FRI FEB 12 2016

Sales KPIs Only Data Science Can Reveal

by Roxanna Farshchi

Most sales organizations have a unique set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that they track religiously. Other than basic revenue numbers which have been tracked since the early days of trade and commerce (ok, basically since the beginning of human civilization), it was business intelligence (BI) that really gave life to a more complex set of data analysis capable of being stored, tracked, sorted, searched, and modeled. Data science takes “basic intelligence” to the next level. Using data science, massive amounts of information can be processed instantly to provide insights that are simply impossible using rudimentary equations. We believe data science can help sales teams create and maintain the most accurate and up-to-date sales forecasts possible. Aviso’s data science technology can do three things better than old-school BI technologies:
  1. Forecasting: BI can try to predict your forecast, but only with data science can you produce accurate predictive answers. Aviso uses Data Science to arrive at a data-driven end of quarter number that averages within 4% of your company’s actual EOQ bookings. Even better, Aviso breaks this EOQ prediction down week by week - giving you early warning signs if your quarter is off track, and the necessary time to adjust your sales strategy to ensure a successful quarter.
  2. Focusing: BI is excellent at averaging bulk numbers and giving a general percentage of what will close in a quarter, but not good at pinpointing which individual deals will actually come in and which ones will fall out--introducing an intolerable amount of risk. Aviso scores each deal--between 0 and 100--and gives you the exact likelihood of a specific opportunity closing within the current quarter and looks at how the deal should be progressing compared to similar and historical opportunities. Handy, right?
  3. Prioritizing: This is an area where BI definitely falls short. For BI technologies, figuring out which deals that reps and managers should focus on is a complete guessing game. Aviso’s special sauce lets you know exactly which deals to focus on and suggests activities, strategies, and communications that will help bring the most critical deals across the finish line.
We talk a big game, but don’t take our word for it. Listen to Bill Dolby, Global Sales Operations Leader at RingCentral, talk about it in this video where he says, “Spreadsheets and BI tools lack the predictive capabilities to guide our sales forecast at each level of the sales hierarchy.” Bill, we hear you. We hope our readers do, too. Request a demo and find out for yourself.