What Sales Business Intelligence Can Do for Sales and Marketing

Big data is perhaps the biggest game-changer in business since the advent of Web 2.0, and it will continue to be your business' biggest asset. However, you might have relevant data, but how do you make it work for you? Businesses today have a staggering amount of data in their systems, along with highly competitive industry landscapes and consumer behaviors and preferences that are always in flux. How can you manage that data in a way that will provide you with the insight you need to know? This is where sales business intelligence (SBI) tools come into play. SBI tools can help you organize that data, put it to good use and keep each department up to date with the most recent customer data. Here's what sales business intelligence means for sales and marketing, specifically:

For Sales

In the sales organization, it's important that you have data that will lead to predictive forecasting and a optimized approach to selling. To boost sales, you need to approach your data in a very specific way:

• Gather data that indicates signs of conversions, opportunities, appointments and connection rate
• Gather data that provides insights on where you stand as a sales organization in regards to targets and goals on an individual and collective basis

When it comes to unlocking more sales, you need a tool that can help you collect individual sales rep data and data for the entire organization. This means using the data to figure out a potential customer’s habits and personal preferences, as well as looking at their interactions with the company to use for using patterns in predictive forecasting. This data needs to be shared with your sales reps, call center or marketing team so they can use that information to flag those indicators as potential opportunities. By providing your sales organization a better and clearer view into prospect behavior, they will be able to sell more and be more efficient. Apart from acquisition, you also need a strong focus on what is going on at present. Forecasting alone will not cut it. Constant monitoring of targets, goals and individual performance will help sales managers understand where regions, teams and reps stand when it comes to achieving targets. You need accountability to understand what is working and how you can improve the situation. When team members have an understanding of results and current performance, as gathered by the SBI solution, it is easier to analyze and adapt processes to meet targets.

For Marketing

Marketers need to mine data to understand how effective their campaigns, methods and messages are. Two metrics to track are incremental sales and conversions by campaign. Incremental sales indicate how many of your campaigns actually lead to sales, and which channels have proved most effective, and conversions by campaign will show you which campaigns have captured the highest number of leads and sales. With this data on hand, you can replicate the campaigns which bring in the most success, which ones are costing you more than necessary and which ones are not bringing in any results at all. Furthermore, there is more alignment between sales and marketing, which leads to more effective communication and brand collateral. Salesvue, with the added power of Salesforce, gives you all the information you need at your fingertips. No spreadsheets, no asking the back-end IT guys to dig up data. The interactions and activities of each sales rep and campaign are recorded in real-time in the system. At any given time, you can see how many leads are in the pipeline, which ones are nearing a close (and why), which leads need prompting and how to better customize your message. You can use this data to create a prospecting cadence. And when you know the steps required to achieve success, repeat it for increased sales and profitability.

How Sales Business Intelligence Improves your Marketing and Sales Efforts

Improve Accuracy In Forecasts

When you know exactly what you are going to sell and to whom and how much you need to sell, it makes your life as a sales manager or rep a lot easier. More accurate forecasts mean improvements down the line, like perfect order fill rates, lower inventory levels and higher profit margins. By using data and insights provided by SBI tools, sales and marketing teams can improve forecasting accuracy by factoring in seasonal demand, new promotions and launches, slow-moving inventory, as well as other variables. SBI tools give sales and marketing reps immediate access to information that provides a detailed portrait of sales history, including actionable data, like how many calls it takes to connect with a prospect. With the right information to support the base analysis, forecasting becomes easier and more accurate.

Measure Campaign Effectiveness

Sales business intelligence tools can also help you roll out and monitor promotions and campaigns, while also giving you a snapshot of how prospects are reacting to them. When you know what’s working (and what’s not), you can reorganize your promotion and customize the message. Budgets can be reallocated to the more successful campaigns that provide a better ROI.

Empower Your Employees

It’s simple when you break it down: more relevant data means a more meaningful conversation, and the more meaningful the conversation, the more value it brings to the prospect. And showing your prospect the value in your offering is what helps close deals. When sales reps have easy access to internal data, two things happen. First, they don’t waste time hunting for information, statistics or trends. Secondly, they can use their time to analyze the information and make faster decisions. With sales business intelligence, your sales and marketing teams are armed with relevant, real-time information. This enables them to make informed, data-driven decisions that can improve the company’s bottom line. Salesvue gives you the tools to collect and process that data and use it to your benefit. With the added power of our Salesforce integration, you get detailed reports that show you which campaigns are successful, who is generating revenue, what selling tactics are working and which deals are in trouble. Access to real-time business intelligence allows you to close deals and make changes quicker. Salesvue’s detailed Sales Business Intelligence (SBI) gives you data you’ve never seen. Discover how many activities it takes to connect with a prospect and how many conversations it takes for a conversion. Find out what it is, then plan hiring, forecasting, sales meetings and more. You’ll not only work smarter, you’ll take control of your sales number while adding up to 40% more in incremental revenue.

Insight into your Target Market

Sales and marketing teams need to have sufficient insight on their target customers. Most businesses in the B2B space know their ideal customer pretty well, and many are already selling to them. But doing a little extra research and making note of little details helps, especially when the time comes to approach your prospect or existing customer for a repeat purchase. Buying habits and needs can change over time, and you can identify these changes by how your audience is interacting with your brand on your site, social media and even offline interactions. Take a look at what is going on inside their company and how it will affect purchase decisions. You also need to identify the right people to target, especially the ones who have the authority to make a purchase. When marketing teams and sales teams are in sync and know who fits the ideal customer bill, then marketing can pass on better qualified leads to the sales team. Everyone has a better idea on who to target and what content gets the best attention from their potential buyers.

Organized Data

Having access to copious data means nothing if it can’t be organized and used to your benefit. Combing through dozens of reports, checking back to see when a call was made and what the outcome was is tedious and wastes precious time. Salesvue makes it easy to log calls and record data. The one-click call logging tool saves time and boosts efficiency, and you can view what has been discussed and when. You can also tell at a glance how many leads are in your pipeline, how many conversations are ongoing and see exactly how your team is performing.

Best Practices

Honing in on what techniques and tools work best for youand your company is a great way to make prospecting smoother. By establishing a rhythm or workflow, you can follow it knowing that it will bring you results. Salesvue’s tracking and analytical tools hep you identify patterns, success stories and problem areas. Your sales reps will love knowing the prospecting cadence you’ve created so they know how long to push and when to wait it out. Salesvue assists sales and marketing teams by capturing data in real-time to create detailed, descriptive reports. These reports give you insight into how prospects are communicating with your sales reps, how they are reacting to campaigns and even which times of the day/day of the week they seem more responsive. Request a demo to learn more.

Using Sales Business Intelligence to Boost Sales Productivity

As a sales manager, you are always looking for ways to sell more and to a larger audience. Generation leads via marketing campaigns is one way to attract more business, or you could also ask your existing customers for referrals. Cold-calling is also an option. What you might not realize is that you can actually use the data you have on hand to make a more meaningful connection that will help close a deal. Business intelligence (BI) tools help you appropriate and analyze what the data you have so that you can make smarter decisions. Here are some of the metrics you need to capture in order to make better decisions with business intelligence tools:

Meetings & Outcomes:

Understanding what happened in a meeting gives you a better idea of where to go and what to do next. Your sales team is constantly meeting and interacting with prospects. Have them make a note of:

• How many calls/meeting were conducted (per rep, per prospect, per industry)?
• How many calls were made at each stage of the pipeline?
• What messages resonated positively during calls meetings?

Answering these questions can help you use BI tools to provide a benchmark for what it takes to close a deal for a specific prospect or industry.

Response and Objection Patterns:

Have a look at response and objection patterns. Is there a particular sales rep who seems to be driving away high-quality leads? Or is there a lead who seems to be stuck in the same place, unwilling to move forward? Is there a certain stage in the pipeline where leads drop off or a particular point where they engage better and convert quickly? Even the smallest details, like the time of day or day of the week when a sales call is made, can make a difference in conversions. Use tools to track these metrics and you can see patterns related to prospect and sales rep behavior. If one sales rep is performing poorly, step in and make the changes necessary to close the deal. If a prospect responds better to a certain trigger, work that into your strategy.

Campaign effectiveness:

Your marketing team is spending time and effort crafting messages, which help bring in more leads. How many of those leads turn into paying customers? Have a look at the number of emails opened, click-through rates, website activity and more. If a campaign is feeding more duds into the pipeline than prospects, then your team may need to change their approach or the message altogether.

About Salesvue

Salesvue is an all-in-one business intelligence and sales tracking tool. At a glance, you can see how your team is performing. Our reports capture information as interactions happen, so you can manage improvements on the fly. Sales reps log each and every call they make with Salesvue’s one-click call logging application, so there is a record of when the conversation took place, how it was conducted and the outcome of the interaction.