Sales executives deal with a daily barrage of data - forecast numbers, pipeline velocity, lead volume, territory effectiveness, win/loss reports. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to consume the data and translate it into better decision-making. How is this accomplished? The answer for an increasing number of successful sales leaders is an effective sales dashboard.
Discussion Topics include:
· The Explosion of Sales and Marketing Data
· Key Metrics Sales Leaders are Tracking
· Lessons Learned from a Sales Veteran
· New Sales Dashboard Technologies
3. What’s an “Effective Dashboard”?
An effective dashboard provides
current insight into actionable data.
4. Proprietary Research
Domo conducted a study with over 1,000
business professionals to measure their use
of data. Here are some of the findings:
• 93% rely on data to do their jobs well
• 67% of salespeople don’t have access to the data they need
(57% of all respondents report similar problems)
• Only 20% of all respondents feel that the data they receive
adequately answers their questions
• 68% of respondents regularly have difficulty making sense of
their data
5. Meeting Data Needs
Take an anonymous survey of your sales
organization:
• Does your team have access to the info they need?
• Does the data they already have access to give them what
they need to close sales?
• What more does your team want/need from your business
data?
6. Step 1: Get Data Integrity
Only
1 in 5 respondents
feel that their BI
solution adequately
Sometimes
addresses their
needs.
Never
Rarely
20%
Always
7. Step 1: Get Data Integrity
A lack of data integrity brings up 3 pitfalls that
any sales organization could fall into:
1.
Inaccurate data
•
•
•
2.
Incomplete data
•
•
3.
Data from multiple systems (Salesforce,
InsideSales, spreadsheets)
Data gets exported, massaged, tweaked before
reaching you
Human error
Siloed data fails to deliver the entire story
Effective dashboard shows you everything at once
Outdated data
•
•
When was the report generated?
Yesterday’s weather (or last month’s weather) today
8. Step 2: View Only the Essentials
Over 2/3 of respondents
regularly have difficulty
making sense
of the data.
Always
Never
Rarely
69%
Sometimes
(or Always)
9. Step 2: View Only the Essentials
Why? One of the primary reasons is that it’s
too cluttered. There’s too much “data noise,”
and separating all the numbers to understand
what you’re looking at takes too long.
12. Step 3: Get Data in Real Time
Just 4% of respondents
strongly agree that they
have timely access to
their information.
Strongly Disagree
4%
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
13. Step 3: Get Data in Real Time
It’s not just what you view…
It’s when you view it.
•
•
Inaccurate data on time is useless.
Accurate data that is late is just as useless.
14. Step 3: Get Data in Real Time
Forecasting is your map—but
you need a compass.
• Real-time data helps you make incremental
adjustments. Forecasting is the map, and
real-time data is the compass you use to
make course corrections.
15. Step 4: Make It Visible
Your data is like an
iceberg—you can
see a small portion,
but that’s not the part
that will sink your
ship.
16. Step 4: Make It Visible
5%
A mere 1 in 20 respondents
Strongly Agree
strongly agree that they
Strongly Disagree
have a comprehensive
view of the business.
Agree
Disagree
Neutral
17. Step 4: Make It Visible
If your sales team doesn’t have access
to all the necessary data, then they’re
operating
on instinct alone.
Don’t confuse data sources like Google Analytics or even platforms like Salesforce.com (which is a great tool, by the way) with a sales dashboard. We’ll talk about that in greater depth in just a few slides.
But those are general Domo numbers—before you can determine what your company needs, take a survey of your own. You want honest answers, so make it anonymous, but you really need to get a read on the state of your data as it is right now, today, in this moment.The results of that survey will help you determine:What type of data sources you needWhat type of platforms you needWhat type of dashboard you needWe want to make sure we’re all speaking the same language, so let’s go over exactly what we mean in this webinar when we refer to data sources, platforms, and dashboards.Data sources –Google Analytics, Radian6, and other sources are where you get your information on various initiatives or departmentsPlatforms – Eloqua, Salesforce, InsideSales, and other tools that let you launch emails, categorize leads, and move around prospectsDashboards – Dashboards help you plug in the data and see what you need whenever and wherever you need it. Dashboards can’t send mass emails or categorize leads for you, but they do take data from platforms and data sources alike.Not all dashboards can sync with all platforms and data sources. That’s a problem.
Just 20%? That’s pathetic.Inaccurate data is as bad as (or sometimes worse than) no information at all. Your sales dashboard should help you make accurate decisions based on information you can trust.
You get your sales data from several sales representatives using several systems like Salesforce, InsideSales or your own Excel spreadsheets. That data gets exported, potentially massaged, then sent along to you. With so many moving parts (and fuzzy math from sales reps who have been out of college for too long), you’re looking at numbers that don’t represent your company’s reality.Carrying your data in varied silos (again, CRM, spreadsheets et al) gives you problems in compiling the information when it comes time for Q3 division adjustments. If a data source is missing, then you’re not looking at the big picture and you can’t make a fully informed decision.Much like your grandmother’s fruitcake, your sales data could have gone stale between the time it was generated and the time it was reported. Is this data from yesterday, last week, or (heaven forbid) last month? You can’t make accurate decisions based on obsolete information.
KPIs, data, and sales numbers need to be easy to see without getting tied up in the rows and columns of spreadsheets. This is a screenshot from Domo, but our goal is not to give you a demo or a sales pitch during this webinar. We’re just lucky enough to have a product that we can show as a good example of how to give lots of information in a simple, consumable format. You need a dashboard that gives you the information you need and lets you ignore the rest.
Contrary to popular belief, quarterly reporting is not always enough. Quarterly reports tell you where you have landed, but not where you have been—for better or for worse. Getting regular updates, even weekly or daily, gives you an accurate portrayal of the goings on in your market. If one of your sales representatives has tapped a new strength, weakness, opportunity or threat, you need the means to disseminate that information immediately, rather than backtrack to figure out what happened months ago.
Your data is very much like an iceberg—the tip is the only thing that shows, but it’s not the part that will sink your ship.
Instinct works great for Spider-Man, but not so much for sales.