Sales intelligence is a set of techniques, strategies, practices and tools that gather all the information necessary for the company’s sales force to prospect, nurture, qualify, sell and retain more customers on a daily basis. It is something that decisive participation of technology within companies.
Many organizations seek to justify their unsatisfactory sales results as a consequence of the economic downturn or even the low performance of their sector in general.
It is true that the phases of financial instability affect companies of all sizes, to a greater or lesser extent.
However, brands that seek differentiation in the market must always face difficulties as a chance to analyze their audience and competitors.
In this context, sales intelligence is extremely important for any business to remain relevant and always competitive.
As a consequence, it will be possible to close more deals and reach sales targets even in times that are unfavorable for the sector.
What is sales intelligence?
Sales intelligence is nothing more than a series of strategies carried out based on the analysis of market information.
It also focuses on knowledge about customers, recurring and potential, as well as the capabilities of the business itself.
In order for access to these data to be feasible, a set of integrated systems is used.
In addition, there are technological practices and resources that will increase the chances of successful commercial transactions.
The good entrepreneur understands the power of information obtained by market intelligence.
And it applies them to predict buyers’ movements and to interpret the work of other representatives of its segment, for example.
It is an excellent way to understand your limitations and correct them, if possible.
That is, providing market understanding makes the various departments of a company, especially the sales part, adapt quickly to changes in the economic scenario.
And not only with attractive prices.
Sales intelligence is reflected in the daily action plans for closing sales
And what are the advantages of sales intelligence?
he truth is that the benefits of having sales intelligence in your company are many – and we would need an article to talk about just that.
But, we separate some to make it clearer for you:
Know your customers’ profile
With sales intelligence you have accurate data to know the profile of the ideal customer (ICP) of your business.
And you can precisely create your company’s buyer persona – which will help your lead capture strategies a lot .
Find potential customers
Knowing where your prospect becomes much easier when you have centralized information.
After all, you know the habit and buying journey of your main customers, which will make it much easier to apply your marketing strategies .
Personalized offers
Especially for those who sell MRR or else need to sell plans and subscriptions that are renewed annually.
Knowing what your customer always buys, you will be able to personalize the offer and be proactive in retaining that customer.
Faster and more assertive decisions
Time is money. Is the phrase cliché? Yes, but true. You can’t waste time targeting the wrong audience or using the wrong sales strategy.
Sales intelligence is having accurate, real-time information to make a decision that quickly corrects the course of action.
Retain more customers
The customer retention is critical to any business, but it takes information to know, first, why are you losing customers?
Technology makes you have a customer service more precise, responsive and even proactive. You identify the faults and avoid a large number of churn .
Higher productivity
To be smart in sales is to have the digital transformation present in the company. And in the commercial sector, a sales system is essential.
It makes the whole process more agile, eliminates bureaucratic tasks and allows salespeople to handle more opportunities in less time.
Generate value for the customer
The sale needs to be consultative – especially in B2B . The salesperson is a consultant and whenever he speaks adds value to prospects.
Sales intelligence allows your sales team to know very well, from the beginning of the journey, the pain of the customer. And it acts at all times to heal it.
Intelligence is spending less to have more customers
One of the main benefits that intelligence applied to sales brings is that it spends less to have, if not more, the same number of customers.
This metric is called Customer Acquisition Cost. It is always important to understand what CAC is and what impacts this sales metric.
But this transformation does not occur “out of nowhere”, or in isolation. It is the consequence of a series of changes.
One of them is greater productivity of your entire sales force – marketing team, pre-sales, sales, customer success .
Sales intelligence is to stop working “blindly”, without having real, real-time metrics and data.
It is essential, for any business that wants to prosper, to know its predictable revenue.
This is undoubtedly an important competitive advantage – and one that cannot be ignored.
Because if it is, you simply won’t know how much effort (and money) you are having to get someone to say “yes” to your offer.
That’s what intelligence is. At the same time that you review your sales process, apply improvements and monitor them, reduce costs and make your routine more productive.
How is this possible? Now, again: with the technology present at all times in the customer acquisition process.
So, you need technology to attract and connect with your target audience: marketing automation platforms help you.
The relationship continues, now qualifying and being consultative to sell. And, best of all: knowing the entire history of this person’s relationship with your brand.
This is due to the use of a CRM , which has features that strengthen this relationship and speed up sales.
Does sales intelligence change the salesperson’s role?
Taking into account that the method described here depends on the interrelated technologies and systems, the central role of market research is evident.
But not only of them: from the reports of reference companies and from programs such as ERPs, BIs and CRMs started to take over in corporations.
Thus, the entrepreneur also ends up incorporating other assignments with great return.
What is more and more noticeable is that salespeople are now tasked with gathering and evaluating the reports that sales intelligence gives to optimize sales transactions.
This process is even part of the mechanisms available to those who aim to stand out among the competitors.
The aforementioned differentiation is indispensable when there are so many alternatives in all market segments.
A brand that does not know how to exploit its strengths and does not have something that only it is able to offer to prospects is unlikely to work.
For this reason, B2B competition, which is derived from monitoring companies in the same sector, is well executed when studying not only the values practiced by others.
Here, too, we take into account the way of dealing with partners, customers and employees.
It is from this sum of procedures, analyzes, evidence and monitoring, that the entrepreneur builds his image and can distinguish himself from the rest.
How do I implement sales intelligence in my business?
The basic starting point of sales intelligence is data collection, which allows the creation of a detailed profile of consumers.
Current technology is used to examine your shopping habits, the platforms and social networks you visit frequently.
And, again, reinforcing: the history of contact with the organization, among other relevant aspects.
That is, the entrepreneurs now have the necessary tools to develop an attractive communication tactic for this audience.
This is because measures taken based on this sales intelligence will have a greater chance of converting into business.
A common case is when a customer intends to expand activities in some region.
Your venture may announce specific offers that seem interesting in this new context.
Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that market intelligence, when accumulating data in an organized manner, helps in discovering the point of the sales funnel at which the consumer is.
Only with this identification are professionals able to trace the company’s marketing and define how they should approach the various channels of relationship with prospects.
As fundamental as deciding where to make investments, in terms of the market and in relation to the chosen advertising platforms, is knowing where to save.
Sales intelligence helps clarify what your company’s priorities need to be, especially in times of cost containment.
By understanding your industry and your audience, these decisions are quite simple.
Thinking about this transformation for your company?
The mission to leave the spreadsheet when managing sales and adhering to technology is not always easy
But it urgently needs to be done. Bargaining power is with the customer today. Except for exceptions – increasingly rare, this is the reality.
So, you need to gain your potential customer’s trust immediately. Stand out in the midst of so many possibilities he has.
The presence of technology is essential – we have said this here several times and I think you understand.
But how to actually start this transformation in your business. Well, go slowly.
Start:
- Clearly understanding what problems your company has when prospecting, relating, nurturing, qualifying, selling and retaining customers;
- Search for information. Find out more about solutions for the sales process of companies, about what CRM is and how it helps organizations;
- Read cases of company successes (regardless of the segment). The pains are similar to yours, certainly. Seek to understand how technology has helped them;
- Go for CRM that really makes sense for your business. One that has features that actually help you, without bureaucracy;
- Test the systems you understand that make the most sense. But, be careful: evaluate, during the trial, if the company was concerned with sharing knowledge with you;
- Consume the shared content and gain knowledge. Understand if in fact (and how) that tool can help you sell more and better;
- Before deciding, ask your questions when the seller contacts you. After all, it is an important and vital choice for your company;
- Make sure you can create multiple funnels for all your business process needs. Your CRM cannot limit your growth;
- Choose the company that has an active customer success area, always concerned with sharing best practices with you;
- Choose a system that is Brazilian, charged in Real (avoid the exchange rate fluctuation) and supported in Portuguese, for an assertive service.
Sales intelligence is knowing how to choose well
Making a big and important decision how to choose the system that will help your business grow needs to be done with care.
Although you understand your pains, you really need to make sure that you are making the right investment.
Remember that cliché: time is money. And you’ve already lost the first one – you can’t lose more of the second one.
Before considering CRM, consider issues such as:
- Being able to test the tool for free and having different plans for different needs;
- Be a cloud-based system that allows access from any computer or smartphone;
- Have complete registration of customers and all their history with the company and with the sales opportunity that is being worked on;
- Count on resources in the tool to use marketing funnels, pre-sales, sales, contracts until success;
- Have integration with other tools, such as marketing automation, ERP , etc;
- Being able to record the reasons for lost sales, which will help you understand where it fails and take action to fix it;
- Rely on stagnation of opportunities. So you don’t lose any business due to lack of action;
- Create personalized and complete reports for you to make a fair assessment of the performance of the stock team made.
So, how can we help you?
If you were unsure about the role of CRM in your company’s sales intelligence, speak to a consultant whenever you want.
Enjoy and read two articles that will help you sell more and better, while reducing operating costs.
