By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics in sports industry
    Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
    6 Min Read
    data analytics on nursing career
    Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
    8 Min Read
    data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
    Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
    9 Min Read
    data-driven image seo
    Data Analytics Helps Marketers Substantially Boost Image SEO
    8 Min Read
    construction analytics
    5 Benefits of Analytics to Manage Commercial Construction
    5 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Analytics and the art of selling
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics
data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
Analytics
anti-spoofing tips
Anti-Spoofing is Crucial for Data-Driven Businesses
Security
ai in software development
3 AI-Based Strategies to Develop Software in Uncertain Times
Software
Aa
SmartData Collective
Aa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Inside Companies > Analytics and the art of selling
Inside Companies

Analytics and the art of selling

JamesTaylor
Last updated: 2010/11/24 at 9:29 PM
JamesTaylor
4 Min Read
SHARE

I saw this interesting McKinsey piece recently – Rediscovering the art of selling – McKinsey Quarterly – Retail & Consumer Goods – Strategy & Analysis – and I was struck by the value of analytics in this context. What retailers really need to do, according to McKinsey, is focus on hiring sales people with personality, extroverts motivated by helping customers.

I saw this interesting McKinsey piece recently – Rediscovering the art of selling – McKinsey Quarterly – Retail & Consumer Goods – Strategy & Analysis – and I was struck by the value of analytics in this context. What retailers really need to do, according to McKinsey, is focus on hiring sales people with personality, extroverts motivated by helping customers. And they need to spend time training this folks on sales techniques, approachability, reading body language (to tell who wants to be left alone) and much more. Do this, the article says, and your closing, cross- and up-selling will be far more successful. So far so good.

But the reality of a modern retailer is that there are a tremendous number of products with lots of potential cross- and up-sells to choose from. Even someone with the skills you need might not be good at, say, color matching making it hard for them to make the right clothing choice for an outfit. Add in multiple discounts, loyalty programs and other forms of dynamic pricing and you have a complex environment. Retailers feel that have to invest resources and time in training staff about these things, reducing the time available for sales skills training, and even that they must hire for an ability to understand this complexity even at the expense of the personality and sales skills they need. A case of being between a rock and a hard place?

No, enter analytics. With decent analysis of their historical data and a focus on the decisions that have to happen during the sales process, retailers can spend their time and energy training staff on the sft skills they need and let their systems and analytics do the rest of the work. They can use business rules/analytics and decisioning to answer questions like what discount does this customer get, what’s the best up-sell for this customer given their purchases, what’s the best cross-sell that will complete the outfit they are buying. They can analyze sales data, loyalty card data and external data and use rules derived from this data or from their best sales people. If they adopt the “swipe first” loyalty card approach they can empower their staff to do even more by leveraging everything they know right at the start of a conversation.

More Read

supply chain analytics

Automotive Industry Uses Analytics To Solve Pressing Supply Chain Issues

How can CIOs Build Business Value with Business Analytics?
Seven Benefits of Using AI to Perform Text Analysis
7 Data Lineage Tool Tips For Preventing Human Error in Data Processing
Data Analytics Plays a Vital Role in Teacher Verification Software

Your staff don’t need to be able to make all these “technical” decisions – you can build systems that act as effective advisers to them freeing them to work on their people skills, customer interactions and actually selling.

 

Copyright © 2010 http://jtonedm.com James Taylor

TAGGED: analytics
JamesTaylor November 24, 2010
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

data analytics in sports industry
Here’s How Data Analytics In Sports Is Changing The Game
Big Data
data analytics on nursing career
Advances in Data Analytics Are Rapidly Transforming Nursing
Analytics
data analytics reveals the benefits of MBA
Data Analytics Technology Proves Benefits of an MBA
Analytics
anti-spoofing tips
Anti-Spoofing is Crucial for Data-Driven Businesses
Security

Stay Connected

1.2k Followers Like
33.7k Followers Follow
222 Followers Pin

You Might also Like

supply chain analytics
Analytics

Automotive Industry Uses Analytics To Solve Pressing Supply Chain Issues

6 Min Read
Analytics

How can CIOs Build Business Value with Business Analytics?

8 Min Read
text analytics
Text Analytics

Seven Benefits of Using AI to Perform Text Analysis

9 Min Read
data lineage tool
Big Data

7 Data Lineage Tool Tips For Preventing Human Error in Data Processing

6 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

data-driven web design
5 Great Tips for Using Data Analytics for Website UX
Big Data
AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US

© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?