Why analytically grounded sales teams consistently outperform their competitors

When thinking of the term ‘data analytics' you may think of data science, big data, or the year-to-year comparison of sales data, for instance. In the corporate environment, ‘data analytics’ refers to the analysis of data already stored in your disparate silos such as ERPs, CRMs, and spreadsheets, in order to generate actionable insights.

Your company data can be accessed with a business intelligence solution such as Phocas, and queried for actionable information about how to increase revenue, streamline operations, improve customer service, optimize marketing campaigns, and more. By creating sales KPIs and metrics, and acting on insights, sales managers are able to consistently outperform their competitors. In this blog, we will explore a few key findings by the research group Aberdeen, about how and why analytically grounded sales teams outperform their competitors.

Uncover new sales opportunities

An analytically grounded sales team can query customer data to uncover new sales opportunities. They can discover which customers are buying which product, whether they are buying complementary products, at what quantities and more. Reps can also compare the purchasing trends of similar customers. Identifying customers’ preferences or how they respond to promotions, reps can see which customers prefer your more luxurious line of products, for instance.

Analytics can also show reps when a customer is buying a product like pasta but little sauce. This would suggest they are buying their sauce from a competitor. Armed with the facts, these sales teams are able to quickly intervene by meeting with customers to negotiate new offers; and minimize the competition.

Fewer Customers in Decline

One of the most effective ways to protect your market share to retain your customers. With clear information on customers’ buying patterns, teams can detect a decrease in order volume. By quickly identifying customers in decline, a business can determine how to reposition their products before the customer is lost entirely.

Increase your annual deal size

By creating KPIs that impact sales performance, analytically grounded sales groups tend to increase their annual deal growth year-over-year. The Aberdeen Group found that these companies average 2.1 times the annual growth in deal and contract size of other companies.

With clear insight, sales reps are able to offer personalized promotional opportunities to customers. This individual attention reinforces the relationship and fosters the customer’s loyalty. Strong relationships and loyalty often leads to an increase in deal size and value.

Identify high-growth potential sales reps

Analytically grounded sales departments are better equipped to identify the traits and behaviors of high-growth potential in reps by creating measurable metrics. These might include lead generation metrics, average contract value, and win rate.

Managers may also foster the behaviors that directly improve the performance in their reps. For instance, managers can set activity metrics such as the number of calls made, emails sent, meetings scheduled, and sales presentations. While a manager can’t control how much a rep sells, they can instruct the rep to schedule more meetings. The Aberdeen Group reports that these sales managers are 67% more effective at identifying high-growth potential in their reps.

Data-driven decision making

Sales managers can no longer rely on intuition and gut-based decision making in today’s data-driven world. The risk of failure and the cost of mistakes is just too high. Data is unbiased by nature. It provides a company with a baseline for present performance and actionable insight into areas of improvement. Analytically grounded sales departments are 80% more likely to use data-driven decisions to support their operations. Analytics set s these companies apart from their competition by revealing sales trends and enabling managers to develop effective promotional strategies such as which products to promote for cross-selling.

A high quality solution like Phocas can give your organization the analytics it needs to succeed. Phocas is designed with wholesalers, distributors and retailer in mind. Phocas can be implemented in across company domains to help other departments become analytically grounded. It’s easy to use for all employees, and insights can be gained with the click of a button. Phocas provides best-in-class customer support and online training opportunities so you can make the most out of your solution. Phocas has consistently performed best-in-class in BARC's reviews. With Phocas, you can trust your business to increase sales, reduce costs and make better decisions.