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Let’s put it straight: sales have been and will always be the key priority for business owners. Addressing the well-known saying ‘no money, no honey’, companies are desperately searching for ways to improve sales rates, and here is where sales analytics platforms can help.
Analyzing stock inventory, the efficiency of salesforce, manufacturing capacity, goal progress, and the other more surgical factors, well-thought-out sales analytics software solutions allow businesses to plan ahead, providing insights into what needs to be done to climb the ladder of success. So let’s dive into the benefits of sales analytics platforms, disclose the key features of modern solutions, and see the examples on how they can improve business performance.
Core Targets of Sales Analytics Platforms
To start with, let's admit that there is no better way for companies to measure their performance than to step back in the past to evaluate it critically. In the modern world, with constant data flow from a variety of sources, the value and accuracy of performance evaluation largely depend on data being analyzed. Thus, a set of variables has to be included in the process of evaluation, and here is where sales analytics platforms come into play, allowing companies to rely on evidence-based, data-driven results and act accordingly. The key targets of sales analytics solutions cover stock inventory, salesforce, manufacturing capacity, and the gains achieved. So what is the expected outcome of the analysis of these components? Let's briefly define it for each.
Stock inventory
- Efficient coordination of logistics operations achieved through the link established between the information on the real-time demand and the actual stock.
- Better control of inventory issues.
Salesforce
- Systematic evaluation of the sales success with a set of meaningful comparisons available (the company's actual vs estimated success or present vs prior salesforce success).
- Insights into the performance of individual sales people with comparisons of their success to prior periods, to the results shown by counterparts, to the targets set, etc.
- Identification of the reasons for the increase or decline in salesforce success, as well as key reasons for the received outcomes (locations, products, discounts, targeted audience, etc.).
Capacity
- Measurement and analysis of each variable included in the costs per order (product, service) for the achievement of a sustainable level of operations along with the ability to set reasonable prices.
- Insights into the self-worth of each product and service for better control of expenses.
Gains
- Insights into critical information impacting sales success that comes in an easily understandable form, supported by numbers, reasons, causes, factors, and dependencies. These include a percentage of loyal customers and repeated purchases, client satisfaction and contact rates, information on order cycle time, calculation of weekly/monthly/annual revenue, etc.
Why Use Sales Analytics Platform? More Reasons and Benefits
In addition to the localized benefits sales analytics platforms bring to businesses, there is also a range of more generalized ones. These are understanding of the market, smart marketing, increased sales conversion, better decision making, and greater mobility.
Understanding of the market
Knowledge of the market in which a company acts does not just minimize the risks of mistakes but also allows gaining a competitive edge. Sales analytics opens up space for more targeted, personalized products and services, in this way becoming one of the most workable strategies for attracting and retaining customers.
Smart marketing
It's no secret that sales and marketing go hand-in-hand, so the smarter the marketing strategy is, the better sales rates are. With sales analytics software at hand, companies can invest in more targeted, data-driven, and evidence-based actions, significantly increasing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Sales conversion
Increased sales conversion that derives from the above-mentioned benefits leads to higher profits and smarter spendings. In this way, sales analytics provides companies with the ability to focus on the development of innovative products and services, making their businesses more competitive and modern.
Decision making
Navigating in a constant flow of data is quite a tricky task but with sales analytics software, companies can extract relevant and clear information in real-time. If previously it took a lot of time for decision-makers to define the information that supports their ideas, a sales analytics platform provides it in an automatic mode, through graphs or other easily understandable sources, facilitating smart, data-supported decisions that contribute to business success.
Mobility
One of the greatest, yet often overlooked benefits of sales analytics platforms is that they allow using valuable data whenever it is needed, whether during business trips or any other events that happen outside the company.
Key Features of a Modern Sales Analytics Platform
As much as other tech solutions differ, sales analytics platforms are not created equal. So how can companies ensure the ability to extract all the above-mentioned benefits from using this type of software? To come up with the answer, let’s define the key features of a modern solution on the example of a sales analytics platform created by Emerline for distributors’ needs.
Centralized sales data management
One of the critical requirements for the sales analytics platforms is a central hub where data gets prepared for the analysis. The solution created by the Emerline team allows users to upload and access the data from multiple sources.
Mobile accessibility
To provide the convenience of accomplishing tasks while sales reps are on the go, modern sales analytics platforms offer mobile capabilities, and our solution that works on iPhone, iPad, and Android is no exception.
Real-time updates and monitoring
To provide sales reps with up-to-date information for more efficient work, sales analytics platforms have to continuously modify data. Our solution is built in a way to reflect any changes made, so users can always adhere to the latest information and make better decisions.
Online data sharing
Contributing to better, more efficient, and productive collaboration, modern sales analytics platforms allow online data sharing. For example, the platform and applications created by Emerline support the sharing of files in different formats, including XLSX, PDF, JPG, etc.
Intuitive UI and interactive dashboards
Offering extra convenience in use, sales analytics software, including the Emerline’s solution, provides an easy-to-use, intuitive interface that supports drag-and-drop features to facilitate the work and make it more satisfying.
Data Visualization
In addition to analyzing data, modern sales analytics solutions present the results of the analysis in a clear and comprehensive way, through graphs, charts, etc. Data visualization in our platform allows users to easily identify core information, get immediate insights into important aspects, and act accordingly.
Pipeline Management
The pipeline inspection feature included in our solution provides extra visibility into deals and allows quickly identifying what needs to be done, significantly speeding up the work and increasing the productivity of sales reps.
What Makes Our Sales Analytics Platform Stand Out?
In addition to the must-have features, the sales analytics platform created by Emerline addresses all the major challenges specific to the area our client operates in.
- There is an ad tracker execution feature that allows users to see not just the places where their products are displayed, but also those where they aren’t. In this way, our solution contributes to smart, data-driven business expansion.
- With historical execution analytics, it is possible to set greater and clearer goals on the basis of information about previous activities and their results.
- Advanced exporting features allow quickly uploading and storing all the important information about deals, interviews, conversations, etc., so users of the platform can access it any time to take proper actions.
- Also, our platform allows identifying mutually supporting brands, competitors for targeted replacement and supports searching by certain criteria (for example, locations where 3 brands of interest are presented).
The resulting solution reduces supplier data analysis time from several hours to just 22 seconds. Featuring everything needed for efficient, convenient, and well-organized performance, the sales analytics platform created by the Emerline team has gained the status of the industry-leading application. Furthermore, meeting the growing needs of the industry, the platform constantly develops and gets enriched with new innovative features.
Our strive for perfection results in the delivery of well-thought-out solutions that meet and sometimes even exceed the expectations of our clients, and the case with a sales analytics platform is no exception. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
We are always here to help you in getting the best solution that will work for your business success.
