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Top Five Data Discovery Applications for
Optimizing Sales Operations
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Patent InformationThis product is patented. One or more of the following patents may apply to the product sold herein: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,154,766, 6,173,310, 6,260,050, 6,263,051, 6,269,393, 6,279,033, 6,567,796, 6,587,547, 6,606,596, 6,658,093, 6,658,432, 6,662,195, 6,671,715, 6,691,100, 6,694,316, 6,697,808, 6,704,723, 6,741,980, 6,765,997, 6,768,788, 6,772,137, 6,788,768, 6,798,867, 6,801,910, 6,820,073, 6,829,334, 6,836,537, 6,850,603, 6,859,798, 6,873,693, 6,885,734, 6,940,953, 6,964,012, 6,977,992, 6,996,568, 6,996,569, 7,003,512, 7,010,518, 7,016,480, 7,020,251, 7,039,165, 7,082,422, 7,113,993, 7,127,403, 7,174,349, 7,181,417, 7,194,457, 7,197,461, 7,228,303, 7,260,577, 7,266,181, 7,272,212, 7,302,639, 7,324,942, 7,330,847, 7,340,040, 7,356,758, 7,356,840, 7,415,438, 7,428,302, 7,430,562, 7,440,898, 7,486,780, 7,509,671, 7,516,181, 7,559,048, 7,574,376, 7,617,201, 7,725,811, 7,801,967, 7,836,178, 7,861,161, 7,861,253, 7,881,443, 7,925,616, 7,945,584, 7,970,782, 8,005,870, 8,051,168, 8,051,369, 8,094,788, 8,130,918 and 8,296,287. Other patent applications are pending.
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Top Five Data Discovery Applications for Optimizing Sales Operations
A successful sales team is at the heart of every successful organization, with every salesperson responsible
for driving revenue, bringing in new business, and nurturing existing customer relationships.
Today, organizations have an unprecedented opportunity—a chance to arm their sales reps with
timely, relevant customer information. Access to this information gives salespeople the ability to
research prospects’ interests, personalize outreach, identify new opportunities, and get the information
they need to answer tough questions during face-to-face interactions.
To take advantage of this opportunity, organizations need powerful, easy-to-use analytics tools. Data
discovery is the perfect way to arm salespeople with quick, easy access to critical information and lets
them act on that information in near real time. Below are the top five data discovery applications that
sales teams can use to stay ahead of the competition.
While CRM applications can be a great way to store data, they lack the reporting and analytics
capabilities that salespeople need to make more informed and effective sales decisions. By layering
visual data discovery and dashboards on top of existing CRM systems like Salesforce.com, organizations
can blend data from multiple sources to get a comprehensive, cross-functional view of the sales process.
Data discovery applications make it easy for sales managers to obtain real-time visibility into sales
cycles and accurately forecast sales performance. CRM and other data can be loaded directly into an
intuitive analytics interface, giving management a live, visual representation of performance through
a wide array of charts, graphs, and visualizations. A key advantage of leveraging an analytics platform
for data discovery is the ability to blend information from disparate data sources, giving organizations
a 360-degree view of their customers and sales processes.
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Territory Planning and Quota Planning
Sales managers are responsible for the tedious but critical
process of planning territory assignments and distributing
quotas to sales reps. With a territory planning data discovery
application, managers can eliminate guesswork and provide
their sales teams with challenging but fair revenue targets.
The dashboard application highlighted above helps sales
managers optimize quota plans and realign territory
assignments so sales reps stay motivated and help meet
corporate revenue objectives. By leveraging data from CRM
tools like Salesforce.com and other enterprise data, the
dashboard gives decision-makers access to the most up-to-
date sales information. Managers can apply sophisticated
predictive analytics to KPIs defined by historical sales data, quota
attainment, and buying history of named accounts, so they can
make more accurate pipeline forecasts and better understand
their position for the upcoming sales period.
This application arms sales managers with the right information
to determine each territory’s potential and assign realistic
quotas. They also have the ability to perform what-if analyses
using threshold-based markers, helping them identify the
potential impact of adding new resources to a given territory.
Analyze a particular territory and review the current revenue streams per
region to maximize opportunity and align sales capacity.
Create realistic quotas based on accurate
territory evaluations.Perform what-if analysis and measure the changes
that occur over time.
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Pipeline Management
Sales reps often miss out on opportunities due to ineffective
utilization of internal, external, and social data. With a pipeline
management data discovery application, sales reps can
analyze new streams of information, including data from blogs,
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, in conjunction with corporate
CRM systems and customer directories.
The dashboard application highlighted above helps sales reps
visualize ever-changing pipelines, quotas, and won/lost deals, so
they can effectively identify leads and build a stronger sales pipeline.
Sales reps can easily connect to terabytes, even petabytes, of data
stored in big data sources like Hadoop, seamlessly blend with other
data sources, and perform predictive analytics in order to make more
accurate pipeline forecasts.
Gain better project insight by analyzing huge volume of data.
Access information from blogs, and social media sources. Make more accurate forecasts ib oipeline account.
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Prospect Analysis
Prospecting is one of the most difficult sales tasks. Targeting
prospects and starting conversations can often feel like the luck
of the draw. But it doesn’t have to be that way—the right data
discovery application can give salespeople the tools they need
to identify high-value prospects and determine which deals are
most likely to close.
Sales professionals who leverage data discovery applications
can drill down into their win-loss data to learn more about
target personas and adapt their sales pitch to resonate with
their audience. With greater visibility into their data, sales reps
can identify which prospects are likely to convert and shift their
focus to the most promising opportunities. And ad-hoc analysis
on a mobile device puts these insights in the hands of sales reps
when and where they need it.
Drill into win-loss data to arm sales teams with relevant
information and which leads go after.
Identify which prospects are
likely to convert.
Focus attention to the most
promising opportunities.
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Customer Insights
White space analysis allows sales executives to better
understand customer profiles and identify where they can
create new value for customers and the organization as a whole.
This powerful analytical tool helps identify products, services,
and other offerings that can be pitched to current customers
as upsell opportunities. White space analysis can ultimately
increase the number of opportunities and generate more
business for the organization.
Geospatial analytics and mapping capabilities give sales teams the
ability to visualize ongoing field activity, identify customer trends
across cities or countries, and take proactive action to better
support their accounts. By blending and analyzing data from ERP,
PSA, HRIS, CRM, and other sales systems, sales teams can get a
comprehensive view of sales activity at the region, territory, and
individual level. And sales teams can dig deeper into customer
data through interactive drilling within the application.
Blend and analyze data from CRM, ERP,
and other sales systems.
Monitor customer trends across regions.
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Sales Compensation
Compensation plans are an important driver of sales
performance and organizational success. Proper measurement
of performance and commensurate compensation reduces
turnover and helps retain high-performing sales reps. But many
organizations struggle to implement compensation plans
that successfully incentivize and reward their sales teams for
their performance. Often, this is due to a lack of data and the
administrative challenges associated with managing multiple,
complex compensation applications and plans.
An effective sales compensation dashboard places the answers
to these challenges at your fingertips. With data discovery, it
is easy to blend data from a variety of sources, consolidating
HR information and sales data. Managers are equipped with
everything they need to monitor sales performance, track
pipeline goals, and implement effective compensation plans.
Sales managers can access, explore, and analyze their team’s
performance and quota attainment with just a few clicks, and
can easily identify their top performers.
Monitor sales reps performance
and their quota attainment. Quickly determine the
top sales performers.
At a glance, view all the relevant information per sales rep to determine his/her compensation.
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MicroStrategy can help organizations optimize every aspect of their
sales operations with various applications for analytics, mobility, and
security, as listed below.
DIGITAL ID BADGE
Provide sales reps with faster access to all applications by replacing traditional passwords with an employee badge delivered via a location-aware smartphone app.
USHER/SECURITY
PIPELINE MANAGEMENT
Leverage predictive algorithms and historical sales data to make more accurate pipeline forecasts.
PROSPECT ANALYSIS
Analyze win-loss data to better understand buying trends and give sales teams the information they need to identify and focus on the most promising opportunities.
ANALYTICS
ANALYTICS
SALES REP ACTIVITY
Track which sales reps are available and nearby in case of a customer emergency. Easily monitor sales rep activity and instantly
communicate with teams around the world.
TASK MANAGEMENT
Help sales people streamline processes and perform quick administrative tasks on the go
with write-back to critical sales systems.
TRAINING
Integrate data from a wide range of sources and provide tools for sales reps to stay up to
date with new products, updates, marketing collateral, and other materials.
SALES PRODUCTIVITY
Support agile processes and accommodate rapidly changing schedules. Give sales people instant
insight into their accounts so they can quickly identify what customers to engage when last
minute cancellations occur.
SALES EXECUTIVE WORKBENCH
Provide sales executives with real-time visibility into the status of customers, opportunities, and the performance of their teams.
TERRITORY AND QUOTA PLANNING
Optimize quota plans and territory assignments to keep sales teams motivated and successful.
SALES COMPENSATION
Identify incentive programs that properly compensate employees based on performance metrics.
CUSTOMER INSIGHTS
Get a holistic view of customers, from communication records, to open or resolved issues, to account-speci�c needs. View white space
analysis to identify upsell or cross-sell opportunities.
SALES RENEWALS
Give sales reps and managers the ability to visualize customer health analytics, so they can identity at-risk accounts and increase e�orts to
protect and maintain them.
CRM ANALYTICS
ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
FIELD ENABLEMENT
SALES REP
USHER/SECURITY
ANALYTICS
MOBILE
MOBILE
MOBILE
MOBILE
MOBILE
ANALYTICS
ANALYTICS
SALES MANAGER
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These five applications are great examples of the powerful
impact that data and analytics can have on an organization’s
sales processes and results. But they are only the beginning.
With MicroStrategy, organizations can quickly build and deploy
data discovery apps that can completely revolutionize the way
they sell.
All the applications showcased in this document were designed
and built using MicroStrategy Desktop. Try it out for yourself
when you build your next application.
To get started, download MicroStrategy Desktop for free,
at microstrategy.com/Desktop.