Sales analytics

What is sales analytics?

Sales analytics is the analysis of sales data to show what is working, what is at risk and where leaders should act. IBM defines it as the process of gathering and analyzing sales data points, and groups it into four types: descriptive (what happened), diagnostic (why it happened), predictive (what comes next) and prescriptive (what to do). Many teams have plenty of the first and little of the last.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Reports tell you the number; analytics should tell you why it moved and what to do about it. The value comes from connecting outcomes to the conditions that produced them, such as win rate by lead source, cycle length by deal size or renewal rate by branch. In a multi-branch services company, analytics is also how you compare branches fairly and separate a weak team from a weak market. It only helps when someone owns the decision it informs.

A multi-branch environmental services company sees one branch at 70% of plan. Analysis shows its win rate matches the other branches at about 30%, but it created about 30% fewer opportunities and its sellers logged far fewer customer visits. The problem is pipeline generation, and the branch manager's coaching focus shifts to match.