The Data is Clear: Winners Use Analytics

Everyone throws around terms like “big data” and “analytics” these days. Some of it is fear of missing out on major trends in sales and marketing, and this fear is justified to some extent. Companies collect more data than ever, and can make better sense of it than ever. The companies that make the greatest strides are those that can convert the knowledge they gain from big data analytics into action.

McKinsey & Company discussed advanced analytics with some big hitters at successful companies like GE, eBay, and Caesar’s Entertainment. Clearly, winning companies across a wide range of industries use analytics and have seen major benefits from doing so. How they use them may vary, but it boils down to understanding the ideal customer better and learning how to reach them with fewer detours and with the right information at the right time.

How Winning Companies Use Data and Analytics

Before digging into massive stores of data and figuring out what to do with it all, successful organizations take some strategic steps. They ask, “What’s our mission, and how do we expect analysis of this mass of data to serve that mission?” Knowing this can help a business figure out what they want to do on a more granular level.

Focusing on outcomes is also important. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s hard to know which direction to head. It’s important not to be married to a particular outcome, because sometimes data takes you to unexpected places. Then you can recalibrate and readjust as necessary.

Another critically important strategic step is assuring data quality. Low-quality data will only waste time and money. Does the data have the right pedigree, and do you have reasonable trust in your data sources? Has it been validated and possibly enriched? “Garbage in, garbage out” is a cliché for a reason. You simply cannot expect the highest quality analytics unless you’re using the highest quality data.

Of course, capturing data on people is a moving target. As companies change through growth and individuals make career transitions, data constantly becomes irrelevant.

Analytics and the Ideal Customer Profile

Big data and the analytics techniques that use it are tremendously powerful for better defining the elusive “ideal customer.” What’s more, this is not a once-and-done process, because customers, markets, and competitors are all in constant flux. Several steps are typically involved in getting to know the ideal customer and understanding when, why, and how they change.

Leveraging both internal and external data is best when defining the ideal customer, including demographic and psychographic data. This includes lifestyle preferences, and consumer behaviors, and it can be phenomenally interesting and useful. Ultimately, some marketing professionals think of their ideal customers as characters in a narrative that features your products and services.

But there’s still every reason to analyze your past successes.

How did the sales process go with your favorite customers?

Do you remember what caused them to choose your company?

What is it about those companies that make them good customers?

When you’re doing things that work, don’t throw them out without learning if they’re still effective.

You Understand Your Ideal Customer, but How Do You Find Them?

So you have used data analytics and you know you would recognize your ideal customer if you encountered him or her online or in person. How do you make that happen? Much of it is down to making the commitment and putting in time looking for them. And you never can tell where you might run across this person online. Whether you’re on a social media site, and industry blog, or elsewhere, are you prepared to learn more about someone who resembles your ideal customer profile? With the right tools, this can be made far less tedious and time-consuming.

When speaking with sales professionals, they will tell you that prospecting happens everywhere. You may have lists of event attendees, funding resources like Crunchbase, and your valuable LinkedIn network.

Tedious Administrative Tasks Can Be Tamed with the Right Lead Generation Software

Lead builders aren’t all alike, and you don’t have time for lead generation software that won’t take care of some of the heavy-lifting for you. Outdated lists, un-validated contact information, and irrelevant social profiles waste everyone’s time. What you need are lists of the right people. KiteDesk FIND is a combination web based software application and Chrome browser extension that travels with you across the web, so you can generate leads from anywhere. It then creates lead lists with validated phone, email, and social media information you can use with confidence.

With KiteDesk FIND, your path to your ideal customers is easier to plot. You can define them by company size, geographic region, industry, revenue, company size, and more. It can cut down on the number of gatekeepers you have to contact before reaching the right person.

With KiteDesk’s Chrome Extension you can quickly research the company and person you are targeting so that your cold call can become warmer. Instead of hitting them with a generic opening line, you can intrigue your audience by asking how a relevant recent event will affect their business?

What Is the Value of Your Customers’ Time?

And, obviously, the value of your customers’ time is important. Customers are savvier than ever, doing extensive research before contacting a specific company or contact. When they know that you understand the value of their time and won’t waste it, you come out ahead of your competitors.

What Is the Value of Your Time?

Your time is valuable, and nobody likes feeling like they wasted even an hour hunting down what looked like an ideal customer only to be unable to reach them or find out they weren’t relevant. And in sales, the way that you spend your time will directly affect your commission check next month.

Data, analytics, and software tools exist so you can maximize the value of your time. The time you don’t spend chasing down irrelevant or unqualified leads is the time you do spend focusing on potential customers whose problems you can address.

The more you can focus on solving actual customer problems the higher the ROI on your time. There will always be an element of “art” about successful prospecting, but when you can use software and analytics to cope with the mundane aspects of the process, you have more time and energy to use where it counts.

Analytics and data are tools of winning companies, and they should be part of yours. KiteDesk makes finding and reaching your ideal customer more efficient and more effective. Why not download our whitepaper titled “6 Steps to Improve Your Sales Process”? You’ll be crushing your quotas in no time.