thinking

Recognising data opportunities | Clarasys

Written by Ben Lover | January 29 2015

When operating in saturated market places where competition is high, many organisations can find sourcing new customers difficult. Despite the best marketing minds at your disposal and endless amounts of budget available, obtaining even the smallest amount of market share from a rival can prove problematic.

When Sales Departments hit a dead end and lead generation goes stale, it can often be fruitful to assess what you currently have rather than looking for something you don’t. In our experience it is common for businesses to overlook the data and the sales opportunities that they have right in front of them.

When implementing a sales strategy, up-selling or cross-selling to existing customers isn’t always deemed a priority. Providing the right amount of data is stored (and it’s accurate!), combined with processes and structure which optimise its use can provide you with valuable insights about segments within your customer base and useful information such as their purchase history. Better knowledge of the data can create sales opportunities from apparent ‘blind spots’.

“How well do you know your customers?”

Poor Data Management

The opportunities outlined in the prose above all sounds well and good, but the CRM data is only meaningful based on a number of factors. How effectively do your Sales Representatives use the information? Is the data you have stored actually valuable? Is it all held centrally within your CRM? There’s a fine margin between having too much and too little information about your customers.

Too little and you could find your Sales Team consulting other internal stakeholders to source a missing piece of information that could be the difference of closing a deal or not. It could also hinder your Marketing department if they communicate with your customers using personalised messaging but the information they have is inaccurate.

Too much data and you could swamp your Sales Department with unnecessary information. It could blur their ability to recognise which products or services could potentially satisfy the unmet needs of current clients.

Clarasys Approach

We know there is no one size fits all approach. That’s why everything we do at Clarasys is tailored to you and your business requirements. We analyse the data available to us and prioritise recommendations that help to define a clear process for the future.

Our unique methods using Agile principles means that we collaborate with you to deliver any necessary changes that will help you meet your business goals. We will provide training to enable your Sales Representatives to not only use the data effectively, but to make confident and knowledgeable decisions.