Your window to growth - using BI in your next performance review

Performance reviews can result in feelings of fear as they may lead to a judgment that could affect your career. Rather than being on the back foot, business intelligence (BI) can be the key to turning the annual performance review into a positive experience.

Performance reviews should address both the positive and the negative aspects of your performance so that you can improve in the year ahead. Rather than going to the review and hoping for the best, you can reduce your fear by being prepared and using business intelligence (BI) to highlight the ways in which you are an asset to your company. Whether you are a sales professional, inventory analyst or a manager, collecting the following information enables you to demonstrate the value you bring to your employer which can be leveraged to negotiate better conditions.

Sales vs. targets

By using BI to focus on a particular industry or customer segment, a high achieving sales professional can highlight how they have overachieved when it comes to actual sales versus target sales and identify how those differences came about. For example, a dual axis graph can visually show positive fluctuations in sales on a timeline which enables you to present to your manager the strategies you used to increase sales and exceed your targets.

Up-selling and cross-selling success

Savvy sales professionals are using business intelligence to identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities and increase their sales. Phocas Software helped the sales team at a lighting business identify 150 of their customers who were no longer making purchases. With this insight, they recognized a need to approach these customers in order to win their business back. When it comes to performance review time, presenting insights to your manager such as these is likely to be looked upon favorably.

Overall sales and performance improvements

Craven Foods reports that Phocas gave their sales team the ability to improve performance by providing easily accessible information that helped them find leads. The data can also be used to track activities that produced results. With this type of information, you can show your manager the strategies that worked for you and compare the results with previous years’ sales activities.

Increased margins

Phocas Software improves stock and inventory management. At Splosh, accurate reports are created in 90 seconds where once they took 20 minutes and resulted in costly errors in inventory shipments. A well performing inventory professional can show their manager how they have better managed stock on hand which can increase profit margins.

Going to a performance review armed with data can help you stand out from your counterparts. It gives your manager confidence that you are and will continue to be an asset to the company. Phocas Software for sales and inventory provides the information you need to prepare you for a winning performance review.

If you stay the same, you'll have the same results. Be more prepared for the next meeting and increase your sales through business intelligence.