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Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps. Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization. #1 What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge #3 The More Things Change #4 Your Current Position is a Work in Progress Which is why you always need to keep the Big Picture in clear view. You can’t manage what you can’t see. Getting the right information at the right time eliminates blind spots and gives you what’s needed to make the correct decisions. Determine your priorities. Optimize your sales leads. Get insight into every sales opportunity. You need this data to close more business and increase sales revenue. The Big Picture of your current position includes the progress you’ve made toward quarterly goals across all regions and products. Where is the quarter going to finish? Use comprehensive sales data to visually show how much business has closed, what deals are expected to close, what deals are at risk and if anything significant happened to effect the quarter. Simply stated: What is the overall outlook for the quarter? By looking closely at actual performance versus the goals, your sales reps thoroughly understand the scope of work that still needs to be completed. Where is there progress? How are “actuals” trending towards goals? What is the path to reaching goals? Is your organization on track? Real-time data-handling techniques will give you answers to these questions. Use the data to position your sales organization to meet its quarterly goals. Make sure you scrutinize everything at the “current point” in the quarter. Things such as the planning of territories and quotas, the management of forecasts and sales representatives and the final review of what was attained. Don’t wait for the future to come to you. Predict it. Address your key challenges. Deliver “intelligence” across your organization. Eliminate end-of-quarter surprises. What is your current position? [Less]

If you’re new to BI, hearing OLAP, data mining and MAQL probably makes your head spin. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. These technical terms are actually pretty easy to understand, once you get a primer. So, here’s a handy glossary of terms that ... [More] are frequently bandied about at GoodData. Ad-hoc analysis Customized analysis that’s utilized to answer a single business question or gain more specific information by drilling down into an already-existing static report. Aggregation The process in which information is gathered and expressed in a summary form, or the procedure where data values are grouped with the goal of managing each data unit as a single entity. For example, Sales is a key metric which can be aggregated by Day, Month, Quarter, etc. Analysis The process of transforming raw data into usable information, often presented in the form of a published analytical article (e.g., a report), in order to add value to the statistical output. Analytics Using a collection of data to search for and discover patterns that shed light on certain business processes. Attribute A characteristic of an object or entity. For example, a Sales record could have attributes such as Salesperson, Store, Region, Date, etc. Breakdown  In statistics, to perform an exploratory analysis by splitting one number into components or essential features. For example, you can break down Quarterly Sales to Sales by Month. Business Intelligence (BI) Technology used to identify and analyze business data, like profits categorized by department or product classification. Cloud computing Computing that relies on the Internet, thereby allowing instant access to applications or software programs that are loaded somewhere besides the computer on which they are being accessed. Collaboration A structured process where two or more people work together toward a common goal by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Cross-tabulation A data summarization tool that allows you to reorganize and summarize selected columns and rows of data to obtain a desired report. Cross-tabulation does not change the underlying data. Rather, it allows you to “slice and dice” the data and view it from different perspectives. For example, Sales can be viewed up by Time in the columns and cross-tabulated against Stores in rows. (See also "pivot table.") Dashboard An interactive user interface that, much like a physical automobile dashboard, organizes information in a way that is easy for the user to read, use and communicate with. Data  Various pieces of information collected into a single unit that is used for reference or analysis. Data mart A data storage space that functions like a data warehouse but is used to house particular subsets of a larger data classification. For example, a data warehouse could store all Sales data and its corresponding data marts would each store a set of that Sales data divided by department. Data migration The process of moving data from one database to another, or the transfer of data from multiple platforms into a single platform. Data mining The process of examining large sets of data and extracting useful patterns and information from them. Data model An abstract visual model that illustrates how applications should be created to store and access collected business data. It documents the necessary interaction between different teams’ members to create appropriate applications. Data warehouse A place where data is stored for archival, analytical and security purposes. Data can be on a variety of topics, including an organization’s sales, salaries, operational data, inventory data, etc. In addition, data warehouses require systems that make it easy to access and analyze the data. Dimension Broad categories for organizing items in a data set. A dimension may have one or more hierarchies applied to it, providing the means to “slice and dice” the data. For the “Date” dimension, there are several possible hierarchies: “Day > Month > Year,” “Day > Week > Year,” “Day > Month > Quarter > Year,” etc. Drill across Performing data analysis across dimensions. For example, a HR application may look at an employee’s salary (in, say, the Employee dimension) and examine it over the past five years (in the Time dimension). Drill down Performing data analysis by exploring more detailed data. It is done by revealing lower-level data that was previously not displayed. For example, you can drill down from State to City. End-user The ultimate party or audience for which a product is designed. ETL An acronym that stands for “extract, transform and load.” The phrase refers to a process that involves extracting data, transforming it into useful pieces and and loading the pieces into a database or data warehouse.  Fact (1) Any type of measurement used to gauge some quantifiable component of a company’s performance, such as revenues, return on investment, and so on. (2) Factual or quantitative data stored in the data warehouse. Facts are usually the numbers measured in reports. (see also “metric.”) Filter A filter is a saved set of chosen criteria that specify a subset of information to be displayed. Granularity The extent to which a system is subdivided. For example, is revenue data divided just by department or also by each individual within each department. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Raw (block) storage, firewalls, load balancers and networks, on demand from large pools installed in data centers. Accommodates LAN or WAN connectivity, in carrier clouds or via dedicated VPNs. Metric An aggregated fact (see "fact" above). For example, total sales is a metric. Multidimensional Analysis (MAQL) A data analysis process that divides a set of data into two or more subcomponents. For example, looking at the amount of total revenue of a single department over several years would be one-dimensional, but comparing total revenue of several different departments over the course of several years would be multidimensional. OLAP An acronym that stands for “OnLine Analytical Processing.” A series of applications used for data mining. On-demand A term that literally means “when needed or required.” With cloud computing, the user has immediate access to data stored in remote locations and can titrate resources up and down almost immediately, as desired. On prem Traditional solution where the full stack is contained on your servers. Data may be accessed and available via cloud clients, but you maintain control of everything behind your firewall. Platform as a Service (PaaS) Networks, servers and storage that facilitate deployment of web-based applications and services. Usually includes IaaS layers as well. Pivot table A data summarization tool that allows you to reorganize and summarize selected columns and rows of data to obtain a desired report. Pivot tables do not change the underlying data. Rather, they allow you to “slice and dice” the data and view it from different perspectives. Record In the context of a relational database, a record represents a single, implicitly structured data item. In simple terms, a database can be thought of as consisting of rows and columns. Each row in a related table represents a set of related data, or “record,” and every record in a table has the same structure. Report Generally, a type of document prepared by someone or a group of people showing a summary of data. Relational OnLine Analytical Processing (ROLAP) A classification of data mining tools that analyze data in a multidimensional model, but don’t require pre-computation or storage. Software as a Service (SaaS) Hosted on the software company’s servers and deployed to its customer via cloud computing. Instead of purchasing the hardware and licenses of traditional software, SaaS can be updated automatically and offer users term subscriptions. Slice and dice A term used to describe the drilling down function of multidimensional analysis. Slicing and dicing gives users the ability to access data warehouses from seemingly endless different perspectives. Tag A keyword used to describe a report. GoodData allows users to associate tags with their reports. These keywords are stored with the report and show up in appropriate keyword searches. Query The process through which data is extracted from a database for analysis. Widget An add-on application that a user can install and implement as a supplement to a larger application. Phew! What a list. Now that you’ve got down some of the basic terminology, we suggest you check out some additional “101” posts that may be useful as you get up to speed in this space: "Knowing Your aas From a Tin Cup;" “What’s the Big Deal about Big Data?”; “Data Warehousing: Have You Taken Stock of Your Warehouse?”; What is Cloud Computing?"; and “Reports Versus Dashboards—What’s the Difference?” What else would be helpful? We would love to help clear up any confusion. Just ask! [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps. Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization. #1 What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge #3 The More Things Change I’m fairly confident you’ve all heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Well, yes and no. When it comes to politics and elected officials, I’d say absolutely “yes.” But in sales, the answer is a definite “no,” simply because the more things change, the more they change. As a sales manager, you better stay on top of those changes. This isn’t just another election, this is make it or break it time for your company. How much business have you won? How much progress are you making toward your organization’s sales goal? Better compare where you are now against historical estimates. You don’t want to fall behind. How have things changed in the last 24 hours? Check on your actual numbers to understand what deals are changing and why. Many other questions should be asked as well. How fast is my business creating and closing opportunities? What regions and what reps are creating the most sales opportunities? It’s essential that you monitor wins as you progress through the quarter. Try to stay above quota. The sales pipeline is extremely important when attempting to make an accurate prediction of how the quarter will end. How large is the pipeline in comparison to your quota? Try to carry four or five times the best case pipeline. Understand how the pipeline changes over time. Changes in the pipeline over the period will show you where your dollars are going and what business was lost, won, reforecast or moved out to another quarter. Monitor events that are effective, and examine them closely. The biggest movers are opportunities with the largest absolute change in sales stage. The biggest “shakers” are the opportunities with the largest absolute change in value. Look at the win/loss highlights of the current period. Are the most lucrative deals still open? How much of the pipeline do they represent? You should sound the “uh-oh” alarm if the expected and won estimate is not above the quota. Monitor your estimate and current status in the same chart. By looking closely at actual performance versus goals, you’ll thoroughly understand the scope of work that needs to be done. As your sales organization becomes more complex with multiple product lines and business units, it’s important to see pipeline information for all your teams. Look at progress towards quarterly goals across all regions and products, and estimate where the quarter is going to finish. Use comprehensive sales data to visually show how much business has closed, what deals are expected to close, what deals are at risk and if anything significant happened to effect the quarter. Do a great job, and you might get nominated for a higher position. [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps. Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization. #1 What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge #3 The More Things Change I’m fairly confident you’ve all heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Well, yes and no. When it comes to politics and elected officials, I’d say absolutely “yes.” But in sales, the answer is a definite “no,” simply because the more things change, the more they change. As a sales manager, you better stay on top of those changes. This isn’t just another election, this is make it or break it time for your company. How much business have you won? How much progress are you making toward your organization’s sales goal? Better compare where you are now against historical estimates. You don’t want to fall behind. How have things changed in the last 24 hours? Check on your actual numbers to understand what deals are changing and why. Many other questions should be asked as well. How fast is my business creating and closing opportunities? What regions and what reps are creating the most sales opportunities? It’s essential that you monitor wins as you progress through the quarter. Try to stay above quota. The sales pipeline is extremely important when attempting to make an accurate prediction of how the quarter will end. How large is the pipeline in comparison to your quota? Try to carry four or five times the best case pipeline. Understand how the pipeline changes over time. Changes in the pipeline over the period will show you where your dollars are going and what business was lost, won, reforecast or moved out to another quarter. Monitor events that are effective, and examine them closely. The biggest movers are opportunities with the largest absolute change in sales stage. The biggest “shakers” are the opportunities with the largest absolute change in value. Look at the win/loss highlights of the current period. Are the most lucrative deals still open? How much of the pipeline do they represent? You should sound the “uh-oh” alarm if the expected and won estimate is not above the quota. Monitor your estimate and current status in the same chart. By looking closely at actual performance versus goals, you’ll thoroughly understand the scope of work that needs to be done. As your sales organization becomes more complex with multiple product lines and business units, it’s important to see pipeline information for all your teams. Look at progress towards quarterly goals across all regions and products, and estimate where the quarter is going to finish. Use comprehensive sales data to visually show how much business has closed, what deals are expected to close, what deals are at risk and if anything significant happened to effect the quarter. Do a great job, and you might get nominated for a higher position. [Less]

It's Not You, It's Your Data It’s the end of the quarter and you’re pushing to finalize deals and busting your hump trying to meet your sales goals. But let’s be frank - success in meeting your targets is extremely dependent on having answers to ... [More] your specific queries. That means you need a view into your organization that is relevant to the current point of the quarter. Read our report: Sales Analytics for Smarter Selling to see how you can take charge of your current revenue performance management. New Ways to Share Your Results It’s a data-driven world out there. What are you doing to cultivate a data enriched culture? GoodData is continually working to create solutions that put your company in the front of the data-driven race. That's why, in Release 74, we created yet another way to share your results. Now, your embedded dashboards can be printed and exported to PDF. You'll find more information about our new releases within the GoodData Support Forum. Meet a GoodData Customer Serving more than 14 million customers, Time Warner Cable is staying on top of their expanding sales efforts by arming their entire sales department with GoodData's on-demand reports and dashboards. "With GoodData we do not have to jump through hoops which makes for instant success. The reality is it gives us speed and shortens the time of development,” said Mark Boyer, Senior Engineer and Solutions Architect. Learn how GoodData helped TWC overcome their BI challenges. What's the Big Deal About Big Data Big Data It’s a somewhat intimidating (and vague) term, but this buzzword is really quite straightforward. “Big Data” refers to the collection and storage of mass quantities of data that can then be sliced, diced and mashed up to find patterns and trends related to everything from business to health care. Should you be focused on Big Data now? Read more to find out. The GoodData Team Hubert Palan: Product Management Meet Hubert. Hubert is the “product guy” at GoodData and runs the entire front-end product management and user experience. Hubert and his staff of five are dedicated to providing GoodData users a rich and enjoyable experience. Do you have a feature request you would like to share with Hubert? Let him know what you would like to see as a GoodData feature. You talk, he listens. [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of  Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps.  Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization.  What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge Not General Custer we hope. What we really mean is which sales reps are winning the most deals, and who is carrying the largest “best case” pipeline? What actions are those sales reps taking that are winning deals? If you want to run the most effective sales organization possible, you need to know these things. Along with thoroughly understanding the top opportunities, top products and top regions. Your sales pros need to win, and not just win once. They need to win at every stage of the potential customer’s buying process, and earn their business on the right terms and in the right timeframe. That’s sales force effectiveness, a very useful metric to measure success. Improving sales effectiveness means understanding what’s working and not working. It also means continuous improvement of the knowledge, messages and strategies that your sales reps apply to sales opportunities. As a manager, you can make changes to improve future sales after analyzing sales reps’ performance. A big part of that analysis is asking “What activities are driving sales, and are those activates “high value?” Compare the average number of activities associated with opportunities. Compare those activities to opportunities that were won during the quarter. Focus on sales reps with high-value activities, and assess the impact of those activities on closing deals. Whew, this is getting a little heavy. Activities, high value, assess, compare. Let’s simplify it a little. You must identify the sales reps who make activities pay off. What are they doing that other reps aren’t doing? Are they using specific activities for certian opportunities? Which reps are super-active, setting a furious pace of winning deals? You also need to accept the fact that maybe effectiveness is not rep-specific. It could simply be trending- you know, the trend is your friend, until it’s not. Maybe it’s a specific day of the week where activities have a magical effect on potential customers. That’s why you see spikes of activities on those days. Another critical factor to success is the average pace and duration of won deals. Which deals are off pace and getting “stuck.” Examine closely the various stages of sales. Usually, sales movement is broken up into five or six stages. How long is it taking a deal to reach a stage? Any opportunities that are more than 50 percent off pace should be called out and looked into quickly. What are the stage durations for winning opportunities? How long does a winning deal spend in a specific stage? Opportunities in a stage more than 50 percent of the winning duration should be called out and investigated. “Effectiveness” is certainly an over-used word, and I wish we could pull up a synonym finder and replace it with something a little more tangible. You know, a word we could really wrap our arms around. But this is the sales business, and effectiveness means increasing revenues, upping win rates, making forecasts more accurate and improving the talent of our sales team. Certainly nothing to sniff at. Not if you want your company in the winner’s circle. How 'bout it?  What is "effective" for your sales organization? [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of  Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps.  Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization.  What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge Not General Custer we hope. What we really mean is which sales reps are winning the most deals, and who is carrying the largest “best case” pipeline? What actions are those sales reps taking that are winning deals? If you want to run the most effective sales organization possible, you need to know these things. Along with thoroughly understanding the top opportunities, top products and top regions. Your sales pros need to win, and not just win once. They need to win at every stage of the potential customer’s buying process, and earn their business on the right terms and in the right timeframe. That’s sales force effectiveness, a very useful metric to measure success. Improving sales effectiveness means understanding what’s working and not working. It also means continuous improvement of the knowledge, messages and strategies that your sales reps apply to sales opportunities. As a manager, you can make changes to improve future sales after analyzing sales reps’ performance. A big part of that analysis is asking “What activities are driving sales, and are those activities “high value?” Compare the average number of activities associated with opportunities. Compare those activities to opportunities that were won during the quarter. Focus on sales reps with high-value activities, and assess the impact of those activities on closing deals. Whew, this is getting a little heavy. Activities, high value, assess, compare. Let’s simplify it a little. You must identify the sales reps who make activities pay off. What are they doing that other reps aren’t doing? Are they using specific activities for certian opportunities? Which reps are super-active, setting a furious pace of winning deals? You also need to accept the fact that maybe effectiveness is not rep-specific. It could simply be trending- you know, the trend is your friend, until it’s not. Maybe it’s a specific day of the week where activities have a magical effect on potential customers. That’s why you see spikes of activities on those days. Another critical factor to success is the average pace and duration of won deals. Which deals are off pace and getting “stuck.” Examine closely the various stages of sales. Usually, sales movement is broken up into five or six stages. How long is it taking a deal to reach a stage? Any opportunities that are more than 50 percent off pace should be called out and looked into quickly. What are the stage durations for winning opportunities? How long does a winning deal spend in a specific stage? Opportunities in a stage more than 50 percent of the winning duration should be called out and investigated. “Effectiveness” is certainly an over-used word, and I wish we could pull up a synonym finder and replace it with something a little more tangible. You know, a word we could really wrap our arms around. But this is the sales business, and effectiveness means increasing revenues, upping win rates, making forecasts more accurate and improving the talent of our sales team. Certainly nothing to sniff at. Not if you want your company in the winner’s circle. How 'bout it?  What is "effective" for your sales organization? [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of  Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps.  Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization.  What's Your Plan #2 Who's Leading the Charge   Not General Custer we hope. What we really mean is which sales reps are winning the most deals, and who is carrying the largest “best case” pipeline? What actions are those sales reps taking that are winning deals? If you want to run the most effective sales organization possible, you need to know these things. Along with thoroughly understanding the top opportunities, top products and top regions. Your sales pros need to win, and not just win once. They need to win at every stage of the potential customer’s buying process, and earn their business on the right terms and in the right timeframe. That’s sales force effectiveness, a very useful metric to measure success. Improving sales effectiveness means understanding what’s working and not working. It also means continuous improvement of the knowledge, messages and strategies that your sales reps apply to sales opportunities. As a manager, you can make changes to improve future sales after analyzing sales reps’ performance. A big part of that analysis is asking “What activities are driving sales, and are those activities “high value?” Compare the average number of activities associated with opportunities. Compare those activities to opportunities that were won during the quarter. Focus on sales reps with high-value activities, and assess the impact of those activities on closing deals. Whew, this is getting a little heavy. Activities, high value, assess, compare. Let’s simplify it a little. You must identify the sales reps who make activities pay off. What are they doing that other reps aren’t doing? Are they using specific activities for certian opportunities? Which reps are super-active, setting a furious pace of winning deals? You also need to accept the fact that maybe effectiveness is not rep-specific. It could simply be trending- you know, the trend is your friend, until it’s not. Maybe it’s a specific day of the week where activities have a magical effect on potential customers. That’s why you see spikes of activities on those days. Another critical factor to success is the average pace and duration of won deals. Which deals are off pace and getting “stuck.” Examine closely the various stages of sales. Usually, sales movement is broken up into five or six stages. How long is it taking a deal to reach a stage? Any opportunities that are more than 50 percent off pace should be called out and looked into quickly. What are the stage durations for winning opportunities? How long does a winning deal spend in a specific stage? Opportunities in a stage more than 50 percent of the winning duration should be called out and investigated. “Effectiveness” is certainly an over-used word, and I wish we could pull up a synonym finder and replace it with something a little more tangible. You know, a word we could really wrap our arms around. But this is the sales business, and effectiveness means increasing revenues, upping win rates, making forecasts more accurate and improving the talent of our sales team. Certainly nothing to sniff at. Not if you want your company in the winner’s circle. How 'bout it?  What is "effective" for your sales organization? [Less]

For the uninitiated, the terms cloud computing, SaaS, IaaS, Paas, ASP, on-demand and on-prem can be needlessly confusing. Looking at these offerings at a high level will highlight the differences, though it’s worth noting that in a new and ... [More] ever-changing industry, nomenclature sometimes morphs along with the technologies. It helps to first look at the full stack. Cloud services can include all or just a few of the layers. For instance, in traditional packaged software, you manage it all—networking, storage, servers, virtualization, OS, middleware, runtime, data and applications. When you move to the cloud, you can outsource all or parts of the stack to take advantage of greater efficiencies and elasticity in scale. Term Definition Leading Provider Iaas Infrastructure as a Service Raw (block) storage, firewalls, load balancers and networks, on demand from large pools installed in data centers. Accommodates LAN or WAN connectivity, in carrier clouds or via dedicated VPNs. Amazon Web Services Rackspace Red Hat Google Compute Engine Paas Platform as a Service Networks, servers and storage that facilitate deployment of web-based applications and services. Usually includes IaaS layers as well. GoodData Google App Engine Heroku Force.com SaaS Software as a Service Software and associated data centrally hosted in the cloud, typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser. Like an ASP, but usually multi-tenant, rather than single tenant. GoodData Salesfore CRM ADP Zendesk On-Prem The “old way,” where the full stack is contained on your servers. Data may be accessed and available via cloud clients, but you maintain control of everything behind your firewall. MS Exchange MS Office IMB Cognos PeopleSoft   We left “On-Demand” out on purpose. Technically, it means that resources are queued up and ready for use when you need them. This attribute could apply to a managed server environment, not just a cloud service, however, the implication of on-demand is that you can scale up or down at the touch of a button. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS are all on-demand services. Now that we’ve covered our aaSes, anything else you’d like to see us address? [Less]

Michael Gear, GoodData's Vice President of  Sales & Field Ops, brings to you a five part blog series entitled, Kick Your Sales Into Gear: 5 Foolproof Steps.  Over the next two weeks Michael will share with his wisdom and experience for improving ... [More] both the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales organization. #1 What's Your Plan? Planning is certainly not the first love of sales managers. Besides, “The best laid plans of mice and men…...” well, you know how that goes. But, if you want to meet and even exceed your sales goals, you better have a plan. And, with business moving at breakneck speeds, real-time information must form the plan’s foundation. Because how can you plan, and know where you’re going, without a complete and detailed picture of where you are right now? With real-time data in hand, you’ll be able to minimize risks, highlight changes in opportunities and focus on high-value activities. The right (and current) data gives you great flexibility, allowing your organization to continually adapt to meet immediate needs. You want to run a successful sales organization? Then you have to use the data to plan and manage for success. No accurate data, no success. No plan based on that data, bye-bye to meeting sales goals. Avoid those no-no’s by using real-time data analysis to manage sales going forward. You’ll get a tactical view of the current sales situation, which will absolutely help ensure the success of your sales team. How much business is locked up? What progress are you making toward goals? Are you doing OK when you compare the current situation to historical estimates? Make sure you’re able to answer critical questions about the sales pipeline. Don’t slough off these queries with a “devil-may-care” attitude. Where am I now in the sales cycle? What deals are changing, and why? How can I react positively to what data is telling me? Where do I need to focus my efforts? Are there blind spots in my forecast? Drill into these questions. Unearth information that clearly shows best case/worst case scenarios. Don’t be left behind by competitors with no way to pull yourself forward. Have answers. Have a plan. Make sure you are on track to meet goals. Use the sales data at your disposal to sell. Put historical data in its place- in the past. Make your work life “data driven” to get answers to the most pressing concerns in real time. The critical data tells you if there is risk in the pipeline. If there is, and you planned ahead, you’ll have a way to alter the current path. Territory planning, coming up with quotas, managing forecasts and sales reps and reviewing everything will give you an unparalleled view into your organization. Planning effectively will eliminate end-of-quarter surprises. Get the Picture? Tell me if this aligns with your sales plan?   [Less]