• New Research Reveals Where Sales Analytics Offers the Most ROI and Potential Areas of Untapped Value
“Sales leaders today recognize how important analytics is to success, but many continue to struggle to move beyond simple reporting and tap into its full potential,” said Craig Riley, senior principal analyst in Gartner’s Sales practice.
“Nearly one-third of sales organizations have their analytics outside of sales under a shared structure,” Mr. Riley said. “This number is likely to grow as data is centralized to better improve compatibility with other functions. Not to mention the high cost of technology solutions are more easily justified when shared across multiple teams.”
Gartner’s State of Sales Operations survey gathered data from nearly 300 respondents responsible for the sales operations function at complex B2B sales organizations across a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, professional services, banking, energy/utilities, insurance and healthcare.
The survey revealed that sales leaders feel sales analytics offers the greatest returns in skills development and coaching. This is followed closely by sales force sizing, opportunity qualification, pipeline forecasting, lead scoring, compensation planning, and territory and account planning. However, there are three often overlooked areas where sales leaders have yet to tap into the full potential of analytics — quota setting, territory planning and territory design.
“As more organizations successfully use analytics for areas such as skills development and sales force sizing, the sales teams that truly succeed will be those that leverage analytics across the entire function — including quota setting, territory planning and territory design,” added Mr. Riley.
Sales leaders looking to capitalize on analytics’ ability to add value to these untapped areas should consider the following:
- Data collection and integration: Data collection and quality is not an area where you can buy your way to success, yet. Successfully integrating any analytics solution will require a foundation of accurate and complete data, a culture of fact-based decision making and the skills to leverage the solution integration.
- Data literacy: Success will require creating a culture where “information as a second language” is the expectation. In order to fully embrace the value of collaboration and common language in these three areas, sales operations will need to take deliberate steps to align all of their stakeholders in their understanding of the underlying purpose of analytics, the sources of the data and the definitions of the metrics and the interpretation of the analytics.
