By Dominick Sirianni, Vice President Interactive Education & Thought Leadership, Internet Marketing Association

At imanetwork.org/webinar, Radius CEO Darian Shirazi recently completed a presentation helping IMA members learn to use data to improve decision making. This is a hurdle many attendees at #Impact14 identified as an area of opportunity.

Shirazi formed Radius (@radius) after completing a stint as one of the youngest employees at Facebook. The marketing and intelligence company has successfully helped clients use their existing data sets to significantly improve sales.

During our interview, Shirazi provided advice to those who desire stronger utilization of customer data.

Radius has seen several businesses hiring data science teams to build internal data analytics tools on top of data, while not giving enough thought to the quality of that data. “They buy a list… put data into their spreadsheets and then try to derive meaning from it” notes Shirazi.

These tactics, while implemented for the right reasons, can be far from effective. Until recently, few tools were available that helped marketers compile massive amounts of data into useful information. “What we’ve seen is that marketers are trying to make sense of data, but don’t know how to do it themselves and struggle hiring the team to do it.”

In “A Guide to Marketing Intelligence,” Radius calls out that there are 140,000 candidates for about 400,000 data science jobs. It’s very hard for a CMO to build an appropriate team. These aren’t simple spreadsheets. Businesses need power tools that break data apart and put it back together again with intelligence that helps grow the business. With such a job shortage, recruiters aren’t able to find the required talent.

This is where software companies like Radius can help. Shirazi’s advice – “You should be able to see results from working with an analytics company during the trial process. If you don’t see value, then don’t invest.”

To listen to the full interview with Darian Shirazi and get your copy of “A Guide to Marketing Intelligence,” visit imanetwork.org/webinar.