With the continuous progress in data science, there is a huge opportunity for sales managers to achieve new insights on how to increase sales, have more satisfied customers who return again and again.
But, one obstacle many organizations face is learning how to convert ‘big data’ into use-able data. This is why the availability of data is not enough, knowing how to use it is crucial. Businesses need to learn to extract actionable data and use it in the right way to increase sales prospects.
According to a recent research by IBM, only 5% businesses in the UK are using big data to their advantage, and almost 70% of the businesses are only operating within the first two stages i.e. educating and exploring, while missing out on engaging and executing. Another eye-opening statistic states that 41% of businesses lack an understanding of how to use big data effectively, and this is why they choose not to engage with it.
This is why, you need to learn how to use big data efficiently in order to increase the effectiveness of your marketing and sales teams. The process starts with collecting and consolidating data. Sales leaders also need to learn tools that will help them transform the data available into intelligent sales strategies.
With more than 41% of the business lacking analysis and understanding, it is crucial to learn how to analyze and translate big data, so that the bottom line reflects that. Here are 4 reasons that will show you how big data can take your sales to the next level;
1. Finding new leads:
One of the greatest benefits of analyzing big data is that it can help you gain invaluable insights about how users feel about your product or service. By identifying the frequently bought services or products, you can link big data with social data to help you understand any barriers present in increasing overall sales. This can help you tap new markets, gain access to a bigger target audience and thus provide your business with new leads.
By using the results of social data intelligently, businesses can increase their prospects of ‘social selling‘. Marketing teams can offer their ideal customer profile brand new content of high quality, thus taking audience engagement to a whole new level.
2. Generating repeat sales
Data that is obtained from social networks can be used in ‘recommender systems‘. One of the best examples of a recommender system is Amazon which provides a customized homepage to each user according to their profile and interaction history. This can help generate repeat sales, hence increasing overall sales by leaps and bounds.
This is only possible if record of repeated sales is kept for each user in the database. With so many effective sales tools in the market, and available online it has become really easy to review sales report. Marketers don’t need to overburden themselves with updating and maintaining complex spreadsheets anymore. You can also opt for a free pipeline template to organize yourself and focus on data so you can achieve your sales goals.
3. Helping you increase conversion rates:
Intelligent marketing specialists have found that applying big data results helps businesses reach new customers, boost sales and increase conversion rates. Big data is an exciting new area for marketers because the insights obtained through it are unmatched. It helps marketers with price optimization, planning and in developing customer engagement strategies. Similarly, big data has shown immense potential in obtaining conversions, which is the most important marketing objective.
According to a Neolane survey that was held in 2013, 57% of direct marketing association members used data analytics to help them achieve higher conversion rates. One third of the marketers also expected it to provide them with an improved understanding of customer behaviors.
But there has been a lot more advancement in the marketing industry since the Neolane 2013 survey. Corporate giants, such as Google, have applied strong data capturing and analytics platforms to their marketing strategies. This has resulted in a huge amount of insights that were generated, resulting in increased conversions.
Another Harvard study has revealed the importance of responding within the hour. You are seven times more likely to receive the lead than other businesses, who failed to respond within one hour. Similarly, companies who responded after 24 hours were dropped off the map.
This research has highlighted the essence of quick responses. Marketers know that conversions are the core of a marketing strategy. This is why knowing how to obtain them is a priority for any successful business. Applying the insights of big data analytics in all areas of marketing can help increase conversion rates for your business.
4. Predicting future sales
Big data can help businesses select the top selling products from all over the world. This wealth of information, if used correctly, can determine which products have the most demand in a certain location.
Big data is being used by increasing number of small, medium and large businesses around the world. Giants like Walmart are relying on big data analytics to optimize and increase their sales. By translating big data into useful analysis, businesses are now able to create social genomes which is the collection of data captured in ever more complex and growing databases. This databases provide businesses insights about customer buying pattern, behaviors, preferences, dislikes etc. With this wealth of knowledge, you can suggest the right product to the right customer at the right time, thus skyrocketing conversions and sales.
Conclusion:
Once an organization truly utilizes big data analytics, they will be able to understand their customers in a much better way. This will make it easier for them to connect with their customers with a relevant and customized approach and help them turn interactions into conversions, with much more ease. Thus, if you want to grow your small or medium business into a large one, you must use big data analysis to get ahead of the pack.
