The sky is falling! Six hundred thousand workers lost their jobs in January alone – with seemingly no end in sight. We appear to be in the middle of the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Awful news for businesses, right? Well, not necessarily for the analytics business!
A few weeks ago, I read an interesting prediction by IDC which stated that companies that significantly reduce their sales and marketing investment in 2009 will be gone by 2010!
Given we all seem to have tighter marketing budgets these days, what do we do to not only stay in the game but try to gain some ground? This is where analytics comes in: over the past decade, analytics has transformed “the art of marketing” into “the science of marketing”…and when the economy gets as uncertain as it is today, any marketing effort supported by quantitative data (read analytics) is bound to win more attention from those holding the purse strings.
The great strength of analytics is that it demands accountability. A scientific approach to marketing–as opposed to a “gee, ain’t it pretty?” approach–enables continuous optimization in the sales (or conversion) cycle. It dramatically increases marketing productivity by improving both the volume and quality of the leads/sales we generate.
In a culture led by analytics, decisions are made based on facts, not by the loudest voice or the owner of the biggest title. Sentiment gives way to rigorous testing. Analytics-driven companies strive to find out what’s most effective in converting their intended audience. And thanks to analytics, they can track which internet properties or campaigns are producing the quality leads they promised–and which ones are simply NOT delivering. That’s called accountability!
Like many of you, I’m an experienced digital marketer with a budget to answer for. Armed with analytics results, I approach meetings with my media reps confidently. With data backing me up, I know I am spending my precious marketing dollars wisely: renewing only what’s working and renegotiating rates or canceling contracts on what’s not. What’s even more satisfying, I get to show the CEO exactly how our marketing dollars are contributing to overall revenue generation–and even justifying more spend!
So…yes, certainity about marketing effectiveness–which can only be achieved through analytics–is definitely something to invest in, especially in these uncertain times.
Great post Pelin. What we’re seeing is that analytics is now transforming the “art of selling” into the “science of selling.” I particularly like the IDC quote:
“Ratchet up the use of sales metrics - use the economy as an “excuse” to focus on metrics (This can help in sales and marketing alignment.)”
Here are a few sales analytics best practices that will help organizations compete more effectively in difficult economic times:
1) The most effective way to increase sales productivity (meaning revenue per sales rep) is to know which deals to focus on — and it’s usually not the largest deals. The best practice for identifying your sales “sweet spot” is to look at the characteristics of those deals that have been your best deals historically. That is, what are the characteristics of deals that have had the best win rates, the largest size, and the shortest sales cycles? These characteristics can include industry, lead source, deal size, product line being sold, and so forth. Once you know these characteristics, focus on those deals in your current pipeline that share those same characteristics.
2) Don’t just look at not how long it takes you on average to win a deal, but also look at how long it takes you to lose a deal. On average, reps spend at two and a half times as long on deals they lose compared to deals they win. That’s a huge waste of productivity, but since few people track average time to lose a deal, it goes unchecked.
See you at the Sales 2.0 conference next week!