Just a few years ago, business decisions were essentially made based on informed guesses, with executives following their gut. If it felt like a good idea to buy advertising in a specific media placement or to have salespeople call certain leads, then that’s what happened. Today, those decisions are based on scientific data and extrapolated with algorithms to give factual insights and direction.
In the past, businesses didn’t have access to the depth of data necessary for making the types of informed decisions that we make today, at least not without going through a mound of paperwork and hundreds of man-hours. We simply made do with what we had.
Why Data Should Drive Sales Operations
Nowadays, management and business process decisions can be based on real-life analytics to increase productivity and efficiency. Data takes the guesswork and assumptions out of decision-making across the board, but especially for sales teams, which are facing changes in the B2B procurement process and manpower structures.
Sales operations are now data-driven and detail-oriented, and the most efficient sales teams have constant access to real-time company data. Mobile apps ensure that salespeople always have the information they need at their fingertips, for quick and accurate decision-making : in the field and on the fly. Before building an app for mobile sales operations, it’s important to consider which types of data must be integrated into the app.
Accurate and Up-to-Date Information
Imagine that a salesperson from your company goes to meet a prospective client and, without realizing that it’s not true anymore, says that you have a certain volume of product in inventory and ready for delivery the same week. When he gets back to the office and realizes the error, the prospect would probably conclude that your company isn’t trustworthy, and the sale could be lost.
Real-time data with all the latest information keeps the sales team well informed so that these types of embarrassing gaffes don’t occur. A mobile app can also prevent a salesperson from having to provide dubious answers. If he doesn’t know the answer to a question, he can easily find the information on his app while he’s in the customer’s office, effectively removing sales friction points and shortening the sales cycle.
Alignment Between Sales and Marketing
Your sales team is not an island; it is intrinsically connected to marketing, finance and other departments. Data that helps salespeople understand their customers as a group, and that provides information on individual leads and customers, is vital for aligning sales and marketing. Finance data allows sales to establish optimal pricing and create scalable and consistent contract structures.
Was a customer late to pay for his last several orders? Did a prospect download a white paper about a recent pro bono project of yours? Having real time access to these pieces of information can have major impact on how sales reps address their leads.
Actionable Insights
Having servers full of numbers and spreadsheets doesn’t necessarily improve sales operations. For data to be useful, it must be processed into understandable trends that can be translated into actionable insights.
For example, if your data shows that customers from a certain market segment almost always renew their orders every three months, then sales reps can use this piece of information to time their pitches accordingly. If you can associate insights like these with client records in your sales ops app, all the better.
Pulls from Multiple Data Sources
When used wisely, CRMs like Salesforce can be amazingly helpful troves of information, but they should hardly be your sole source of data. Apps that integrate data from many sources into one interface and present it all in a clean and accessible format are extremely valuable to sales teams.
Being able to pull information from your CRM, BI systems and ERP, for instance, can be amazingly useful to salespeople in their efforts to close deals. With easy access to all of these records in one place, your reps can track a lead’s journey from social media to website to newsletter sign up to sample product order and understand exactly what the customer is most interested in talking about to help him or her feel good about signing a long-term contract.
Reporting Capabilities
Sales teams are often resentful of the long hours they’re asked to spend on generating reports for their superiors. Reports may have to be turned around on a quarterly basis, or your company might even require daily reports, which can represent a major burden for salespeople who understandably prefer to spend their time closing sales.
What’s more, some members of your company’s sales team may spend a fair amount of time out of the office, making it even harder for them to devote time to reporting. Mobile apps can make a big difference here, allowing reports to be created either on an automated basis or with just a few taps on the screen : from anywhere and on any device.
Winning with Data-Enabled Sales Ops
When your sales team has access to the right data, especially from any device and at any given moment, the benefits are huge. Reps will be able to generate larger orders, bring more new clients on board and ensure everyone’s buying the products that suit them best : and they’ll be able to do it all with greater efficiency, transparency and ease.