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How to Use Sales Data for Better Decision Making

Aug 12, 2020
2 min read
Personal data is making the news for its widespread, controversial use. But at Xactly, we know that sales data is the key to answering some of the industries’ most challenging questions.

If you’ve been paying attention to the latest news cycle (we know, they move fast these days.) You may have caught wind that the popular social media app TikTok, known for its bite-sized videos and mass appeal with Gen-Z, is at risk of being banned in the United States due to data security issues.  

And TikTok isn’t alone. Many technology giants are currently facing scrutiny and taking heat for their widespread use of personal data.

But What Happens When Data is Used for Good?

That’s the question Xactly has been answering for the past fifteen years. 

When Chris Cabrera founded Xactly in 2005, data wasn’t yet the buzzword that it is today. He’s even noted that we were either “really lucky or really smart” to ask customers to share their sales data in an anonymized way. Fast-forward to 2020, and we have over 90% of our customers "opting-in" to be a part of our sales data benchmarks.

Clients that use these sales data benchmarks, known as Xactly Insights, can better understand how they are operating compared to industry trends in these ever-changing times. And because Cabrera had the foresight to start collecting this data, no other vendor has what Xactly can offer in terms of an extensive aggregated and anonymized sales data set. 

Using this sales data set from nearly 1,500 customers, Xactly has been able to provide leaders with the insights they need to make challenging decisions around hiring, compensation, seasonality, and more.

Sales Data: The Key to Savvy Decision Making

Forrester states that 80 percent of leaders agree that having access to cross-company and cross-industry sales performance benchmarking recommendations would be helpful to their sales organizations. Yet, the majority of them do not have access to them.

Today’s growth strategy leaders need data-driven insights. We are able to offer actionable recommendations based on your organization’s data combined with relevant market data. This information gives companies the ability to: 

  • Manage sales resource and capacity planning more easily 
  • Identify how your company compares with itself, the competition, and other industry peers
  • Plan for changes and seasonality 
  • Examine a host of elements to identify trends, including role, tenure, region, etc.
  • Leverage data for analysis that spans 17+ different industries

Harnessing the power of AI, our scalable, cloud-based platform combines great software with the industry’s most comprehensive b data set. This allows us to give customers the specific, timely insights they need to improve sales performance by growing revenue, reducing risk, and containing costs. 

If you want to learn more about the importance of data and Sales Performance Management, our upcoming webinar with Forrester analyst Mary Shea will be a great opportunity to ask questions and get more familiar with how the experts are thinking about the new sales industry imperatives.

  • Sales Performance Management
Author
Jordan Scott Headshot
Jordan Scott
,
Senior Manager, PR and Customer Communications

Jordan Scott is the Senior Manager of PR and Customer Communications at Xactly. She attended The University of California at Santa Cruz, and received degrees in Literature and Education.