How Sales Teams Can Benefit From Business Analytics Software

It’s no secret that the key to acquiring new customers lies in having a strong sales team. However, identifying the factors that help to establish what it means to be a ‘strong’ sales team is a bit more difficult. After all, there are a number of interwoven variables and components that all have the potential to impact a sales team’s effectiveness. That having been said, there are few who would deny that access to reliable, up-to-date information is one of the most important factors. Sales teams that operate with faulty or outdated information are essentially attempting to work in the dark, and can have a profoundly negative effect not only on sales themselves, but also on the overall reputation of their company. As such, it is vitally important that sales teams have access to regular business intelligence reports.

There is a certain romanticism that accompanies sales suggesting that the ability to make a sale is more of an art than a science. But while there will always be certain difficult-to-define, interpersonal elements impacting the likelihood of sales success, the reality is that numbers and data play a much more important role than is often recognised. Because of this, business analytics software is becoming an essential tool in the repertoire of effective sales teams.

About 84% of high performers say that analytics will increase within the next two years. Using business analytics and business intelligence software to improve sales numbers is a part of that growth, and it all relies on sales teams being well informed. More specifically, business analytics allows sales teams to more-effectively perform certain necessary operations, and to do so with a high degree of accuracy. These operations include:

• Charting Performance
  One part of what makes business analytics software useful is that it can be used to help with charting performance levels. Sales success depends on a number of factors, not all of which are always directly apparent. By charting sales performance across an extended period of time, businesses can begin to see the patterns that affect sales success, as well as other, less-obvious factors that might have an impact.
• Identifying and Evaluating Customers 
  Analytics can also be used by businesses to develop a better understanding for their customers. Individual customers or segments of like-minded customers can be reviewed to help identify what commonalities exist that aid in the completion of a sale. Once these factors have been identified, they can be targeted, reducing wasted effort on the part of the sales teams, and improving the overall contact-to-sale ratio. Likewise, analytics can be used to help businesses more-easily identify and address customer concerns.
• Improving on Bad Data
  Even flawed or incomplete data can be useful when identified by an effective business analytics software solution. This bad data can be used to help identify faults in processes, or to locate other potentially problematic areas. Incomplete data is usually a result of either human errors, or system errors, both of which can only be corrected after being identified. Analytics programs can quickly locate these potentially-precarious issues, and then use them to improve the system as a whole.
• Up-Selling Opportunities
  Software that identifies influencing factors, such as current trends, purchase history, customer interests, and others can be useful in assisting in up-selling. Sales teams can use this information to ensure that they always have something else of value to offer their customers once a sale has been finalised.

Given that about a third of all high-tech companies and financial service companies say that at least half of their employees use analytics software tools to their advantage, it’s little wonder that there are several providers of business analytics software from which interested organisations can choose.

However, committing to a business analytics solution is about more than just picking a provider at random, because different business analytics software solutions feature different capabilities. Of the most important capabilities necessary for an effective sales analytics software solution, flexibility may be the most advantageous. As goals change, trends dissipate, customers arrive and depart, and businesses evolve, the main sales focuses of an organisation’s business analytics are likely to evolve as well.

A flexible program—one that allows for continual reevaluation and adaptation—will likely prove more significantly valuable in the long run than one that operates well out of the box, but that simply isn’t flexible. Forcing a business to adapt its processes to work within a predefined analytics software solution can result in expensive adjustment periods, low adoption rates, and unimpressive results. A fully-flexible analytics solution that can be customised to work well with an organisation’s existing systems and processes is a better choice.

There are other traits that help to define an effective analytics software solution, but they all seem to tie back into one specific point: the software tool must be cloud-based. A cloud-based analytics software solution means reduced costs and heightened security. Likewise, it allows for unrestricted access by any authorised individual, from any internet-capable device, from anywhere in the world. This is especially valuable for sales teams, who often find themselves doing business while away from the office. Lastly, the cloud promotes greater collaboration between individuals and departments, by providing a common, easy-to-use program that everyone can access.

Sales teams are responsible for locating and preparing new clients as they are guided through the sales funnel, but that doesn’t mean that they have to do it alone. A strong sales team is one that makes proper use of all of the tools available to them, and the best sales teams are those that incorporate business analytics software and intelligence reports into their repertoire. After all, when it comes to making sales, the more reliable information you have, the better you’ll be able to function. Business analytics software helps to ensure that sales teams have the information they need, exactly when they need it.