What is the end goal or the final destination of every business? Revenue and profits. And how does a business arrive at this destination? With sales! That’s right – the sales of your business can make or break your goals. And how do we achieve sales, especially in a year like 2020 where entire economies seem to have been surrounded by the pandemic and the subsequent lock down?
That is where the key to success really lies. Even before the pandemic, the world of business had been steadily moving online and the origin as well as the evolution of CRM was a major milestone that further facilitated the use of the digital world for conducting business.
So what exactly is sales analysis? The analysis of each sale over a period of time is known as sales analysis. This could include quarterly, monthly, bi annual and annual analysis as well. The analysis is in context of the sales targets that have been set by the business and its team members. The way the sales have been reached and the resources that have been used as well as any lag between the goals and the actual figures are all reported and studied in the sales analysis process.
This is something that has been built into CRM systems and platforms as well as so that the sales analysis can be reported across all integrations including email, landing pages, website, and others to find out where the maximum sales took place. This helps in better resource planning in the long run as well.
Let us now turn towards the benefits of sales analysis and why it should be used by each and every business:
1. Opportunity Identification: When we are running a business, we never know where the next sale can come from. While positioning and market segmentation take place, a sale may happen in a different demographic when someone wants to give something from your repertoire to a person from your segment, or even when cross selling happens (like an offer or any other related scenario).
2. Segmentation and Positioning: This brings us directly to the next point in question – segmentation of the market and positioning within the same market. In a certain niche, there are many sub niches where a sale may ideally happen. A certain product or a service may cater to a certain segment or many segments in the same market.
3. Targeted Reach and Engagement: When you are trying to close a sale, the two most important things would be who you have reached and how you have reached them.
4. Understanding the Customer: Above all else, the sales analysis process is one that will help you understand the customer and his or her evolving needs. These needs can evolve with age, and with changes in the market including the advent of a competitor.
5. Bandwidth: Every business has its own bandwidth in terms of team size, time, resources so on, and so forth. When we close a sale, it comes at a cost in terms of the resources that have been used. Therefore, a business has to be very mindful of such factors so that there can be a focus on minimizing the cost of closing a sale.
Thank you
ANKUSH ARORA
