In just the last decade, there have been incredible advances in real-time data visualization software programs. Business leaders and industry experts around the world have acknowledged that this allows managers and employees to better understand their industries and drive performance results accordingly.
Understand Your Data
In a world of constantly changing data and shifting market trends, it is almost impossible to over-emphasize the importance of good data visualization software. Without an advanced degree in statistics, it used to be difficult to understand and interpret what multiple graphs or charts meant and how they interacted with one another. Viewing KPIs took weeks of compiling and were difficult to explain to new members of the company. Since we are not all mathematicians, it is important that business data be easy to visualize and understand for everyone. Information is only useful when it is understood.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined that the human retina can transmit data at roughly 10 million bits per second — about the same rate as an Ethernet connection. However, most business reports are still compiled in boring charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, rather than in exciting real-time displays. This means that much of the potential to really understand and visualize changing trends is lost. We live in a data-driven world where timely information is the key to success. Help your organization out by switching to something that allows users to see and interact with massive amounts of live data.
Take Action
In order to boost performance, your organization must be able to connect the dots between your current operations and the results of that work. If you are using old, static graphs and displays, this is almost impossible because in today’s world the information is changing before you even press print. Instead, you need to see live information and make data-driven decisions.
Live data allows you to make plans based on what is happening NOW, rather than what was happening last week. Armed with an understanding of the business landscape as it exists today and the data to see how your teams are performing, you can make immediate decisions to influence growth and mobility of your teams.
For example, rather than looking at old information and wondering why your sales dropped 5% last week, you can take immediate action to fix the problem by working with your sellers to create a plan of action. If for instance your sellers are only making half the usual number of calls or if they are simply lacking motivation, you can coach them and work with them rather than waiting on numbers to ask them “hey, what happened last week?” Start creating winning sales teams by being proactive in your approach.
Much of the responsibility for driving growth lies on the shoulders of sales managers. Data visualization software allows them to see the playing field in real-time and adjust their plays accordingly. Don’t let a struggling offense cause you to lose the sales game; see the trends, understand them, and take action to get your teams moving towards a win.
Drive Performance
When data allows you to identify emerging trends and take action, you are on the path to success. Whether it’s motivating a seller to make a few more calls or congratulating them on a job well done within seconds of the sale, you can build a winning sales culture by letting your teams know that you have the situation under control. Taking advantage of actionable intelligence is key to building momentum and driving your teams into the green zone.
Building and maintaining sales momentum can be difficult if you are unable to understand why the playing field is changing; but with data visualization you can see market trends, predictions, and KPIs that will help you understand what is taking place in real-time. For senior managers and executives, the data can prove useful in developing business strategy as well. Using this information to develop a game plan rather than sitting and waiting for reports and numbers to come in will put you steps ahead of the competition.
Rather than just seeing that your sales are lagging, you can combine that real-time data with insight to finally understand WHY sales are lagging — for example, another insurance company started running a big promotion or another bank dropped the APR on their cards for this year, you may want to design a strategy to compete with these new changes before it’s too late. Or, perhaps the opposite is true — maybe you are running a promotion and you see in real-time that the number of offers and closings has doubled, so you decide to take advantage of that and combine it with a stronger marketing campaign or an extended sale to keep the momentum going. Data visualization software allows you to do this because you can see how your active operations drive change rather than waiting on the reports.
The Solution
So, what are you doing to leverage your data? How are you tracking real-time progress ? Can your sellers instantly see where they stand in terms of budget progression and forecast? Do they understand the KPIs? Have you been using this information to inform your sellers, make change and build winning sales teams?
With SalesScreen, you can visualize your budget progression and forecasts in real-time, interact with your KPIs, and help your sellers and teams to better understand their performance within the organization. You can also export your spreadsheets with a single click. Start making data-driven decisions now. Save time and money by making decisions in minutes rather than weeks and get ahead of your competition.
