Sales executives are constantly trying to find new ways to motivate sales teams. From thinking up new initiatives to launching monthly campaigns, to generating innovative compensation plans, when it comes to motivation techniques – you name it, they’re doing it. What they may not be aware of however, is that their best and most effective motivator is right
there, under their noses, lying dormant within their business data.
What is it?
I am referring to data’s best kept secret: Prescriptive Analytics.
Prescriptive Analytics is an area of Business Analytics (BA) dedicated to finding the best course
of action for a given situation. It anticipates what will happen, when it will happen and why it will
happen. Furthermore, it provides various options on how to take advantage of a future opportunity
while showing the implication and potential outcome of each possible decision.
In sales, the direction, focus and clarity that Prescriptive Analytics can bring to your sales staff can be the difference between a department that ‘ticks over nicely,’ and one that contributes heavily to your bottom line.
When used as part of a fully comprehensive sales performance management system, prescriptive information can take your company’s existing data and put it to work proactively to motivate sales staff in ways you may never have dreamed of.
Here’s how:
1. Clarity, direction, focus With Prescriptive Analytics, your sales staff no longer has to guess how to make quota. Prescriptive information will present them with all of their sales targets, beautifully mapped out for them, clearly and precisely in easy-to-follow graphics. All they have to do is get online, check the day’s sales goals, follow the directions and go, go, go!
2. Increased confidence & competence, better sales When your sales staff knows exactly what to sell, how to sell it and precisely whom to sell your product to, they feel more in control, more secure and significantly more confident about their day and their targets. All of this translates into an increased vision of success, leading to considerably higher success rates.
3. Happier Staff, better bottom line When your staff is making the numbers and general moral is high, everything just works better. Success breeds success. Sales people feel better about themselves, team spirit is higher, and everyone is happier on a personal, team and corporate level, because sales are being made and pockets are being filled. If you are already using BA as a resource, you’re halfway there. Harnessing that information can make all the difference to your numbers and your bottom line.
