Use Analytics to Prioritize Sales Prospects.

• Author: Dickie, Jim
• Position: SALES DEVELOPMENT

SETTING HIGHER SALES TARGETS is a fact of life for most banks. But higher 11 Limbers need to be accompanied with something else: strategies for how to hit those numbers. Sales and marketing teams were already working hard to achieve last year's goals. So if the number is higher for 2014, how can you make those targets achievable?

One answer is that you can focus on "more." Marketing could execute more lead generation programs, and sales could hire more account managers. Our survey data of companies finds two problems with that. First, many companies were not planning to increase their lead generation budget. In addition, it takes at least six months to bring a new sales professional up to full productivity. So "more" may not be an option for all firms. But the data also showed that "better" could be an option for most firms. So what do I mean by that?

For decades now we have instructed our teams to put data into systems (CRM, customer support, marketing systems, etc.), and they have. Now is the time to start mining the gold in those systems for insights. We have been benchmarking several dozen sales and marketing effectiveness initiatives this past year that have focused on leveraging sales analytics to look at past successes and failures to help predict future performance. The premise of these projects was that based on your bank's DNA (who you are and what you do), there are certain attributes that make a prospect more or less likely to do business with you. It could be you are more effective at understanding the needs of certain industries, etc.

Using the right tools, these trends can be identified through a thorough analysis of all the different types of corporate data you have on customers and prospects. Armed with these insights, marketing can prioritize which types of prospects to try to engage with targeted messages. As leads are...