A knock-out sales team is the difference between growth and stagnation for many B2B companies. Adding the power of data analysis to understand sales trends and performance is tremendously valuable (at first glance).
Let’s cut to the chase and talk about some of the immediate issues with sales teams and analytics software:
- Salespeople aren’t analysts. They spend enough time with data entry and keeping their accounts up-to-date, that the idea of spending even more time staring at charts and tables is hardly appealing.
- Salespeople are busy. They are relationship builders and problem solvers – both take a lot of time and don’t leave much room for scouring rows of data for the hidden key to a killer end-of-quarter sale.
- Salespeople are highly adept at evaluating time to value. Spoiler alert: because they are salespeople. They spend their days communicating the value of their products/services/etc. If they are handed a sales reporting tool that isn’t immediately offering value, it will quickly begin collecting dust.
If any salespeople are reading this, please leave a comment and let us know if we missed anything in our quick “issues with sales teams and analytics software” list.
Moving on.
How do you overcome roadblocks between sales teams and sales reporting and analysis software?
First, find an out of this world sales analytics software solution. Second, foster data culture. Ok – so maybe it’s not super easy, but it’s just two things, so how hard can it be? Seriously though – our goal isn’t to scare you into giving up hope on sales analytics, our goal is to present a solution.
Fostering data culture in sales teams
At this point you may be thinking, “But you just said that salespeople aren’t analysts and now they are supposed to take part in a data culture? How does that make sense?” Bear with me.
#1 Sales reps and leaders need to be excited about data
It has to be easy to use and ready to offer value right out the door. Otherwise, why bother checking it? If salespeople are excited about the insights they are getting from sales reporting, they will naturally start incorporating those insights into how they approach their sales.
#2 Take an iterative approach to how you incorporate data into your sales organization
Start off with high-value analysis, such as easy performance monitoring against goals (see #3) so sales reps can quickly see how much they’ve sold, how much they have to sell, etc. Don’t boil the ocean. Read more on our approach to iterative analytics.
#3 Be able to track progress toward sales goals
This is such an important feature that sales analytics software should have, but too few do. On top of that, it can be seen as an unrealistic expectation of a sales analytics tool. But guess what – it is 2020 and you should most definitely expect sales analytics software to track goals.
#4 Start with the daily 15
The daily 15 is an easy way to develop a habit of checking analytics by using mindfulness techniques. It’s all about intentionality and it works for anyone at a business – including sales teams.
#5 Automation, accountability, and autonomy
Automated sales analysis leads to autonomy, accountability, and transparency for everyone on your sales team. We firmly believe the best way to do this is to automate your sales reporting by integrating it with your accounting system. Transparency, honesty, accountability.
That being said, even with the most perfect sales analytics software there is still human change that needs to occur to get the value and results it promises. (To be fair, we made Ri360 Sales Target require less human change than other sales analytics solutions, but it still needs a little human change to get the ROI rolling in.)