Insights Help Sales Leaders Grow Business And Hit Revenue Goals

Forrester data show that advanced, insights-driven companies are 8.5 times more likely than beginners to report at least 20% year-over-year growth. The goal of moving to an insights-driven sales system is to enable 90% of reps to achieve quota rather than 50% or less, which is common in many sales organizations today. There is a big opportunity for sales leaders to leverage insights and a systematic approach to selling to improve sales productivity.

Sales Leaders Must Recognize That Insights Are Different From Data

Too often, the terms “data” and “insights” are used interchangeably. But they are not the same. Companies are awash in data today but starved for insights. Insights are the important, actionable, and prescriptive bits of information realized from analyzing data. Quality buyer insights enable sales reps to produce more revenue by anticipating buyer needs and by consistently adding value. Seller insights enable sales managers to coach more effectively by highlighting which competencies they should focus on developing for each rep.

AI tools are crucial to gathering and utilizing insights and ensure that lower-performing reps emulate the behaviors of high-performing reps. Salesforce research shows that high-performing reps are 2.8 times more likely to use AI-enabled tools than low-performing reps.

Insights Help Everyone From Sellers To Sales Leaders

Insights and AI-enabled tools can help every role in the sales organization — sales reps, sales managers, and sales leaders. Some examples of how each sales role can leverage insights to improve productivity include:

  • Sales reps. For sellers, time-consuming data entry can be automated, and a tool can automatically show what they should be working on that day as soon as they turn their computer on. AI software can provide in-the-moment, next-best-action recommendations on how to advance a deal. As a result, sellers can spend more time selling and will spend that time selling to the best opportunities.
  • Sales managers. For sales managers, in-the-moment coaching enables improved rep development. Being able to ID and replicate the behaviors that make high performers successful will ensure all reps become high performers. Additionally, insights can help shorten onboarding periods for new hires, enabling them to reach full quota quicker. Ultimately, leveraging insights effectively ensures managers can get the most out of their sellers.
  • Sales leaders. Sales leaders can leverage insights to replicate successes across the sales org. This is critically important as CEOs and investors continue prioritizing repeatable and scalable revenue. And with an effective and truly insights-driven sales system, reliable, accurate forecasts will become the norm. Furthermore, insights can help optimize the customer journey. Sales leaders can leverage insights to identify pain points in the customer journey and optimize them for a seamless experience.

Insights Are A Top Priority In Forrester’s Sales Executive Service Research

Non-Forrester clients can access our blog on the insights-driven sales system: Moneyball For B2B Sales: The Insights-Driven Sales System. Additionally, Forrester sales executive clients can access our report, Talent Alone Is No Longer Enough: Introducing The Insights-Driven Sales System.