Sales Analytics in Tough Times

As we enter tough times, revenues are down and profitability is suffering as cost of sale is escalating. New customer acquisitions is slowing and customer retention is in a downward spiral.

The is mounting pressure on sales managers to rise against the trend and increase sales productivity.

All this is happening at a time when the volume and complexity of sales information is increasing at alarming rates and accessing the full complement of data needed for sales analysis requires extraction from several disparate business systems.

Not a pretty picture, but it does highlight the lagging need for sales departments to take control of the incredible value that their sales and customer data represents.

The challenge is to turn this raw data into actionable customer intelligence. This is the role of analytics applications.

Analytics Applications

Analytic applications are powerful offensive weapons for businesses by providing them with the competitive edge they need to survive and prosper.

Sales performance analytics software pulls together real time information from multiple sources to give sales teams a consolidated view of how to:

1. Improve sales effectiveness
2. Improve productivity, and cycle times
3. Identify and analyse key sales drivers
4. Identify trends and issues
5. Provide a single view of the customer
6. Optimize marketing-to-sales lead management

Thus the data is not only providing invaluable actionable insight, it is also driving the sales processes. The operational intelligence from Sales Force Automation [SFA] and Customer Relationship Management [CRM] systems enables sales managers to:

1. Rapidly assess sales performance
2. Improve forecasting accuracy
3. Identify and remedy sales process bottlenecks
4. Support issues with products, customers, salesrepresentatives, or territories
5. Align with the performance of the sales function with marketing, customer service, product management, finance, and other areas of the business.

These analytic applications help the sales manager define and execute both strategies and tactics to meet time-sensitive objectives and achieve sales success.

Next: How Sales Analytics Works

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