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Don’t Wait for Sales Analytics

March 4, 2008

“In God we trust…all others bring data.” Edwards Demming

It’s been said that putting off sales analytics is like putting off winning. But for many organizations, getting started with a comprehensive approach to managing with metrics instead of hunches has been like visiting the dentist or getting fit and joining a gym. You know you need to do it, but there always seems to be a good excuse not to. Well the good news is that the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model is disrupting traditional approaches to business analytics and making getting started easier than it’s ever been. The long deployment cycles, high costs, complicated upgrade processes and IT infrastructure required of traditional on-premise business intelligence solutions are no longer acceptable in the era of on demand. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started with sales analytics:

1) Get Executive Sponsorship. To make sales analytics a top business initiative, you first must determine the metrics that matter and build a plan. Executive sponsorship is critical to analytics success. Find out:

  • What information do sales managers, finance, and the CEO need today to be successful? (Having a clear understanding of their objectives and success metrics is critical. How many of these questions can you answer today?)
  • What business questions are the most difficult to answer today? Who is asking these questions? When and why?
  • Would people prefer to answer their own business questions or are they content relying upon the sales operations, business analysts, and/or IT function for information?
  • How do managers prefer to access and analyze business information – dynamic dashboards, spreadsheets, pdf, PowerPoint, email, mobile device, etc.?
  • What other sources of information do people need to access and analyze in order to achieve sales success? (Note that critical sales data is often locked in financial systems – orders, bookings, billing information; or lives outside of the CRM system in spreadsheets – commissions, quotas, forecasts .)

2) Think Big, Start Small. Starting in one department or even one region will allow you to get some quick wins and you’ll be amazed at how fast word of your success travels. Have a vision to go beyond one area of the business, but don’t let a broader analytics vision slow you down. The most important thing is to get started. If you’re a salesforce.com administrator, hopefully you already know how important it is to become proficient with the built-in reporting and dashboard capabilities. If you’re not already up to speed, be sure to sign up for a training course, watch a Dreamforce presentation on the success.salesforce.com community website, and try downloading a few of the free dashboard applications on the AppExchange. But this is only the beginning. The right analytic application will not only help you get more value from your CRM investment, it will allow you to monitor and track historical trends and get answers to ad hoc questions, regardless of where and how the transactional data is stored.

3) Focus on Process Improvements. For sales managers and sales operations, optimizing and improving the lead-to-cash cycle is a great place to start.

  • How well is your sales team is doing – quotas, revenues, discounts, etc.?
  • How fast are opportunities moving through the pipeline?
  • How are competitors and partners affecting your results and what are the trends?

An analytic application designed from the ground up to deliver ad hoc answers to business questions will allow you to focus on specific process improvements. You’ll see where you’re doing well, where you should focus your attention, what’s selling, who’s buying, and how things are changing over time. Just be sure to set clear goals and measure your success at every step of the way.

In this competitive market, more and more companies are looking to sales analytics to give them the competitive edge and win. Make sure you’re one of them. As we like to say at LucidEra: No more excuses. No more guesses. No more surprises. Good luck!

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