Predictive Analytics Company Expands Into Customer Conquesting

Six years ago, two former dealership salesmen created automotiveMastermind, a technology company with a software product designed to help dealers predict consumer behavior and score buying probability.

“We realized the need for data to analyze consumer behavior” because otherwise “it gets tricky putting together a picture of the consumer,” says Marco Schnabl who cofounded the company with Johannes Gnauck. The two German natives had worked together at Mercedes-Benz of Manhattan in New York City.

“Predictive analysis changes the way cars are sold,” Schnabl says. “It’s better for everyone, not just the customer. It gets more work done without working harder.”

The original software centered on helping more than 1,200 dealership clients retain existing customers by using analytics that zero in on, among other things, buying cycles, vehicle preferences and histories of aftermarket F&I purchases.

Now, automotiveMastermind launches a new product, conquestMastermind, billed as a digital tool dealers can use to rake in new customers.

It is the first new software product from automotiveMastermind since IHS Markit purchased the company last year and established it as a business unit.

The conquestMastermind software “allows dealers to reach fresh customers they didn’t have before,” says Gnauck, adding that’s analytically harder to do than retain current customers because of the scope of the data involved. “Our association with IHS has enabled it.”  

He says the software allows dealers to see which customers were targeted, why they were targeted and how to contact them with an offer that meets their specific needs.

The audience data is integrated into Mastermind’s proprietary algorithm. Targeted customers are shown to dealers in a dashboard format. All actions are recorded and displayed, along with contact information.

Prospective customers are assigned behavior-prediction scores between 0 and 100 indicating how likely a customer is to purchase a vehicle. Channels used for contacting customers include email and direct mail.

This is the first conquest-oriented product based on the integration of IHS Markit’s Polk Predictive Audiences, which garners data from multiple sources including vehicle transactions, financing and registrations.  

“With IHS, we have access to 200 million consumers,” says Gnauck, who with Schnabl is automotiveMastermind’s co-CEO. “With conquestMastermind, it’s identify, outreach, engage, learn and validate. It is replicating our recipe for success on the retention side.”

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