Data and analytics are key to providing accurate insights into your sales team performance, market trends, and customer behaviour. These insights are the bedrock for enabling sales managers and directors to make better strategic and tactical decisions to continuously improve performance.
1. Use a CRM (customer relationship management software)
It surprises me that so many businesses do not use a CRM and many that do, do not use them well. In the past I have had my own struggles using a CRM effectively, so I can relate. There is an enormous range of CRMs available, and my recommendation is look for one that you (and your team) feel comfortable using. A CRM that is effectively used in a business will provide a wide range of data, including individual sales performance, identify areas for performance improvement and provide areas best addressed with coaching.
There are also some key metrics that warrant ongoing monitoring, among these are:
- Sales cycle length and status.
- Conversion rates across different variables.
- Costs of acquiring new clients.
- Customer lifetime value.
- Marketing effectiveness.
2. Implement Sales Performance Dashboards
Sales performance dashboards can often be created in a CRM. In some cases, they can be configured to meet the data you wish to track. The power of a dashboard is the presentation of meaningful data sets in a way that is instantly interpreted. If the dashboards do not exist in your CRM, they can be created using data exported from the CRM reports and configured into a dashboard using a tool such as Excel, Power BI or something similar. Some examples of dashboard that may be useful include,
- Individual and team sales targets.
- Daily, weekly and monthly performance trends.
- Revenue forecasting.
- Sales by market segment or geography.
- Sales revenue by sale to monitor pricing.
3. Customer Behaviour Analysis
Analysing customer behaviour is often vicariously in conversations and sales meetings, but often it is not formalised. By not committing to analyse and capture customer behaviour, a sales team is missing the understanding of what drives sales for their business. There are a number of ‘tools’ for customer behaviour analysis, and these include:
- Capturing notes from sales meetings.
- Recording customer meetings in the CRM.
- Web analytics.
- Social media analysis focusing on where your customers ‘hang out’.
- If your business sells multiple services and products, review the purchasing history of your customers.
4. Optimise and Automate
Most sales processes can be improved and spending time reviewing your process for bottlenecks, time-intensive tasks and gaps is time well spent. The goal is to streamline and simplify to ensure the sales team has more time for high value producing activities. Here are some ideas for what to look for:
- Automation tools – both within your current software systems and those that can interoperate across your tech stack.
- Email automation.
- Client onboarding automation.
- Lead scoring systems.
- Workflow and document management software.
5. Improve Training and Development with Data
Using data from the CRM, observation and sales meetings, sales managers can be more effective in tailoring training to meet specific needs in the sales team. Using data to identify skills gaps is the first step, designing and delivering training is the second and using data to track performance improvement is the third. You can also use measures of customer satisfaction and team engagement as valuable measures of the training outcomes.
6. Forecast Sales Using Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics sounds complicated but it does not necessarily have to be. Your CRM will provide valuable forecasting analytics by capturing sales cycle data, buying patterns, sale price, and cost of acquisition. You need to be using your CRM effectively for it to perform well as a predictive analytics tool. Other tools you may consider, include:
- Predictive modelling software.
- Data analytics tools for predictive analysis and forecasting; these features may be included in some financial management and ERP software.
Integrating data driven insights into sales management practices will significantly help to improve individual and team sales performance. Each of these 6 tactics by themselves will make significant improvement to your sales performance, but together they will be a transformational improvement to your business by equipping sales managers with a solid base for tactical and strategic decision making. I would advise careful project planning and emphasis on effective change management when undertaking such a transformation. It is best to prioritise the 6 tactics based on impact and do not attempt to take on all 6 in one project.
How WorkPlan can help you.
Here are just a few of the ways WorkPlan Learning can help organisations boost their sales performance.
- Blended learning with online courses on the latest best practices in sales.
- Aligning sales training and development to company strategy and team objectives.
- One to one and team coaching from a highly experienced sales professional with broad consulting and sales experience.
- Facilitate team collaboration and coaching spaces to empower team managers and subject matter experts
If you need to refine your business goals, our WorkPlan Strategic Planning Program will give you an easy-to-understand executable strategy.
Take the first step towards empowering your sales team. Start integrating your business goals to unlock the full potential of your organisation with WorkPlan. Contact our team for a personalised consultation to transform your business with an engaged, highly professional sales team that delivers results.
ALSO READ: How You Can Implement Your Strategy Through WorkPlan Learning
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