How Business Intelligence Impact On Data Analysis For Sales

By Author: Bappaditta Jana
Total Articles: 79
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“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.”-Charles Babbage

The above quote by the father of computers is true. Although businesses around the world are now surrounded with voluminous data, little did they know the meaning hidden in this data. Earlier, there was no means of harnessing the power of this data. Due to a lack of valuable insights, decisions were made based on gut feeling, which often proves costly for businesses in terms of dipping sales or loss in reputation. However, with the emergence and widespread adoption of business intelligence tools, the landscape has undergone a sea change. Nowadays, business Intelligence has an enormous impact on data analysis, especially sales. Let’s have a look.

Provides salesperson performance KPIs and targets

Key Performance Indicators are vital for all businesses, and nearly every entrepreneur now wants the same. KPIs helps them to identify where they are tasting success and where they are falling short. Business intelligence tools offer the same! With its KPIs, it enables the entrepreneurs to review average ...
... lines per invoice, and thus it increases the billing efficiency like never before!

Provides collection targets

Unrealistic sales targets never help in driving sales. It demotivates the salesforce as collection targets achieved earlier are set as a reference point. Thus, when a business does not have a clear picture of collection targets, sales targets are bound to become unrealistic. A BI offers these collection targets. With data analysis by business intelligence, it has become easier to reduce days of sales outstanding (DSO) and the average collection days. With an aggressive sales force and the data at hand, businesses can now ably motivate their team to achieve the targeted sales and collection targets.

Drives sales growth through customer analytics

Gone are the days when organizations use to pump their money into mindless marketing campaigns to ensure sales growth. Today, they are finding the right tools to attract new leads and delight their existing customers, and business intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool over the years. It makes it easier to identify inactive customers. It also helps to identify those customers who had already abandoned their products.

With the ability to analyze the buying habits of customers, entrepreneurs have now the complete picture. Some of them also modify their products (if needed) and design their marketing strategy accordingly. As you track customer sales and analyze buying habits, you can create a complete picture of your customers’ business needs. With actionable intelligence from your BI software, your sales team can walk into customer meetings better prepared to respond to questions.

Lastly, it is not that impact of business intelligence is just on data analysis for sales. BI is useful in myriad ways, and at present, the market has several BI tools with different levels of user-friendliness and sophistication. It is vital to choose the right BI tool, and the best approach is to select a BI tool that can efficiently offer both predictive analytics and marketing metrics.

Bappaditta Jana is a blogger who loves to spend his free time engaging in sports or gardening. Based in Kolkata, he is currently working with EasyReports an IT firm that has developed a BI reporting tool that can easily integrate with Tally ERP and many other applications.