- About
- Join Free
- Members
- Lead Mgmt News
- Funnel Radio
- Lead Gen
- Resources
- Ask the Expert
- Trusted Partners
- Book Reviews
- Articles
- Accountability
- Alignment:
- Branding & Social Media
- Branding Agencies
- Business Intelligence
- Case Studies
- Check Lists & Job Descriptions
- Common Mistakes
- CRM
- Digital Asset Management
- E-Books Marketing
- E-Books Sales
- E-Marketing
- Fulfillment/Fulfillment Operations
- Lead Generation
- Lead Management
- Lead Nurturing
- Lead Qualification
- Lead Scoring
- Leadership and Motivation
- Marketing Operations
- Presentation Skills
- Public Relations
- Research
- ROI Reporting
- Sales 2.0
- Sales Channel
- Sales Management
- SEO
- Social Media/Networking
- Telemarketing/Telesales
- Trade Shows
- Video: Lead Gen and Lead Mgmt
- White Papers
- Customer Service
- Lead Calc/ROI
- Members Events Calendar
- Buyer's Guide
- Recognition
Connect with us:
The SLMA - Managing leads to maximize sales
The SLMA - Managing leads to maximize sales
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Reddit
LinkedIN
Follow The SLMA 
End of Quarter Blues? Sales Analytics Can Change the Game
Of course, every sales manager feels the pressure of the pending quarter close. A sales analytics application can provide a fact-based answer to one of the toughest challenges—delivering a realistic and defendable forecast. Every sales executive and their lieutenant in sales operations knows the drill—run the reports, populate the master spreadsheet, estimate the probability of close, and make a best guess for the final number. And if you are like most, you worry about your forecast and your ability to allocate all of your resources to get the desired results. A sales analytics application can automate this entire process and deliver a result that is based on historical probabilities, not just hunches. The probability of a deal closing within a certain period of time is determined by a variety of factors—the size of the deal, the stage of the deal, and the time that the deal has aged within the current stage. Analytics can look at the history of your deals over the past quarters (the longer the better) and develop a fact-based probability formula to predict the likelihood of deals closing within the quarter. This approach can dramatically change the accuracy and usefulness of your sales forecast process. A recent study by Aberdeen Research, Sales Forecasting Analytics to the Rescue (July 2010), looked closely at the importance of accurate forecasting within the functioning of a healthy sales organization. Having powerful forecasting was a key differentiator between"best in class" companies and those identified to be laggards. Most importantly, maturity in sales forecasting actually drives increased productivity within the sales organization. Over the past year, top performing companies had reps that increased productivity an average of 9.1% while forecasting laggards actually experienced a decrease of 4.8%. As business continues to grow in competitiveness, the razor thin distinction between the performers and laggards will continue to drive success. While sales analytics can drive your forecasting process, what really matters are the actions that can be taken by"drilling down" below the top level number. Sales analytics can provide a host of insights that can be useful in your drive to meet your end-of-quarter objectives: All of these capabilities are far beyond that which is available with your SFA reporting application. All of this requires a sales analytics application with the capabilities to look at sales performance across time. This insight can then create a profile of how current deals are most likely to progress in the weeks ahead. Customers report that this additional insight can pay for itself within a matter of months.
Sponsored by:
