4 Ways Your Sales Team Can Unlock Data-Driven Sales Growth

Any investor would tell you that data is the industry's most valuable asset, chiefly responsible for setting one apart from the competition.?Indeed, in a study involving asset managers by Accenture, an overwhelming majority of 98% agreed that data analytics is the industry's highest priority.

Although, it is not just the finance industry that drives growth with data analytics.?Most industries today do. Sales, for example, a fundamental part of any business, has been transformed by data analytics.?According to McKinsey, the use of data led to a nearly twofold rise in sales and profit. Its use, they concluded, is undoubtedly the single biggest differentiator of competition.??

How come???

Understanding data analytics

Knowledge is power. And that is precisely the logic at the heart of data-driven growth. Data analytics is the combined practice of collecting, sorting, and ultimately analyzing information to gain knowledge to make better, more accurate decisions.??

Businesses make decisions every day, some big and expensive, some small and inexpensive. What data analytics offers is accuracy and scalability. Businesses can get those decisions right, taking fewer risks and getting more bang for their buck.??

And they can do it at scale.??

So, how does that accuracy drive sales???

Unlocking data-driven sales growth??

Your sales force makes critical decisions every working hour —?

Identifying & converting prospects?

Personalization???

Up/cross-selling?

Retaining customers

The truth is, without a plan, it is hard to identify and convert prospects, let alone retain them. Now, businesses can develop a plan based on instinct, often misidentifying prospects, wasting resources, and taking other costly risks.?Or they can act upon insights gained from sales analytics.?

Sales analytics is what you get when you apply the principles of data analytics to sales.??

Instead of relying on instinct, sales analytics enables businesses to make decisions based on evidence.?The evidence is obtained in the form of insights learned by collecting and analyzing sales, marketing, customer, and other pertinent data.??

How can one unlock data-driven sales growth? Here’s how.

Identifying & converting prospects: Sales analytics uses customer data collected from past transactions, marketing engagement, website or app tracking, and other methods to identify customer needs and pain points.

Personalization: Customer and sales data also allows your sales team to understand your customers in greater depth—and if done thoroughly, at the individual scale. As a result, they can create communication unique to a demographic, making it more relevant and meaningful.

Up/cross-selling: When businesses analyze sales data, they look for patterns or correlations between two or more products with the goal of anticipating future needs. Hence, instead of bundling together unrelated products, data-driven up/cross-selling is a win-win for both: businesses drive sales while customers are offered products that genuinely complement each other.

Retaining customers: And that brings us to retention or customer loyalty. When customers’ needs are heard, communication and service are personalized, and they are offered just what they need, customers are more likely to be loyal than when they are treated just like anyone else.

The challenges to data-driven sales growth

The Accenture study also reported that nearly 75% of the participants believed that data-related skills are in most demand.?A lack of data skills is a symptom of data illiteracy, arguably the biggest challenge to adopting data analytics solutions.??

While data is available wherever we look, only a few can actually extract meaning from it. Because while data analytics undoubtedly has the potential to drive sales, its insights are only as good as the analyst who procures them. What good can one make of data analytics if one doesn't understand the data itself?

Jency is an enthusiastic writer and enjoys spreading knowledge through her writing. Her perks include business strategies, technologies and self development.