The role of data is to empower business leaders to make decisions based on facts, trends and statistical numbers. But with so much information out there, business leaders must be able to sift through the noise, and get the right information, so that they can make the best decisions about strategy and growth.
The key to better decision making is data. Effective leaders rely on data to make informed decisions and drive meaningful outcomes for their organizations.
UNLOCKING THE POWER OF DATA IN SALES
Forward-thinking companies are using the growth of data analytics and artificial intelligence to expand the frontier of value creation for B2B sales and are generating remarkable results in lead generation, people management, cross-selling, and pricing.
Radically improves lead generation. Analytics is well-suited to improving the accuracy of lead generation and automating presales processes as companies use rich data sets to identify the right customer at the right time.
Better match people to deals. Similar to the way analytics revolutionized baseball by revealing the true factors underlying wins, sales forces are using analytics to understand what drives sales success and to inform coverage, hiring, and training.
Maximize customer lifetime value. Companies that have complex product portfolios can find it tough to match solutions to specific customer needs. Salespeople rely on simple decision rules but this still requires time-consuming interactions and often leads to missed opportunities to sell related items. Many B2B companies are implementing next-product-to-buy algorithms that draw on data about what similar customers have bought. The approach also helps retain customers.
Get the right price. In the opaque world of B2B price negotiations, deal analytics can provide price transparency and allow sellers to make complex trade-offs during negotiations. Traditionally, B2B sellers have relied heavily on experience to guide their pricing decisions. But purchasing teams got smart and started deploying their own sophisticated pricing tools, which put sales teams on the back foot.
Once slow-moving and driven by intuition, data and new analytical techniques have introduced greater rigour, efficiency, and insight. In many industries, it is the adoption of advanced analytics that has begun to differentiate the winners from the rest.
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