At a GlanceThroughout the communications and high-tech industry today,
the primary business intelligence problem within a sales force is usually not
one of data scarcity. The information is there. The problem is, rather,
transforming that information into actionable
intelligence.
The State of Customer Insight Today
Creating “Actionable
Intelligence”
Customer Insight Success
Stories
Getting Started Posted: October 22, 2003
If you need a stark reminder of why it’s so hard for your sales representatives to get the customer information that might help their selling process and increase sales, just take a look at the number of unread e-mail messages you still have at the end of each day. Somewhere in your account managers’
mailboxes there might be a vital piece of information about products and
services, or about their customers’ accounts, but few of them had it when they
needed it the most.
Throughout the communications and high-tech industry today, the primary business actionable intelligence problem within a sales force is usually not one of data scarcity. The information is there. The problem is, rather,
transforming that information into actionable
intelligence. And that means getting the intelligence to the right people at
the right moment in the sales process when it can have maximum impact.
The State of Customer Insight Today
Everyone is doing something today when it comes to
customer intelligence and insight. But are you doing the right things? Many
companies have invested in insight to support the marketing function in lead
generation and campaign management, with the intent cultivating demand among
new customers. Great information, to be sure, but what about helping the sales
teams on your existing accounts better understand their customers and drive
increasingly higher value sales? For example, how much more effective would
your sales people be if they could answer questions like these:
- Are my customers satisfied with our products?
- What are the key issues that are affecting my customer’s
business?
- What are some of the regulatory issues they are
facing?
- What have similar companies purchased from us and
why?
The answers to these types of questions help you develop a
deeper level of insight into what you might have to sell them that would make a
difference in their lives. And then you can take it even further. Suppose,
through your insight into the selling process, you knew things like:
- Your deals are 50 percent larger when you invite
major customers to your technology center to demonstrate your products for
them.
- You have a 30 percent higher sales success rate for
certain types of customers when you take the time to develop an ROI or
investment calculation.
Creating "Actionable
Intelligence"
How do you create the foundation for that
level of customer insight? First, you need the tools that help you understand
your sales process and where you are in the sales cycle for individual
customers. If you are to deliver “actionable intelligence” you need to
understand where the primary points of action are in the sales process.
Second, you need to be able to create an integrated view of
each of your major customers across the various silos of your organization. If
you don’t have a system that creates an integrated view of your customers, it
will be very difficult to get the information from one department (“service
contract is expiring”) to the person who might use that information for maximum
advantage (“here’s how I can help this customer with a relevant and timely
offer”).
Finally, actionable intelligence requires having an
“assessment and refining” step in the system which tells you how relevant and
helpful the information was. Did it increase sales? How might we do it even
better next time?
Customer Insight Success
Stories
A number of leading companies today are discovering
new ways to use sales force automation and insight tools to deliver new and
powerful business outcomes. For example, we’ve been working recently with a
major computer manufacturer to enhance their process for alerting the sales
force to service renewals. Not only does the new solution more effectively link
the alert to the right person at the right moment in the sales process, but it
also adds new levels of insight. With the new system, the sales person has more
detailed information about actual usage within the service agreement, which can
possibly lead to service upgrades. In short, the sales person can now tailor
actions and a sales approach based on a customer’s actual needs.
With another major high-tech company, we teamed to create
insight that delivers analytics about the likelihood of buying of an individual
customer. Buying patterns mean that a customer that has bought certain products
may be 70 percent more likely to purchase other related products. This helps
sales representatives identify customers with the highest potential value, and
then helps them tailor their pitches to need.
Getting
Started
What are the practical steps to develop higher-value
insight capabilities? First, understand your sales processes and the
information you wish you had at certain critical stages in that process.
Second, determine the potential benefits for each of those stages. Finally,
identify the gaps between where you are and where you want to be and prioritize
your investments based on the benefits identified.
The technology investment to achieve the necessary
capabilities may not be as large as you would expect. What’s more important is
understanding your own processes and taking the steps to ensure you are getting
maximum payback in terms of actionable intelligence from the investments you’ve
already made. Contact us
to find out how Accenture could help.
About the Author: Rob Blakey leads
Accenture’s Customer Relationship Management unit in Accenture’s
Communications and High Tech West group and helped found Accenture’s global CRM
group. He has been enabling sales force transformation initiatives across a
variety of organizations and industries over the past 10 years.
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