Sales analytics can help companies make every step of the sales process more meaningful. From finding initial leads to establishing loyalty, being able to make data-informed decisions about future activity can make all the difference between pursuing a lead with a more refined strategy.
However, many companies experience difficulty trying to integrate analytics tools – and data insights – into their business processes. Whether there is some sort of organizational stigma against relying on data or a lack of clear-cut business value, too often big data can become “bad data” in an organization’s eyes, wrote Wall Street Journal contributor Dominic Barton.
“[A]n often overlooked challenge is the need to integrate big data into existing processes,” Barton observed. “We have seen the take-up rate in individual business units be slower than expected, with new techniques and insights being generated by central analytics teams much faster than frontline teams can absorb them.”
It’s tempting, but likely not feasible, to spend a great deal of time and energy developing a proposal for analytics integration. Data is truly a phenomenon that lives and dies by the mantra “show, don’t tell.” So how you can efficiently and cost-effectively deploy sales analytics?
Identify value that goes beyond the sales team
Your sales team shouldn’t exist in a silo anyway, and disconnect can be especially damaging when analytics are involved. If employees don’t see the bottom line value of using analytics tools, it’s unlikely that they will use them effectively. Starting small is one way to help employees discern value from their new tools. Targeting one or two areas of the sales process that could use a kick, and that you have data for, can help you roll out sales analytics in an incremental and ultimately more productive fashion.
Another way to get your sales team on board is to make connections between sales analytics insights and employee compensation and commission. Using software to keep track of employee use of analytical insights in different facets of their customer service process, you can add an extra level of performance compensation directly tied to strategies you’ve developed using analytics.
For example, you can use demographic, product and financial data to make real-time analysis, customer segmentation and lead generation decisions, according to ITWeb. Then, your sales team can track when and how they apply these insights. Additional bonuses can be awarded accordingly. This may only be a means of rolling out your sales analytics plan, but proving personal value can be a good way of getting employees on board with organizational objectives.
