Sales leaders are
always looking for ways to improve their teams' performance. In fact, according
to a survey by the Association of Certified Chief Executive
Officers (ACCE), nearly 90% of CEOs say that improving sales productivity
is one of their top priorities. As you're probably already aware, there are
multiple ways to do this: training programs and workshops, new hires, etc. But
one area where many companies fall short is BI and why should they? Business intelligence (BI) has become such an integral part of
running any organization today that it's hard to imagine doing anything without
it. However, not everyone understands how beneficial BI can be in helping your
company grow at the fastest rate possible. This makes sense considering that
most people don't even realize what BI is.
What is Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence is the process of
collecting and analyzing data to make better business decisions. It's a broad
term that includes many different tools and technologies, but in this article,
we are going to focus on BI as it relates specifically to sales performance.
BI can be used for sales, marketing, finance, and operations.
BI allows you to see how your company is performing across all departments at
once and what needs improvement. So you can make informed decisions about how
best to allocate resources toward growth or change management initiatives (or
both).
Identifying and Prioritizing Leads Using
Predictive Analytics
When it comes to generating leads, you can use
predictive analytics to identify the most promising leads.
Predictive analytics is a powerful tool that
can help you identify the most promising leads based on their behavior and characteristics.
If your company sells products related to sports or fitness equipment and you
have a database of past customers who purchased similar products from other
companies, this data could be used for predictive purposes by identifying those
customers who are likely to buy again in the future. This may allow you more
time and resources invested into reaching out directly to these potential
customers than trying to find new ones through traditional methods such as cold
calling or emailing lists of past clients (which often ends up being an
ineffective waste).
You can also use
predictive analytics when prioritizing which prospects should receive attention
first given their likelihood of converting into paying customers.
Dashboards and Data Visualization
A dashboard is a visual
representation of data that can be used to understand your business.
Dashboards show trends, key performance indicators (KPIs), and other important information in an easy-to-understand
way.
Dashboards are especially useful for sales
managers because they allow you to quickly see how well your sales team is
doing on a daily basis. They also give you insights into what drives sales
performance. The most popular KPIs include,
● Number of leads generated per
month/quarter/year
● The average number of contacts generated
per week/month/quarter
● The average amount spent per client
You don't need any specialized software or
hardware to create dashboards, the majority of the work happens when collecting
and analyzing data from various sources such as Salesforce or Google Analytics (which both have free versions with
limited functionality). In addition, there are lots of free resources available
online where anyone can find tips on creating beautiful dashboards using Excel templates or advanced HTML5 visualizations like Tableau Public or Google Charts API v1.
Sales
Forecasting
Sales forecasting is the process of predicting
future sales. It can help you identify opportunities and risks, as well as help
you make decisions about the future.
Forecasting helps
companies plan for their business by identifying key events that will affect
their sales performance. If a company knows it will sell more products in
September than in June, then it may want to increase its marketing efforts in
September so that it can reach its target market during peak season.
Sales
KPIs You Should Know
Once you’ve got your data, it’s time to put it
all together. The first thing to do is figure out how many deals are in the
pipeline and how many are closed. The second thing is to determine how many
deals have been won and lost, as well as their size (the average deal value).
Once you have this information at hand, it’s
easy enough to calculate some other KPIs,
●
The average
revenue per customer per month (ARPU) – ARPU measures profits over time by dividing
total revenue by total customers served during a specific period of time. It
helps companies optimize investments in marketing efforts or changes in product
offerings so they don't lose money on every sale made.
●
The average
revenue per customer (ARPC) – This
measure shows how much money customers spend with a given company over time;
it's an indicator of how profitable any given product or service may be for
that company at any given moment in its history.
How to
Utilize Business Intelligence in Your Sales Department
Business Intelligence (BI) is a subset of
information technology (IT) that focuses on extracting insights from existing
data sources so they can be used more effectively by management teams. BI tools
help companies gain greater insight into their customers’ needs through
analysis of customer behavior, business processes, and systems data such as
sales records or performance metrics like revenue growth rates over time.
● Use data to make better decisions
● Use data to identify sales opportunities
● Use data to improve customer service
● Use data to improve sales performance,
including closing rates and conversion
rates.
Conclusion
Business
Intelligence (BI) is a great way to improve sales performance and increase
revenue. You can use it to gather data from sources like Salesforce and other
internal databases, then analyze that information to identify customer needs
and prioritize lead opportunities. BI also allows companies to forecast demand
for their products based on historic trends, and it provides key metrics for
monitoring employee performance over time.