Replicating what works in business is no longer a matter of waiting to stumble upon what clicks — nor is it feasible for enterprises in today’s fast-paced world to depend solely on past performance to inform future decisions.
Competitive enterprises are using sales analytics to glean information pertaining to all aspects of performance so they can change the way they do business — with the goal of integrating more of what drives revenue and strengthens customer relationships over time.
Here’s more on how retailers are using data analytics software to recognize and replicate their successes.
Identifying Best-Selling Products
Put concisely, advanced sales analysis fuels more informed product design, offering, placement and fulfillment. One example of this use case in action is retailers like Walmart and Canadian Tire using ThoughtSpot’s analytics platform to delve into product insights at the SKU level, which then inform merchandising, distribution, ordering, storage and pricing decisions.
The data analytics technology available today puts power directly in the hands of sales teams and marketers, among others, to crunch the numbers on product performance. These insights in turn fuel more informed decision-making when it comes to identifying best sellers by customer segment, making improvements and refining product offerings if need be.
Identifying Top Sales Performers
Product offerings and pricing are, of course, very important factors in overall performance — but it’s important not to underestimate the role of the salespeople in acquiring and retaining business as well as strengthening customer loyalty.
According to research from consulting firm McKinsey, the top 30 percent of sales representatives will outperform the bottom 30 percent by “as much as a factor of four.” Understanding how sales representatives are performing lays the foundation for best positioning the top performers to thrive — as well as developing strategies to help uplift other members of the team.
Search-driven sales analytics are conducive in empowering team leaders and executives to evaluate performance of individual sales reps, teams and locations. These leaders can then make decisions based upon the insights they uncover pertaining to hiring, training, restructuring and more.
As ZDNet reports, top sales performers tend to make cold calls over sending cold emails — with 82 percent more calls than lower-performing peers and 26 percent fewer out-of-the-blue emails. Insights like these mined from vast volumes of company data
Furthermore, artificial intelligence-driven analytics can automatically bring to light larger patterns at play in terms of conversions, communications and performance of sales reps to understand which behaviors drive conversions/loyalty and which are ultimately inefficient. The primary advantages of having AI algorithms to mine data are the speed of detection as well as freeing human analysts up from this repetitive task so they can focus on more valuable duties.
Optimizing Customer Relationships
What makes a new customer decide to make a purchase from your company over your competitors? What is the average existing customer relationship like in terms of interactions and revenue? What actions most effectively fuel customer loyalty?
And, above all, how does data relate to optimizing customer relationships?
As CIO writes, breaking down huge stores of information into digestible, actionable nuggets helps teams:
- Gain deeper insight into customer behavior, preferences and segments.
- Predict the outcomes of marketing campaigns and promotional efforts.
- Understand the entire customer journey from start to finish.
- Personalize customer communications.
- Show real-time data to potential customers during pitches or give clients direct access to analytics.
Replicating success hinges on first understanding what is and what is not working, then taking targeted action to reproduce desirable results through decision-making. Data analytics resides at the core of this performance optimization process, helping sales teams evaluate key facets of performance and use the insights they find to hone decision-making.
