Imagine asking a room full of sales leaders what their top two priorities are for the coming year. Chances are, every single person in that room would cite growing revenue and improving sales team performance as top priorities.
Sales analytics is critical to achieving those goals.
The good news is, you don’t have to be a statistics wiz to benefit from sales analytics. With a bit of knowledge – and the right tools – you’ll be well-equipped to leverage sales analytics to improve seller performance and grow revenue.
In this post, we’ll answer the question, “What is sales analytics?” We’ll also explore how sales analytics benefits sales teams and which sales analytics metrics are most important to track. We’ll close out by sharing some of the top sales analytics software options available to sales organizations.
What is sales analytics?
First off, what is sales analytics?
According to Gartner, sales analytics is “used in identifying, modeling, understanding and predicting sales trends and outcomes while aiding sales management in understanding where salespeople can improve.”
Let’s break that down.
Sales analytics describes the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting sales data. These insights can be leveraged to optimize strategies, make data-based decisions, and plan for the future.
For example, sales leaders leverage sales analytics to determine goals, optimize processes, and more accurately forecast future sales.
In addition, they help sales managers and sales enablement teams to better understand seller performance. Then, they can deliver personalized training and coaching to strengthen weak areas and improve sales performance. They can also measure the impact of those initiatives.
Four types of sales analytics
There are a few different types of sales analytics:
The benefits of sales analytics
Sales analytics can have a significant, positive impact on countless factors that contribute to sales success. Let’s take a look at a few.
Revenue growth
Shorter sales cycles
Training + enablement
Seller performance
Sales planning
Customer experiences
Marketing impact
Revenue growth
By understanding seller performance, you’re better equipped to improve it. When sellers close more deals, your revenue will grow.
Sales cycle
The shorter the sales cycle, the faster you can generate revenue. As such, many organizations are focused on how they can optimize the sales cycle to accelerate sales.
Sales analytics enables teams to understand how customers progress through the sales cycle – and how long it takes them to do so. Teams can identify problem areas. For example, there may be a particular stage of the sales cycle where prospects often drop off. Then, teams can make data-based optimizations to streamline (and shorten) the sales cycle.
They also enable teams to understand how customers progress through the sales cycle – and how long it takes them to do so. Teams can identify problem areas. For example, there may be a particular stage of the sales cycle where prospects often drop off. Then, teams can make data-based optimizations to streamline (and shorten) the sales cycle.
Sales training and enablement
Sales onboarding sets sellers up for success at the organization. Ongoing training and enablement ensures they are always ready to sell.
Sales analytics can inform more effective training and enablement. With sales analytics, teams can better understand how (or whether) training and enablement initiatives are impacting sales outcomes. They can use these insights to optimize programs to drive impact.
Seller performance
Sales reps need to master a certain set of skills and competencies to be successful in the field. Sales analytics can help sales leaders understand the strengths and weaknesses of each seller. Then, they can deliver training and coaching to strengthen skills and improve performance. Finally, they can measure the impact of their training and coaching efforts and optimize accordingly.
Sales planning
In the world of sales, planning is key. Planning must be based on data – rather than hunches.
The right revenue intelligence enables sales leaders to more accurately forecast sales. In addition, sales analytics enables sales leaders to make other, data-based planning decisions – such as adding headcount or realigning sales territories.
Customer experiences
In today’s world, experiences matter as much as products and services. But one-size-fits all experiences won’t cut it. According to Salesforce research, 78% of business buyers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences.
According to Salesforce research
With sales analytics, you can better understand customers’ needs and behaviors. Then, you can create sales processes that address those needs and behaviors. Customers will have better experiences – which will increase their likelihood of making a purchase.
Marketing impact
Marketing teams spend plenty of time developing campaigns and initiatives to attract prospective customers. It’s important to measure the impact of those efforts.
Sales analytics can shed light on the effectiveness of marketing initiatives. Then, the team can optimize their efforts to improve performance.
For example, a marketing campaign may generate a high volume of leads. But with sales analytics, you’re able to see that a majority of these leads drop off – usually because they aren’t a good fit for the company’s products or services. Marketing and sales can leverage these insights to create campaigns that more effectively target good-fit prospects.
11 key sales analytics metrics revenue organizations need to track
Data is foundational to sales analytics. As such, it’s important to track the right key performance indicators (KPIs). It’s also important to understand why you’re tracking those metrics.
What metrics should you track to fuel your sales analytics? It varies from company to company. However, there are some KPIs that are important for just about any company to track. Let’s take a closer look at a few.
5 top sales analytics tools
Sales analytics is a key ingredient to improve sales performance and growing revenue. But for many people, it can be overwhelming.
There are many types of data coming in from different directions. It can be challenging to streamline this data, analyze it, and determine what actions to take based on it.
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. The right sales analytics tools will do the heavy lifting for you.
There are many sales analytics tools in the market today. But they’re not all the same. It’s important to find the sales analytics tools that fit the needs and goals of your business. When weighing your options, you’ll need to consider factors including data requirements, integrations, visualizations, use of use, and cost – among others.
There’s no single sales analytics tool that’s the right fit for every need and business. However, there are some top sales analytics tools.
Mindtickle
Sales enablement is essential to sales success. It’s important to measure and analyze sales enablement effectiveness on an ongoing basis.
Mindtickle’s revenue productivity platform incorporates robust sales enablement analytics. Of course, you can measure usage data. However, Mindtickle goes beyond usage data to help you understand how training and enablement programs are actually impacting sales team performance. Then, you can use these analytics to optimize your sales enablement programs and prioritize initiatives that are proven to improve outcomes.
Other sales analytics tools
Some other top sales analytics platforms include:
Leverage sales analytics to improve your sales process
Sales performance and revenue growth are top priorities for every sales team. Sales analytics is key to achieving these goals.
The right sales analytics tools enable revenue organizations to understand what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what they can do to improve outcomes. These insights empower sales leaders to optimize strategies and make data-based decisions that grow revenue.
Sales enablement is essential to getting your reps ready to sell. But it’s important to have the right sales enablement analytics to optimize your program.
Sales Analytics in Mindtickle
Ready to see how Mindtickle delivers the sales enablement analytics you need to increase the impact of your program?
