GO BIG


New data-harvesting tools help sales teams sell smarter


HENRY CANADAY 30 | MAY 2015 SELLING POWER © 2015 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


The explosion of data is no myth. As a matter of fact, in both amount and type of data, the onslaught of information is just too big for any individual to manage without specific tools. Social media alone generates massive amounts of data, while such gadgets as cell phones, consumer electronics, and busi- ness equipment – called the Internet of Things – generates a huge wealth of potentially useful information.


All this data can be overwhelm- ing, sure, but it’s also the reality of our technological, hooked-up, dialed-in world. Buyers use more data to buy smarter, marketers use big data to better under- stand markets, and salespeople exploit big data to sell smarter. Big-data tools “make possible what was just a dream,” summa- rizes Alex Contreras, a principal with ZS Associates. “You can manage twenty times the volume of data twenty times faster at twenty percent of the cost.” The barriers that used to


prevent reps from extracting use- ful insight from data have been removed. Descriptive metrics become predictive metrics. Decisions can be made based on “traditional” data, such as what purchases were made, now enriched with data reflecting prospect sentiment.


Firms have spent millions of dollars to understand and grade customers, but customers can grade selling firms free of charge and in real time with applications


MCIEK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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