2013′s Sales Intelligence Trends by InsideView

[Doha]

2013′s Sales Intelligence Trends
by InsideView

shutterstock_124026754At this point in the game the idea of implementing sales intelligence into our everyday sales process is something we have come to realize is essential. With the level of competition we face from the high paced world of social media, blogging, and search engines, if we aren't actively employing some sort of intelligently designed system then we're falling behind.

We've noticed a few business trends fall into place in 2013 that are likely to evolve the way we think about winning customers.

Customer Churn

An existing customer is 45% more profitable  for you than a brand new one. Furthermore, because account managers don't have the tracking measures to keep up with key contacts and organizational shifts within key accounts, they watch up to 30% of their customers walk out the door. That's 30% of revenue for which you have to make up in new business. Implementing sales intelligence into an organization's day-to-day operations will allow salespeople the insight to know how and when to quickly act on an emerging opportunity to save an account.

Customer Retention

The idea of keeping an existing client happy so that they also remain a loyal customer is an ancient one. But, for the first-time in history our clients are privy to an unprecedented level of research information. At a moment's notice they can can get online and find someone willing to go a step further than you do. How do you stop this from happening to your business? By being attentive and even ahead of our customers needs. The benefit of having intelligent sales measures in place is that they allow us to track the engagement we have with clients from their initial visit to our website and interactions through social media all the way down to the point of purchase.

Profitability and customer retention go hand-in-hand. Not only does it cost five times more to find a new client, but industry statistics show that engaged customers, on average, generate almost twice as much revenue compared to non-engaged clients. To make these statistics even more appealing, consider that an increase in customer retention of just 5% can account for profit growth of as much as 75%, according to a report conducted by Bainand Co.

Up-sell and Cross-sell Business

As the buying cycle has grown longer in the information age, the implementation of strategic sales intelligence has become a very profitable one when it comes to up-selling and cross-selling. As a
matter of fact, sales intelligence is giving our sales departments the added benefit of being able to know statistically that when customer ?A? buys product ?A,? they are also likely to buy product ?B? within so many months. This advantage in predictive behavior is crucial in not only timing our marketing endeavors, but ensuring we get the right message to the right people in that time frame.

Relationship Management

Every stage of this cycle gives us an insight into our prospects life and habits. From these glimpses we are able to understand what it is that is important to customers. Ultimately, this lets us see exactly what is it that they need, what their issues are, and what their end goal is. Sales intelligence is crucial to customer relationship management (CRM,) and vice-versa. Brand loyalty still exists today; companies build relationships with other companies when they engage in transactions. Your customers make an investment in your company when they buy your solutions. If you don't engage your customers, you'll lose business as well as an important alliance. The better your customer intelligence, the better your chance of engaging customers.