When it comes to sales processes and market planning, distributors are seeing many crosscurrents and riptides across different sectors. Leveraging analytics can improve distributors’ market planning ability and give them opportunities to move actionable data to their front lines. (MDM’s analytics experts Bob Jordan and Donnie Williamson pointed this out during a recent webcast.)
With the current supply chain challenges, companies are relying on clean, trustable data to make well-informed business decisions. A premium has been placed on insights uncovered through thoughtful analysis of nearly every aspect of the business. Distributors typically analyze their transactional data to benchmark their performance in effort to maintain their “well-oiled machine,” and this works in less turbulent economies. But to move quickly and pivot with the volatility, businesses can collect external market data and couple it with their well-structured internal data to create a picture of how they are performing amongst their competition. Ultimately, this offers a more intelligent approach for improving sales processes, marketing and planning.
During the recent webcast, MDM outlined how distributors can use the analytical building blocks of data quality, segmentation, sweet spot analysis, market share and wallet share to set better quotas and growth goals. You can watch the entire presentation on-demand here, but below are four actionable steps distributors can take in 2022 and beyond to ensure sales teams and growth plans are driven by quality data collection processes:
Find a ‘Data Champion’
One of the best opportunities to focus sales teams is to use data to target the highest potential accounts and segments. This includes hiring or empowering someone to champion data efforts and interests. Hiring people who understand data — but also know the distribution business well — can produce qualitative and quantitative data that will prove vital. To know where to focus, distributors need an understanding of where they are currently providing the most value and driving profits. This can only be done with a well-segmented list of their customers and what industries they’re serving, preferably by NAICS or SIC. With and understanding of what type of companies are driving the most profitability, they know they can target the same type of customers that are not currently customers. All good analysis has both qualitative and quantitative components, and it’s critical that the analyst has proficiencies in both. A business-minded data analyst will be able to spot glaring issues in the data before they reach the consumer, and this goes a long way in helping folks trust the data.
Prioritize Data Quality
Whether it’s creating internal data collection processes or reaching out to a third party, quality is king when it comes to analytics. Clean and trusted data is the foundation to any analysis, and the phrase “garbage-in, garbage out” is more than a maxim. Whether a company’s data is currently unmanaged — or they have a “data team” — it’s imperative that they manage their data well and deepen their data journey today. Entrusting a third party to clean and enhance data is a great option for those just starting their analytics journey but building out well-defined data strategy is the target. With each step comes better outcomes, minimizing the short- and long-term effects of less-than-stellar data.
Define Data that Moves the Needle
Reliable data is great starting point; but the real power is the ability to generate actionable insights that drive well-informed decisions leading to increased market share. Actionable data allows distributors to determine whether they are selling to the correct customers and leveraging external market intelligence can allow companies to prepare for critical factors such as expected market change and inflationary increases. Many leading businesses with seasoned data strategies have adopted the coupling of both internal and external market data to generate game-changing growth strategies. They have a clear picture of who their customers and the markets they serve. They know the products that provide the most value through their supply chain and can shift and act quicky to unforeseen changes. Having a clear picture of how a business is doing in comparison to the rest of the market will provide the information needed to better accomplish goals.
Build a Data-Driven Sales Process
With a data-driven sales processes, there are several ways companies can raise their analytics capacity. Whether a distributor home grows the process or contracts out, it will start them down a path toward enhanced focus during turbulent market times. Companies can always use more data – even if it’s not exact – and sales teams will have a better glimpse of what their customers want and what competitor branches are doing.
To learn more about MDM Market Prospector and other data-minded practices, visit MDM’s Analytics website. Watch MDM’s recent analytics webcast here.
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