Big data – 5 ideas to help your sales team see results in a week

Marketing   |   
Published October 26, 2017   |   

Big Data has already started influencing the way we perform our everyday functions. Today’s consumers are dealing with tons of information when they set out to search for a product on the web. Big Data has already started impacting the way these consumers find and buy products.

Facebook Banner Ads which are customized for a specific persona, Google suggestions based on the previous searches and Amazon’s recommendations are all a smart move from the marketers’ end to grab more sales. Believe it or not, Big Data can help your sales team see positive results in a matter of a week! You just need to channel your efforts in the right direction.

Here are some sales and marketing campaign strategies for lasting results;

Big data to seal the deal

Buyers already perform a lot of research on the internet before agreeing to buy a product. In this era where buyers are highly informed, the best sales strategy would be to stay a step ahead of the buyers and surprise them.

The educated prospects of today don’t need to take the sales representative’s word, they can make their own choices. You can use the power of big data to gain insights into customer behavior and then grab more customers.
All of this requires in-depth research by the sales rep who aspires to be different and close more deals. It requires extensive study of the dynamics of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the whole web in general. If sales reps start spending more time searching for relevant information, the chances of them impressing an educated buyer are much higher.
According to Aberdeen, the average sales representative spends 24 per cent of their time studying for new information about prospects. Although an educated approach to impressing customers definitely bears fruit, it also means sales reps are spending a lot of time studying possibilities rather than performing the job.

You can find customers at the very beginning of the sales funnel by answering their questions before they even ask them.

This is where big data enters the equation. Since every sales representative can’t invest this much time researching, why not replicate this best practice for all your reps? It will distribute efficiency to all your reps and they will all know when to approach a buyer and how to turn them into a loyal customer. It’s time to say goodbye to the cold call process and move on to big data age.

Greater customer insights

According to Forrester research, 44 percent of marketers are now using big data and analytics to improve the sales process. 36 percent of these marketers are using analytics on all platforms to execute strategies that are based on relationship-building. Traditional customer databases are very different from big data sets. That’s why, most organizations can’t benefit from the big data sets they achieve. It’s time to integrate traditional data sets with big data and put this precious information to good use.

This bodes well for organizations that are trying to build systems of insight that move toward a single architecture for big data convergence with agile and actionable insights. In 2017, expect to see a proliferation of CI use cases that leverage big data to generate powerful insights that were never before easily attainable by business users.

Contextual marketing

Your company’s sales team can learn the tricks of customer service based on the ever evolving needs of the customer. The current procedure of cold calling and applying SOPs to the sales process is not helping. There needs to be a system which is integrated with big data levels.

Big data and analytics provide the opportunity to create scalable insights that can teach the reps how to connect with customers on a personal level. Big Barn is a popular game since the last 3 years. It is a multiplayer game which uses insights from big data to send customized notifications to users based on their playing habits. The popularity of this game is proof of how you should use contextual marketing to acquire more leads and turn users into lifelong customers.

Website navigation

Online businesses rely on website navigation for their sales. Website navigation can make or break the deal for your business. Unfortunately, many ecommerce businesses are not aware of the effect of bad site navigation on their sales. In fact, your website maybe getting affected by it right now.

Frequent testing and reviews are the solution to this problem. If you don’t pay attention to navigation, the customer will not only bounce off the page, but also go to shop from your competitor. Don’t use Manual Test Cases for automating the testing process.

To improve website navigation, companies can learn more about customer behavior on the website. Mark out potential drawbacks and loopholes. It is not a difficult thing to do for the sales team of a small business, incorporate big data to provide a good customer experience.

Email campaigns

Given the popularity of email as a marketing medium, marketers need to apply big data to craft smarter email campaigns. Companies have been sending email newsletters to their customers as part of sales strategy, but perhaps it is time to move on.

These newsletters are going to be more influential if they are personalized for the person receiving them. Companies can use big data to gain insights about customer habits and then send newsletters specifically designed to attract each segment of the target market.  To understand what works and what doesn’t, all you need to do is to segment your audience.

Last word

The data of our online world is growing by 40 per cent every year. Most companies that are investing in digital campaigns are facing issues with handling and maintenance.  Some companies find it challenging  to deal with this data, while others  use it as a treasure trove full of key insights.

Once you incorporate these sales strategies into your campaigns, you will notice a boost in your sales after a week. Many successful companies like Uber already use big data to shape their pricing strategies and implement them in real time. Customers love receiving ‘me mail’ from the brands they adore. If you can achieve that by using big data, you are moving in the right direction.