Big Data in sales… do the numbers add up?

Big Data in sales… do the numbers add up?

These days, we rely on numbers at almost every turn: surveys, reports, estimations, charts, statistics… Data, data, data – it’s part of our daily processes at work, but it all starts with your average Joe. He’s watching his weekly Sunday football, paying close attention to the commentator blurting out the number of passes, miles run, and statistical comparisons between players and teams.

Personally, outside of Sunday football, data (and its analysis) has been part of my life from an early age. At every training and sports practice, I made sure to note down every possible statistic and observation on the details of my game. Even for basic household chores, I would write things down… even though it might seem funny, I made sure to note when I did what – like washing the dishes – just to make sure I didn’t have to do more than my fair share. After all, siblings have a talent at forgetting their chores when it’s their turn??. There are about a dozen or so notebooks strewn throughout my childhood home filled with these notes and numbers that I love to go through and see what I was up to those days, and to recall the power of numbers.

Going into adulthood, numbers, and keeping track of them, still has its grip on me. At my first serious job, analyzing income and expenses was part of my daily routine – and has been ever since. For the past 12 years, I’ve meticulously controlled my household budget. This personal experience contributed to teaching me how to use data in business.?

Naturally, this hyperfocus on numbers tends to reach much more sophisticated levels when it comes to the workplace as opposed to football games and my weekly chores. The numbers here almost always come at much higher stakes. That’s why more and more companies are hiring analysts to control and verify their data. Almost everyone has come across the concept of Big Data which is based on the 5 Vs: volume, velocity, variety, veracity, value. This can be utilized by small, medium, or large companies and generate mountains of different data. With this, intuitive questions should follow: How to collect data? How to analyze and measure it? And most importantly, what will this data give us??

Unfortunately however, most companies fail to act on this last question and essential element of data: using it to build up and develop thriving teams in the workplace and consequently – and most importantly – generate more income for the company.

?And that’s where this article comes in – my entire career has always involved either starting out a team, building one up, advancing it, or reforming its structure. I look at how numbers can serve to collect data on the daily operations of a team, of an employee in their role. Just like professional athletes who have fitness goals, a dedicated coach and trainer, camera’s following every move on game day, I try to incorporate these processes among employees.?

By reporting on various actions performed as part of their work with a prospect or client, we can analyze and have far deeper insights into what can be done to improve. Establishing appropriate KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is the benchmark for then creating targets, sales goals, and further analysis.?

I’ll be focusing on the 3 vital things when fostering sales teams that perform. And I’m not talking about collecting the simplest data like the sum of revenue from goods sold – that’s a given. We’ll be diving into more complex and intriguing analysis.?

Employee tasks

The first step is recognizing and identifying as many individual activities that are done regularly by your employees. Don’t be concerned that this approach will somehow disadvantage your employees or that it will take up too much time. With the right CRM system you can create automated processes and reporting rule functions that will end up doing the majority of the meticulous work for you. Employees will eventually get used to this set up and not only will they learn and master it, they’ll grow to enjoy it.???

Start recording how many actions a seller performs daily / weekly / monthly. Then use this as a basis to compare to others. Account for activities such as:

• Individual sales data
• Deals opened
• Deals closed
• Appointments made
• Appointments held

And so on! This kind of information gives you a pretty full picture of a sales person’s work at a quick glance.?

The next task: determine how a given salesman is doing compared to others. If you spot someone outstanding in the team, you can then utilize that data to your advantage. Their numbers can reveal a much more precise and specific formula for success.?

After working at many companies, I have noticed that the best of the best have high-quality work culture and organization. Reporting is a matter-of-fact part of the process for them and they often analyze and reflect on their own statistics to look for opportunities to improve. With the aforementioned data, you can determine insights like what kind of customer a given salesman is best at dealing with and what kind of leads they should receive.

Lead scoring

Ranking prospects should come with its own methodology of assigning a worth depending on how much value this lead could represent to a given company. This doesn't have to be all that extensive – you can start with noting basic data concerning the lead. The essence of the information will depend on what is important for your company, for example:

• Country
• Company size
• Domain?
• Number of visits to website

And more… but this list of characteristics also depends on what your company has been collecting thus far. You can use this information to also create profiles on your existing customer, best potential customers, and see what it is you do not need.

Speed really matters…?

The last major area to start collecting data on is speed. This refers to the amount of time it takes to acquire a customer.

Let’s look at a practical example: let’s say you have a client named, well, Pawe? (for simplicity’s sake). He’s the owner of a company employing about 40 people in the renewable energy business. He’s in search of a tool that will help his employees communicate more effectively with each other on one united platform. And he ends up landing on your website – which is a tool that could solve his exact problem!

Pawe? likes what he sees, and while browsing on your site, asks someone from the sales team to contact him as soon as possible since he’s looking to implement this solution by the end of the month. He starts filling out the public form on your site but decides to wait for the reply from sales. After all, maybe they can offer him some kind of personalized or discounted solution.

As he waits though, Pawe? – along with 95% of other potential customers considering a bigger investment – will start browsing other possible solutions. And after four days, when your sales representative finally gets around to calling Pawe?, it turns out he already went with another tool because he got a call back within 5 minutes. Not only that, they set up a longer meeting for the next day, examined Pawe?’s specific case and needs, and came to an agreement within his specified budget.?

This simple example just highlights how vital it is to always keep track of the lead at every step of the way and how data can easily speed up the process of customer acquisition with some attentiveness.

The possibilities are endless…

I really could write pages and pages here on all the different ways data can enhance the daily operations and long-term profitability of your teams and employees. The combinations are essentially endless and with the right tools, the insights you gain are priceless.

However, just implementing these aforementioned, standard data collection processes can usually enhance the way you and your team work by leaps and bounds. So start with that.?

And if you’re interested in more ways to improve processes, analyze data, or just general ways to boost efficiency in your sales team, feel free to write to me! I’m always open and happy to have a look and chat.?