Finding a Home for Big Data in Sales

Sales analytics is a niche field that has outgrown its foundation. Big data analysis is no longer limited to the lonely quantitative team or the only member of your sales team with a math degree. As companies’ abilities and proclivities to collect and analyze customer and market data grow, so must the capabilities of their sales teams to comprehend and utilize that data in the field.

A recent Harvard Business Review blog highlighting an article by Tom Davenport and DJ Patil discusses the developing need for the everyday manager and business analyst to regularly handle big, potentially chaotic, data pools. Similarly, a recent Avande survey cited in the blog reported that “60% of companies need employees to develop new skills to translate big data into insights and business value.”

This type of perspective is to be expected in a tumultuous environment of changing expectations. But, the three elements of the most desirable employees help shine some light on development pathways:

Capable and willing to experiment with data
Proficient in mathematical reasoning
Able to see the “big (data) picture”—keen on deducing, organizing, and competently forming conclusions and insights from the data

A recent CEB survey of 976 salespeople finds that 95% report some or all aspects of their job involves data analytics and 96% see information and analytics as vital for better decision-making.

While the modern salesperson clearly recognizes the need for big data in their function, their ability to independently utilize data is lacking. Only one-in-three salespeople agree that all the information required to do their job is available and only one-in-four are very comfortable with conducting analysis and are able to meet their own informative needs.

That said, the analytic deficiency is not completely the fault of the salesperson. Companies have been following the trend of collecting as much data from as many sources as they can in hope of deciphering new and vital insights for their businesses, but their functional teams can only do so much to catch-up. Data analysis has moved away from its traditional IT-centered base to a home in different functional environments and sales leaders need to quickly equip their teams to make the most of it.

How does your company handle the growing importance of data analysis?

Related Resources:

CRM Data Quality
Improving Sales Predictions