanced infrastructure are able to implement using a minimal amount of effort.  We did this because we wanted the success of our systems to be independent of a company’s IT department, software trends, or industry whims.
  • Reporting: We have resisted the temptation to wow you with complicated visualizations and data tables, and instead CAN provides you with just the necessary information to answer your important business questions.
May 30, 2011 News No comments yet

Beacon Client Stories


The following are 4 examples of how CAN’s Beacon system has been deployed to help companies.  When reading this post it will become obvious that CAN’s systems are catalogues of intellectual property that are used to help people sell, market, retain, manage and plan smart.  Since we are constantly developing new technology, surveys and mathematical models it is easier to focus on solving our customers’ needs, instead of on our technology.  At the end of the day no one cares how we do it, they just want solutions to their problems.  Here are some of the solutions we have delivered using our Beacon system:

  • Client Match Making: CAN built a survey to match managers and clients based on personalities, the needs of the clients and the strengths of the managers.  This resulted in increase client satisfaction and high project profitability.

 

  • Reseller Program: One of our clients had a reseller network to distribute their products.  They competed against other providers to become a core provider of different products.  CAN utilized our Beacon system to determine what would help our client become vendors preferred provider.  The result was a plan that segmented different resellers by what they valued, as opposed to wanted, in new products, marketing support, provider support and compensation.

 

  • Project Management: One of our clients, an architecture/engineering company, used CAN’s Beacon system to determine how to optimize their project management strategies.  We segmented projects by type of project and type of client to build a model that determines what they should bid on the project, who is the right project manager, and how many employees should be involved.  The model also provided a risk factor for each project to determine what the risk of the company losing money on the project.

 

  • Feedback from the Field: One of our clients with thousands of salespeople has used Beacon to improve their lead generation process by having their salespeople complete an 8 question survey after each client interaction, and completing a long survey each quarter.  The result is a monthly report of what leads are effective with different segments of salespeople, what types of leads should be generated next month, and whether the leads are delivered and called in a timely manner.
May 30, 2011 News No comments yet

What We Value – CAN's Development Guidelines


At CAN we know the value in writing down our goals, principals and beliefs so that we don’t get sidetracked in the process of building our dreams.  We put our company values at the top of our priority list.  The following are the guidelines that CAN uses in the development of our systems.  We are careful to not let fads, customers, competitors and whims derail us from what we know is right. Listed below are our development guidelines.
[+] Creative + Math
Numbers can tell you what is working, and provide recommendations to optimize your processes.  However, math alone can’t create strategic plans, organizational structure, sales strategies and marketing plans.  Therefore, Contemporary Analysis is committed to designing our systems to utilize expertise of your employees, managers and executives.
[+] Results not Software
When you hire CAN you get results not software.  We operate the software, and simply provide you with the information that you need.  Focusing on results instead of software allows CAN to quickly adapt our systems to meet the needs of your business in a rapidly changing business environment.
[+] Built for Change
Contemporary Analysis continually invests in our systems often with monthly updates.  Our commitment to continual improvement allows CAN to keep up with or even out pace changes in the business environment.  This is essential because it will keep your business on the cutting edge.  Staying on the cutting edge is essential for success, because “If the rate of change outside your organization moves faster than the rate of change within your organization, the end is in sight”.

May 30, 2011 News No comments yet

How to Adopt a New System

I am biased towards systems because CAN builds simple systems to help people work smart.  The other day I noticed that a new employee wasn’t using one of our systems to complete his work. When I confronted him about this he responded, “I am not an systems kind of guy”, and my response what “No one is naturally a systems kind of guy.” I have never met someone that enjoyed using systems at first, because it feels unnatural or the person feels that the system is creating unnecessary amounts of work. All of this is true.
Systems feel unnatural because they force people to work in standard ways, and well designed systems are built to create standards based on best practices. Systems do create more work because they require us to put our thoughts into data that can be stored and transferred, however this allows us to handle more work since we can focus on processing information as opposed to storing information.
Some of the keys to adopting a new system in your organization are:

  • Marketing/Selling the New System: People don’t like change, and it is likely that most of your employees feel that the current system works just fine.  Make sure to market your new system so that your employees understand what problems the new system solves, and what the features of the new system are.  Make posters, videos, websites and emails explaining why it is important to adopt the new system, and host user groups so that people can learn from each and offer ways to improve the system.
  • Single Point of Failure: If you adopt a system, anything that doesn’t happen within the system should be treated as if it didn’t happen. You have to be firm and not backdown. Any exceptions will erode the adoption. When it comes to systems adoption three legs are better than four.
  • End Support for Old Systems: When you officially adopt a new system, cut support for the previous system.  Your new system will be undermined if any employees are allowed to continue in their old ways.

What experiences have you had with adopting new systems? Any interesting tips/tricks?

May 20, 2011 News 4 comments

How to Increase Your Capacity for Change

Tadd and I have experienced a lot of change over the last three years in business as we have had to learn to run a business, increase our technical skills, and adapt to a rapidly changing industry. Consequently, we have had push ourselves to explore new opportunities, viewpoints, ideas and ways of doing things. In other words, we are constantly working to increase our Capacity for Change.
There is no shortage of brilliant ideas. However, successful implementation is rare. Implementation faces many barriers to success, which include, but are not limited to: politics, complexity, budget constraints, and counter productive habits. However we have found that the most common barrier successful implementation of a brilliant idea are individuals’ capacity for change.  Typically, capacity for change is a function of creativity, resources, intelligence, education, flexibility, values, risk tolerance and beliefs.
Tadd and I have tried to increased our capacity for change by:
– Being Patient: Successful implementation doesn’t happen over night. It takes time, and sometimes years. We learned that if our goals were constantly changing we would never be able to accomplish any of them. Now when making goals we try to take a Long-range Focus and set goals carefully and accept that it might take a couple years to accomplish our goal. While we try to have patience we also are constantly looking for incremental progress towards our goals.
– Make Space: We have reduced the clutter and commitments so that we can make space for new things. Right now we make space by setting aside time during Saturdays and holidays to explore and implement new ideas. We also try to systemize as much as we can so that we don’t continually have to do the same things over and over, and instead spend our time implementing new ideas.
– Develop Horizontal Friendships: Everyone needs best friends. However, having a large number of horizontal friendships can also be valuable. Horizontal friendships are friendships with people that you wouldn’t be friends with naturally. Horizontal friends typically have different interests, lifestyles and personalities. If you spend time with these people they will increase your capacity for change by introducing you to new ideas, products and people outside your normal sphere of influence.
– Stumble Upon Ideas: Some of the best advice I ever got was to just read everything I can, and not worry about retaining what I read. This sounds counter intuitive, but my mentor explained that I should make it a habit of stumbling upon knowledge. Everyday I try to scan Twitter and LinkedIn for interesting articles or ideas. Weekly I try to spend time reading a biography, a business book and a technical journal. I don’t care about when I finish, but only that I expose my self to the opportunity to learn something.
 

May 16, 2011 News 3 comments

12 Best Practices for Salespeople
We use mathematics to help people sell smart. The following are 12 of the best practices for salespeople our team sell has learned from working with our clients.

1. Invest in Prospecting

The foundation of being an effective sales person is to only sell to people that have the need, willingness, and resources to purchase what you are selling. This means that you will spend the majority of your time scanning the environment for the right people, and relatively little time selling to them. Learn how we can help you find the right prospects.

2. Coach don’t Sell

Once you have identified the right prospect, your role switches from prospecting to coaching them through the decision. People are often reluctant to make decisions, but if they have the need, willingness, and resources for your solution it is your responsibility to coach them through the buying process. However, if they don’t have the need for your solution, help them find the solution that is right for them, don’t push your solution just to get a commission.

3. Sell don’t procrastinate

People are talking to you because they want to purchase what you have to sell. Do not delay the sale by continuing to offer facts about your product, if someone wants to purchase you need to close as quickly as possible. In this situation, you don’t need to hard sell, you have to make purchasing enjoyable — the people sitting across from you want to buy something.

4. Rehearse, Present, Adjust

Your sales presentation is a very complex performance, and you need to know it well enough to quickly adjust depending on who you are presenting to. The best salespeople treat their sales presentation similar to a theatrical performance. They write down their best lines and stories, they remember how people react to each line and story, and then they practice over and over. They practice until they are able to present and spend their energy reading and listening to their audience.

5. Get the Meeting

The key to effective cold calling is to get the meeting.  Do not try to sell someone over the phone, just get them to commit to a face-to-face meeting either in person or over video. Once you are face-to-face it will no longer be a cold call!

6. Read and React

Read and match your clients faces and body language. This helps set the tone of the meeting and build confidence. If your client is really analytical, you don’t want to sell with too much emotion. And know when to end the call — if they look bored, uninterested or turned off — change your message or end your presentation.

7. Confidence and Enthusiasm

First if you aren’t confident and enthused by what you are selling then you might want to think about why you are selling that product. People will match your level of confidence and enthusiasm one level below you. In order for people to be confident and excited about your product, you need to be more confident and excited about your product.

8. Know what you are selling

Knowing what you are selling helps clients trust you as the expert, helps you make promises you can keep, and helps speed up the sales process. Truly great salespeople are masters of the sales process and what they are selling.

9. Follow a System

You need to develop a sales system. There are a variety of different systems available such as, Sandler Training, but the key is to have a system. By developing and using a system you will be able to rely on your system, instead of your emotions, charisma, mojo, or social connections. You reap what you sow: The relationships that you build today will pay off in several months or years.

10. Always Carry Business Cards

Always carry your business card, because you never know when or where you will meet someone. When you meet someone for the first time, your business card allows you to immediately establish your brand, and your ability to build a relationship with that person. Once you have given someone your card, always ask for theirs in return.  It shows genuine interest and it puts you —the most likely to follow-up — in charge of following up.

11. Don’t Assume a Sales Lag

Most salespeople talk about their “sales lag” as something they have no control over. However, great sales people do not assume a sales lag. Instead they see it as a result of not having the right mix of marketing, pricing, sales-process, and leads; and they are continually adjusting this mix to reduce their sales lag.

12. Silence is the Best Close

The best salespeople know that being silent after asking for a decision is the best close, and they aren’t afraid of waiting for the client to make a decision. It can be uncomfortable for the salesperson, but it provides the client time to think through the decision.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help solve your business problems.

April 28, 2011 News 1 comment

Predictive Analytics is About Being Less Wrong


Last week Grant and Tadd (co-owners at CAN) presented their insight on the concept of being “Less Wrong” on day two of the Infotec Conference and left the audience intrigued with the possibilities of the use of predictive analytics in their line of work. CAN has used the “Less Wrong” approach in predictive analytics to predict when roofs will fail, track down graffiti artists, date, predict the S&P 500, and make software go viral.
The basic idea of Less Wrong is that in business, and almost anything in life, you can never be perfectly right, but you can be less wrong and by striving to continually become less wrong you get closer and closer to being right.  By using predictive analytics you can analyze data from multiple sources to capture information and determine what’s happening, what will happen, and what is the right thing to do.
A good example of Less Wrong is the CAN Roof Failure model.  CAN worked with the facilities department of a Fortune 500 company to help improve the scheduling and budgeting process of their facility maintenance division.  Each facility manager was responsible for 500+ server huts and they had no way to predict when the roof on a hut was going to fail. However a single leak could quickly destroy the sensitive electronics below leading to blackouts for their customers.  CAN was able to use information about what the roofing material, weather patterns, age of the roof, previous maintenance, location, and other variables to make a reasonable assumption on when each roof was likely to fail.  While it was impossible to know exactly when a roof would fail, we were able to provide a reasonable estimate as to when failure might occur thus allowing for maintenance schedules and budgets to be prioritized.

April 25, 2011 News 2 comments
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