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Applying analytics to improve sales workflow

By September 12, 2017June 11th, 2024No Comments

If you’re asked to think about sales workflow, your mind might conjure up a picture that emphasizes fluidity. After all, the word “workflow” has a certain connotation of a process that is functioning smoothly without any hiccups. However, as sales chains expand and change marketing and transaction ecosystems, the traditional fluidity can be interrupted. Many organizations are running into difficulty developing the kinds of sales and marketing strategies that work in an environment heavily favored toward those that can optimize their omnichannel efforts. The Internet and mobile devices have helped usher in the era of the consumer, which can have far-reaching effects on sales performance. Analytics insights can help correct digitally driven imbalances and restore sales workflow to its former smooth sailing.

Traditionally, the sales workflow functions in fragments. Each team member knows his or her role and each department understands its responsibilities. The nature of most sales setups means that separate tasks often do not overlap. One team looks for leads, another develops the product and a third department manages the post-transaction relationship. Increasingly, this siloed approach can leave organizations with blind spots that can skew its sales objective and process. However, legacy management and analysis tools often lack the centralization or universal quality capable of corralling every part of the sales team into a unified force.

Eliminating the bumps in the road
Analytics can help close the gaps between different departments. Big data is here to stay and offers incredible potential for marketing and sales enhancement if organizations can apply it correctly. Centralizing analysis strategies is the most cost-effective and holistically beneficial way to use these powerful tools, wrote SmartData Collective contributor Julie Hunt.

“Companies can benefit greatly from analytics that support initiatives that impact the entire organization and reveal solid business value,” she wrote. “Centralizing advanced analytics should dynamically work to eliminate data silos in the organization and bring different perspective into the formulation of analytical models and a wider breadth of benefit to the overall organization.”

Smoothing out the sales workflow
Ultimately, the smoothness apparent in the highest-performing sales and marketing efforts stems from it acting as a well-oiled machine. Conventional wisdom holds that each department operates more or less independently, with individual contributions serving the greater good, according to Information Management. The challenge for today’s sales teams, and the opportunity to boost overall sales effectiveness, is to use emerging analytics tools to unite each team, making the whole better than the sum of its parts.

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Ballast Point Ventures is a later-stage venture capital fund established to provide expansion capital for rapidly growing, privately owned companies in diverse industries, with a particular emphasis on companies located in Florida, the Southeast, and Texas. The BPV partners have more than 70 years of combined experience investing in and building high-growth companies in a number of industries, including healthcare, business services, communications, technology, financial services, and consumer goods. BPV has $200 million under management and seeks to make equity investments ranging from $3 million to $10 million.

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Harbert Management Corporation seeks to generate superior returns for their investors by identifying and investing in the most promising early growth stage companies in the Southeastern U.S. HMC seeks to capitalize on what it believes are compelling regional dynamics, such as a strong and fast-growing economy, significant research and development activities, and an established entrepreneurial community. The HMC team combines substantial investment, advisory, and operating experience with capital and networking contacts to support great entrepreneurial teams in successfully executing their growth plans. With offices in Birmingham, Alabama; Richmond, Virginia; and Gainesville, Florida, it’s well positioned to partner with entrepreneurs throughout the Southeast.

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KBH Ventures was an early investor in Iconixx Software. KBH's investment philosophy plays a significant role in the firm's successful track record. KBH believes in running businesses to be cashflow positive and profitable every month. Startups and companies in a startup mode, such as one that has been purchased in distress, are expected to generate revenue within the first six months and reach profitability within the first 12 to 18 months. KBH also only invests in or acquires companies that are in the startup phase or have less than $20 million in revenues. KBH targets technology companies that offer business-to-business services.

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