Sales Analytics Software: What Is It and Why Use it?

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Sales analytics software injects an evidence-based strategy back into sales management. Sales leaders’ days are governed by decisions. Those decisions are already based on a level of insight into a team’s performance.

But what if you could unlock critical information that provides data-driven strategies to equip you and your team to better internalize and apply business-specific knowledge?

In today’s competitive tech climate, it’s not about who you know, it’s about what you know. Sales leaders understand the importance of knowing their products, clients, and team members.

But how well can they observe the efficiency and impact of internal systems within a sales team? More importantly, how much time does it take out of a sales leader’s day to gather and analyze data to form an accurate sales forecast?

Sales analytics software taps into these internal processes and data and then uses it to increase growth, profitability, and revenue. It achieves this without wasting additional time, resources or effort.

Your competitive edge hides within your sales analytics and effective sales analytics software helps sales leaders recognize it sooner rather than later.

What Is Sales Analytics?

Sales analytics is the ground on which businesses base their understanding of trends and outcomes. Business leaders use these sales metrics to gauge performance, improve their processes, and accurately forecast revenue. If interpreted correctly, it greatly impacts the success and impact of sales strategies.

We divide sales analytics into four categories:

1. Descriptive analytics

Descriptive analytics focuses on how the past influences the present.

It also includes all historical sales data on revenue. This helps sales leaders better understand the current performance of their business.

2. Diagnostic analytics

It’s easy to view data, but it means very little when it’s difficult to interpret or apply. Diagnostic analytics provide reasoning behind data and pinpoints why something happened. These analytics focus on the why.

3. Predictive analytics

No sales leader can make accurate predictions based on guesswork. Predictive analytics provides data-driven trends that improve the precision of forecasts. Predictive analytics focuses on the future.

4. Prescriptive analytics

This analytics category takes business objectives and goals and compares them to the current state of a business. It then provides a proactive solution to better work toward the desired outcome. Prescriptive analytics focus on actionable steps and strategies.

Sales analytics software captures and unifies these four types of analytics and presents them in an uncomplicated way that’s easy to track and manage.

What Is Sales Analytics Software?

Sales analytics software is the tool that replaces the inefficient and time-consuming process of manually identifying trends and data within sales and provides an actionable solution to any recognizable challenges or gaps.

The core goal of sales analytic software is to simplify information while keeping it accurate and effective. The data that the software gathers helps any salesperson better understand their performance and highlights opportunities to step into sales leadership instead of daily management-related tasks.

Ultimately, it’s a transformative tool that pivots any business’s internal processes and future outcomes. To gain a deeper understanding, here’s how using sales analytics software to run a sales data analysis can impact your sales team.

The Importance of Running a Sales Data Analysis

Information is the most powerful tool a business has, especially if that information includes valuable insights about the future of that business. If a sales leader fails to run a sales data analysis, they essentially disregard a key resource.

Running a sales data analysis enables sales leaders to:

Identify the most profitable clients

The cost of acquiring a new client is climbing by the day. When sales leaders implement sales analytics software, they tap into a hidden area of their current client base.

Sales analytics identifies the most popular products or services. Next, it pinpoints the clients who buy them and the logic behind their purchase decisions. This insight allows sales leaders to understand their clients better. Once this happens, you can better retain them, engage them, and gain maximum profitability.

Improve sales efficiency

How much time do salespeople spend acquiring new clients that aren’t the right fit? Without the right sales analytics, even the most successful salesperson can’t get it right 100% of the time. By using data to tap into the ideal client persona, sales analytics software improves sales efficiency.

Identify market changes

A change in market conditions is the only constant a sales leader can rely on.

But it usually implies a game of catch-up to uphold a competitive edge.

Businesses that invest in sales analytics software have the upper hand in market changes and can identify trends ahead of time. This allows for accurate forecasts and the opportunity to adapt to customer needs and deliver customized solutions quicker than competitors.

Sales leaders know their team best and confirm that each team member responds to a different management approach. The same goes for sales analytics. Each business benefits from different approaches to sales analytics.

But that doesn’t mean businesses are in the dark. Regardless of the company, there are five key sales metrics that all sales analytics software should prioritize and track.

5 Key Sales Metrics to Track

Effective sales analytics software will decrease your margin of error and improve decision-making by tracking the following key sales metrics.

Sales by channel

Businesses rarely have only one stream of revenue. If your business relies on multiple channels to bring in sales, an analysis of each channel is vital. This allows sales leaders to view which channels outperform others and where to shift their focus or reprioritize sales efforts.

Pipeline value

The pipeline value of a business includes the expected revenue within a set time frame. This metric allows an overview of the present value of sales opportunities. It also gives a healthy indication of progress toward sales objectives.

Sell-through rate

A sell-through rate is a helpful metric for sales strategy. It provides valuable data on the month’s supply and demand and will enable better-informed choices for the following month.

Sales-growth per month

Sales analytics software observes any changes in monthly revenue and creates an actionable plan that your sales team can adapt. This metric clearly indicates any changes that occur in monthly income and seasonal variables that could influence the recorded change.

Lead conversion rate

To increase sales performance, a sales leader must clearly understand which efforts are beneficial and which aren’t. For example, a lead conversion rate summarizes your team’s performance and how many leads ultimately turn into conversions.

The array of sales metrics that a sales analytics software can measure is broad and allows multiple businesses to pinpoint their preferred metrics. That said, it’s important to stay updated on which key sales metrics to track in a specific year.

As the popularity of sales analytics software increases, so does the variety of options available.

3 Top Sales Analytics Software Providers

How do you know which one is worth your time? Our three favorite sales analytics software providers are:

Hubspot Sales Hub

The Hubspot sales hub is a powerful sales analytics software and CRM platform that deepens client relationships and helps you manage your pipeline. Its core focus is to merge all customer data in a way that’s easy to understand and apply.

What sets it apart?

Sales Hub offers a full-featured sales CRM and reporting and analytics, which provides a unique balance between customer engagement and sales data.

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Sales Cloud provides sales teams and leaders with all the tools to sell faster and smarter. Robust sales analytics equips the user to manage opportunities better, engage with sales, forecast, and automate sales.

What sets it apart?

Sale Cloud is primarily focused on leads, opportunities, and sales and was named the Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader in Sales Force Automation (SFA) for the fourth consecutive year in 2020.

Zendesk

Zendesk Sell provides modern sales CRM that helps your team keep up with client expectations and boost revenue growth. Its unified platform provides everything you need to track and analyze sales metrics quickly and confidently.

What sets it apart?

Zendesk Sell provides a lower end-to-end total cost of ownership and is one of the more straightforward and easy-to-use solutions with an intuitive interface.

At Aircall, when we see something that works, we want it on our side. That’s why these top sales analytics are all included on our App Marketplace.

What Sets Aircall Apart? 3 Unique Features

We embed the undeniable benefits of sales analytics software in every aspect of Aircall. The evolution from heavy desk phones to the seamless integration of 100+ essential business tools proves there is no limit to growth.

With this in mind, Aircall includes the full power of sales analytics, including your CRM, help desk, data, and more. This helps you get the complete picture of your team’s performance and how you can improve the customer experience.

Three of the most powerful and unique Aircall features include:

Tracking KPIs for individuals or teams

View sales analytics that tracks the performance of your entire call center in one place with custom filters and an intuitive dashboard.

Observing key sales metrics

Let nothing slip through the cracks with key sales metrics such as average call time, missed call rate, wait time, and response time.

“By recording and coaching, we can train team members using successful calls, helping us better serve our customers and deliver more targeted outcomes,” notes Bree Wright, Head of Client Acquisitions at The Photo Studio.

Accessing real-time sales analytics

Customize your call center analytics and filter by your metrics of choice. This includes filtering by teams, individuals, call tags, date range, and more.

Aircall’s features prove that sales analytics software does not have to be a separate entity for the success of your call center. Instead, we provide an analytics feature, data, and reporting to complement and enhance your call center software.

But if you prefer a designated sales analytics software and would like to integrate it into your business, we recommend following

How to Integrate Sales Analytics Software Into Your Business

Define your business objectives

Not every tool will be perfect for your sales team. Before choosing the right sales analytics software, consider your KPIs and which metrics a specific software needs to focus on.

Analytics tools also cover multiple data display techniques such as graphics, progress bars, or dials. Consider which would be most beneficial for your specific business objectives.

Consider the user

Will your sales analytics software be for your primary use or would you like the entire team to navigate the software with ease? Consider the technical proficiency of your team members and which type of dashboard features encourage ease of use.

Don’t neglect transparency

Data is only as valuable as the insight you have on the information shared. This is the core principle of effective sales analytics software but transcends into the workplace too.

To effectively implement sales analytics software into your business, a team must understand the importance of the metrics tracked. In addition, they need to appreciate their role in achieving these objectives and how the analytics relate to their specific role.

Find the Balance for Sales Leadership, With Aircall

Ultimately, sales data analytics has the power to transform any business, but the first step is appreciating its value.

This starts with the simple choice to grasp the opportunity to become a sales leader who leads with insight. This insight, paired with intuition and customer-centric tools is a formidable combination to beat. All that’s left to tick off the list is to find a tool that creates the ideal balance.

You call the shots, we make it happen. Try a free demo here.

Published on September 26, 2022.