Meet Andrew, a Tech Sales Manager for a growing start-up. He manages a small team of sales associates responsible for selling drone accessories. Recently, Andrew was asked to present his quarterly report to the executive team.
In his previous job, Andrew would send out quarterly sales reports, but he noticed two problems:
With SAP Analytics Cloud, Andrew can prepare real-time reports in easy-to-understand visual dashboards, and share them with anyone, anytime.
Since joining this new start-up, Andrew prefers this new way of doing things as opposed to traditional quarterly reports.
Using SAP Analytics Cloud, Andrew uses the powerful business intelligence software to create a story that covers:
Andrew has a total of eight sales associates and all of their performance metrics are kept in an excel spreadsheet. He begins by uploading all the sales data into SAP Analytics Cloud.
Looking at the data for Q2, Andrew creates charts and adds them to his story. His first chart shows all his sales associates, arranged from highest performing to lowest. He then drills down to see if any trends or patterns emerge.
Looking at the data visually allows him to see something very interesting that he did not previously see. He decides to include these insights in his presentation.
After adding a few more comparison charts to his story, Andrew's presentation is nearly complete.
Standing in front of the executive team, Andrew presents the insights he’s discovered using SAP Analytics Cloud, and proposes some actions that can be taken as a result of his findings.
First — Overlaying demographic data with the product SKU sales data, it revealed that David was the number one sales associate, bringing in over 17,000 in revenue. However, of those customers, 90% were Spanish speakers in a very specific region.
Second — Nancy was the second top performing sales associate. Looking at her sales, an interesting pattern emerged. Comparing sales data with an in-store survey, it showed that the majority of Nancy’s sales were from men under 30. This was previously not considered to be a large demographic for them.
Third — While overall revenue was up, return customers was low for the third quarter in a row. Looking at the P&L statement, the company was spending far too much money on customer acquisition and this was reducing profit margins. More than 70% of the customers who purchased, never returned.
Four — Setting sales thresholds, Andrew was able to pinpoint which markets were underperforming and then come up with solutions to bolster sales in those regions. Sales were strong in San Francisco, but weak in San Jose.
Happy with his findings, the CEO decides to use the information from Andrew’s sales data presentation to carry out the following implementations:
By visualizing customer analytics and sales data, Andrew was able to gain more insight into in his company’s business. He was also able to clearly communicate his findings with the executive team so they could make relevant and meaningful decisions to drive sales and engage with customers.
SAP Analytics Cloud is a market leader in analytics and business intelligence software. SAP Analytics Cloud helps organizations of all sizes fight the damaging effects of complexity, empowering them to generate new opportunities for innovation and growth, and stay ahead of the competition.
In his previous job, Andrew would send out quarterly sales reports, but he noticed two problems:
- Sending spreadsheets made it difficult for the executive team to contextualize and interpret the data. In fact, he wasn’t sure the executive team even looked at the data.
- Reporting every quarter made it hard to capitalize on the data — they were always playing catch up. By the time they could act on the data, a new report was due.
With SAP Analytics Cloud, Andrew can prepare real-time reports in easy-to-understand visual dashboards, and share them with anyone, anytime.
Since joining this new start-up, Andrew prefers this new way of doing things as opposed to traditional quarterly reports.
Preparing his Presentation
Using SAP Analytics Cloud, Andrew uses the powerful business intelligence software to create a story that covers:
- Profit and loss statement (P&L)
- Most profitable products
- Most profitable region
Andrew has a total of eight sales associates and all of their performance metrics are kept in an excel spreadsheet. He begins by uploading all the sales data into SAP Analytics Cloud.
Looking at the data for Q2, Andrew creates charts and adds them to his story. His first chart shows all his sales associates, arranged from highest performing to lowest. He then drills down to see if any trends or patterns emerge.
Looking at the data visually allows him to see something very interesting that he did not previously see. He decides to include these insights in his presentation.
After adding a few more comparison charts to his story, Andrew's presentation is nearly complete.
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What Were Andrew’s Findings?
Standing in front of the executive team, Andrew presents the insights he’s discovered using SAP Analytics Cloud, and proposes some actions that can be taken as a result of his findings.First — Overlaying demographic data with the product SKU sales data, it revealed that David was the number one sales associate, bringing in over 17,000 in revenue. However, of those customers, 90% were Spanish speakers in a very specific region.
- Proposed solution: Hire more Spanish speaking sales associates and look into growing their product line in this expanding Spanish market.
Second — Nancy was the second top performing sales associate. Looking at her sales, an interesting pattern emerged. Comparing sales data with an in-store survey, it showed that the majority of Nancy’s sales were from men under 30. This was previously not considered to be a large demographic for them.
- Proposed solution: Drilling down further to see what products are selling in this growing market segment, they can pinpoint exactly what this target group is buying and tailor their approach to optimize sales and engagement.
Third — While overall revenue was up, return customers was low for the third quarter in a row. Looking at the P&L statement, the company was spending far too much money on customer acquisition and this was reducing profit margins. More than 70% of the customers who purchased, never returned.
- Proposed solution: This issue could indicate a customer satisfaction or product quality issue and the need for more research and development. Using time-based visualizations and variance models, they could look for patterns that could be used to increase the lifetime value of a customer.
Four — Setting sales thresholds, Andrew was able to pinpoint which markets were underperforming and then come up with solutions to bolster sales in those regions. Sales were strong in San Francisco, but weak in San Jose.
- Proposed solution: Noticing that the marketing spend was nearly three times as high in San Francisco, he recommended increasing their marketing presence in neighboring regions.
How Andrew’s Findings are being Implemented
Happy with his findings, the CEO decides to use the information from Andrew’s sales data presentation to carry out the following implementations:
- Increase marketing spend in underperforming regions and demographics
- Focus on product development in expanding markets
- Hire more Spanish speaking associates in anticipation of increasing market share in those regions
- Adding an automated system to filter calls to certain associates to optimize conversion
- Pinpoint which products sell in which regions to ensure inventory is up to date
By visualizing customer analytics and sales data, Andrew was able to gain more insight into in his company’s business. He was also able to clearly communicate his findings with the executive team so they could make relevant and meaningful decisions to drive sales and engage with customers.
Why SAP Analytics Cloud for Tech Sales Managers?
SAP Analytics Cloud is a market leader in analytics and business intelligence software. SAP Analytics Cloud helps organizations of all sizes fight the damaging effects of complexity, empowering them to generate new opportunities for innovation and growth, and stay ahead of the competition.
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