Drowning in Data: Using sales intelligence to reclaim your sales process

As a starting point, I would like to point out that I am as the author am a self-identified data nerd.  I have worked in various data roles over the years and appreciate a well-crafted data analysis deck as much as the next person.  I’ve also spent most of my career working in sales organizations, where decisions are still often made on the basis of “that feels about right” rather than looking at available data, which leads to all sorts of interesting sales strategies. 

But, love and need for data non-withstanding, the modern sales process is beginning to drown in data.  The information age has finally caught up to most field sales teams and now there is so much data being inserted into the sales process that sales teams are spending more time manipulating data than they are selling. 

The culprit for this deluge of data?  Better technology.  Improvements in APIs, open market data availability, machine learning, intent monitoring, and many other tools are serving up data at a breakneck pace – and these days, all it takes is a push of a button to append that data into your CRM.  

But once the data is there – who is expected to wade through that flood of information?  In field sales, its generally the sales teams themselves who are expected to take in all the available data, synthesize it, and then magically turn it into faster sales cycles to help meet ever advancing sales goals. 

To all my sales manager friends out there – is this how you want your salespeople spending their time?  Wading through data?  I know that most of the salespeople that I talk to do not want to do it.  It is hard enough to get a salesperson to consistently fill out fields in a CRM, let alone digest complex data models on client intent.  Time is money to a salesperson – and for their organization that relies on sales for revenue growth. 

So what is to be done?  The solution is not to pile on data and tools to manage the data.  Sales people don’t need more data – they need the right data, at the right time.  This isn’t a revolutionary concept, but it does take effort to pull this off well.  That’s where the value of an embedded sales intelligence team can really help your sales team succeed.     

If you’re not familiar with the concept of sales intelligence – it’s a team of individuals who live in the sales organization, and whose job it is to make your salespeople get to market faster by blending data, tools, and insights into intelligence.   That intelligence means that instead of handing a list of cold prospects to a seller and asking them to preform miracles, the intelligence team hands over just enough high potential buyers-in-motion to keep the pipeline full.  This keeps the CRM from being overwhelmed with data and add-on tools that few are watching or utilizing – and means less data to keep up to date over time. It also means a lot less spent on licenses and seats for tools that sellers are not using much of the time.

Sales people have to take on many roles in order to be successful – but wading through data and tools doesn’t have to be one of them.  A small investment in an intelligence team can help you reclaim the seller’s time and your sales process.  That means your sales motions speed up, the pipeline is full of quality prospects, and sellers are happier because they are spending less time drowning in data and more time closing deals – which is a win for everyone involved.