In the hustle and bustle of the sales world, are you making the most of every opportunity? It's time to stop relying on guesswork and start leveraging the power of data to propel your sales to new heights. According to McKinsey, companies that refine their sales strategies based on sales-behavior insights have seen an average improvement in sales productivity of 20%. Sound too good to be true? Think again. With the right sales analytics software by your side, you can turn these possibilities into reality.
Let's explore the world of sales analytics and discover how it can transform your approach. From anticipating market trends to tailoring strategies for maximum impact, sales analytics empowers you to drive results.
Table of contents:
Sales analytics refers to the process of analyzing sales data to gain insights into various aspects of the sales process, customer behavior, and market trends. It involves collecting, processing, and interpreting data from multiple sources including CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software, marketing automation platforms, and external market data.
By using advanced analytics techniques such as data visualization, predictive modeling, and machine learning, businesses can uncover hidden patterns and correlations. You can use these insights to optimize sales strategies, improve performance, and drive business growth.
When given the right sales analytics tools and resources, you may be shocked to see what your sales team can do. Here are some potential impacts you may start to see:
Improved decision-making: Sales analytics software provides valuable insights derived from data analysis, enabling you to make informed decisions. Additionally, drill-down capabilities allow for deeper exploration of data which enhances the decision-making processes.
Enhanced sales performance: One of the primary benefits of sales analytics software is its ability to optimize sales performance. This is done by identifying areas of improvement, such as inefficient sales processes or underperforming sales channels, and tracking sales KPIs.
Targeted marketing and sales campaigns: By analyzing customer data and segmentation, sales analytics software helps you identify target audiences more precisely. You can tailor your marketing and sales campaigns to specific customer segments.
Enhanced customer experience: Sales analytics software provides insights into customer preferences, buying behavior, and satisfaction levels. This enables you to deliver personalized experiences and build stronger relationships with customers.
Streamlined operations: Sales analytics software can streamline sales processes, automate routine tasks, and optimize resource allocation. This in turn increases operational efficiency and enables your sales teams to focus on high-value activities.
ThoughtSpot for Sales is the fastest way to make your sales data available to even your least tech-savvy sellers. Featuring a user-friendly search interface and AI-powered capabilities like Sage and SpotIQ, you can move beyond “what” happened and into the “how” and the “why.” This is when you start outselling your competition.
With the drill-down feature, gain real-time granular details to understand which activities are resonating with customers, how sellers are performing relative to peers, and where coaching opportunities exist. Get instant insights into buyer trends and anomalies at every stage of the funnel so you can drive predictable pipeline growth and deliver accurate, up-to-the-minute forecasts.
You can use Liveboards to track activity over the course of a week, month, quarter, or year while search answers lets you quickly find and preview the metrics you need in the moment.
Core features
Natural language search
Interactive data visualizations
Real-time Liveboards and reporting
Connectivity with multiple cloud databases
Monitor alert thresholds to measure progress against targets
Report sharing and collaboration
Mobile accessibility
Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s a real-life example:
Fabuwood's executives sought access to real-time sales data. They were looking for a user-friendly BI tool to sort data by product type, location, customer, and sales representative. Today, the Sales Liveboard serves as the central information hub for the entire Fabuwood organization, ensuring real-time sales data is accessible and everyone is in a position to make data-driven decisions when they need to adapt.
See how ThoughtSpot can help you improve sales performance. Start a free trial today.
Mode stands out as the preferred for data teams. Through its user-friendly Notebook interface and intuitive Visual Explorer, Mode facilitates effortless data integration from diverse sources, empowering sales professionals to collaborate with data teams, conduct queries, and transform raw data into actionable insights. Whether your goal is to anticipate customer churn or fine-tune sales strategies, Mode equips you and your sales team with powerful sales analytics tools.
Core features
SQL editor to run and format queries
Connectivity with multiple cloud databases
Notebook interface for faster data modeling
Visual explorer for interactive dashboards and visualizations
AI-based assistance
Here’s how Rippling built a self-serve data culture through access and accuracy. A critical metric for sales and marketing teams at Rippling is demos per month, but gathering simple metrics like this was unnecessarily time-consuming. By using Mode to create canonical definitions and Mozart to transform their data, Rippling created the infrastructure to ensure their numbers were accurate every time. This led to a 10x increase in employees using the platform and a 50% decrease in time to insights.
“When sales pulls demos and marketing pulls the demos, it’s the same number every time. That is the work behind what you see. The dashboards are really easy if you have built the right infrastructure underneath it.”
Experience firsthand how Mode can uncover valuable sales insights. Sign up for a free trial.
Salesforce Analytics Cloud is a sales analytics platform integrated with the Salesforce CRM ecosystem. It allows businesses to analyze data from various sources, including Salesforce CRM, external databases, and third-party applications, to derive insights and optimize sales performance.
Salesforce cloud allows users to create customizable dashboards, visualize key sales metrics, track performance trends, and monitor KPIs. However, Salesforce Analytics Cloud can be complex to set up and configure, requiring a certain level of technical expertise and training to leverage its full capabilities effectively.
Core features
Customizable dashboards
Integration with Salesforce CRM
Mobile accessibility
Data visualization
HubSpot Sales Hub provides a centralized database for managing contacts, leads, and customers. Sales teams can store, organize, and segment their contacts based on various criteria such as demographics, behavior, and interactions.
The platform also offers visual representations of the sales pipeline, allowing sales teams to monitor deal progress, set reminders, and collaborate with team members. HubSpot's sales forecasting tools provide users with the ability to forecast revenue and track sales performance over time. While HubSpot Sales Hub integrates seamlessly with HubSpot CRM, integration with other third-party systems may be limited or require additional development effort.
Core features
KPI monitoring
Data visualization
Custom reporting
Integration with HubSpot CRM
Zoho CRM is a cloud-based customer relationship management software that offers a suite of features to empower sales teams, marketers, and customer support representatives to build and maintain relationships with prospects and customers. Zoho CRM’s built-in reporting and analytics tools enable users to generate custom reports, analyze sales performance metrics, and gain insights into their business operations. While Zoho CRM is suitable for businesses of all sizes, some users may have concerns about its scalability, particularly for larger enterprises with complex sales processes and high data volumes.
Core features
Data visualization
Sales predictions
Custom reporting
Real-time data monitoring
Multiple data connectors
When selecting sales analytics software, you should consider several key factors to ensure business alignment. Let's explore the key functionalities of these sales analytics tools, crucial aspects to look for, and how they contribute to driving business success.
Data integration: Sales analytics software should seamlessly integrate data from various sources such as CRM systems, ERP software, marketing platforms, and external sources for comprehensive analysis.
Customizable dashboards: Interactive dashboards with customizable metrics and visualizations empower users to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), track performance trends, and gain insights at a glance.
Predictive analytics: Advanced predictive analytics capabilities enable forecasting of sales trends, identification of potential opportunities, and proactive risk management based on historical data and market trends.
Sales forecasting: Robust sales forecasting functionality allows you to predict future sales, optimize inventory management, and allocate resources effectively.
Sales pipeline management: Effective sales pipeline management features enable you to track leads, opportunities, and deals through various stages of the sales process, providing better visibility and control.
Data visualization: Powerful data visualization capabilities, including charts, graphs, and heat maps, make it easy to understand and interpret sales data, helping users identify trends, patterns, and insights more effectively.
Reporting and analytics: Comprehensive reporting and analytics tools enable you to generate detailed reports, analyze sales performance, and identify areas for improvement through ad-hoc reporting and advanced analytics.
Mobile accessibility: Sales analytics software should offer mobile accessibility, allowing users to access critical sales data and insights from any device, anywhere, at any time, supporting remote work and on-the-go access.
Integration with CRM and marketing automation: Tight integration with CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and modern data stacks ensures seamless data flow between sales, marketing, and other departments. This provides a unified view of customer data and enables end-to-end customer lifecycle management.
Security and data privacy: Robust security features, including data encryption, access controls, and compliance with data privacy regulations, are essential for protecting sensitive sales data and ensuring data security and compliance.
Sales analytics software provides access to crucial insights that are no longer optional. To build on your wins and accurately anticipate growth, you need an sales analytics platform that empowers sales professionals and their data teams to grow and scale with your success
ThoughtSpot empowers you to seamlessly explore, analyze, and derive actionable insights from your data. Its AI-powered analytics capabilities extend beyond traditional reporting, helping you ask natural language questions, anticipate future sales trends, and drive proactive decision-making.
See for yourself. Schedule your custom demo today.
