Business intelligence tools are designed to analyze business data, helping companies and organizations to get insights into the aspects that they need to improve on to drive their business forward and achieve their goals.

Through Business Intelligence or BI, organizations can have the data they need to enable them to make informed, intelligent decisions about the different aspects of their business, such as operations and marketing.

One area where BI solutions prove to be indispensable is in sales. After all, being able to track, monitor, and understand relationships among variables (customers, products, and pricing) can spell the difference between business success and failure.

Here, we discuss the top five benefits that business intelligence tools can offer sales professionals so they can up their game, make profitable decisions, and ultimately make their business grow.

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Deliver effective marketing campaigns

Through powerful analytical tools, BI solutions can provide companies with valuable information that can be utilized to drive sales. BI software enables organizations to capitalize on existing customer relationships to drive upsells and cross-sells, and effectively deliver targeted marketing campaigns.

BI solutions help companies to identify gaps in sales–which product groups are selling, and which are not? The critical information provided by BI software allows decision-makers to come up with solutions to address the sales gaps as well as identify areas for potential growth.

Share relevant business data and create reports efficiently

In many organizations, business data is often recorded and kept in different data storage solutions and systems. Now the requires sales professionals to, sometimes, request for information from different departments, and then try to collate different reports into one. You can see how this uses up a lot of time and resources, an issue that can be easily be addressed when you use business intelligence tools.

BI software provides companies with a central, single source of relevant business data, integrating seamlessly with existing company systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Point of Sale (PoS), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

This integration allows sales professionals to access relevant data and gather insights quickly. In addition, reports can be created and shared in a more efficient and productive manner, resulting in a better understanding of business data, a more streamlined business operation, and a more collaborative and transparent sales culture.

Some of the best BI tools that allow for customized reporting are Clear Analytics, SAP Business Intelligence, Microstrategy, Intelex Business Management Software, Birst, DBxtra, Stonefield Query, Profitbase Suite, Tableau Business Intelligence, and InfoZoom. You can read business intelligence tool reviews to understand which BI software suite will be a good fit for your company.

Improve customer service and increase customer satisfaction

BI solutions provide companies with information about customers–both target and existing–such as customer preferences, demographics, feedback, and current market trends. Gathering data is made easier with BI software that can automatically harvest information such as social media comments and ratings, product purchases, blog post views, ad clicks, and email queries.

Knowing what customers want or think about your company’s products or services enables you to respond and meet those needs by improving your performance and product offerings. This, in turn will put you in a good light as a company that actually listens to your customers. By giving customers a better overall experience, your company will increase customer satisfaction and eventually brand loyalty.

Make intelligent, data-driven decisions

You can have all the business data that you want, but if you don’t make sense of it through analysis, it’s not going to help you come up with good business decisions. BI software addresses this need to turn raw data into useful information so you can make intelligent and profitable decisions.

According to a study, a data-driven decision has a 79 percent higher chance of success compared with a decision based on pure intuition. Thanks to BI solutions, you won’t have to rely on intuition–you’ll have a solid quantitative foundation on which to base your decisions.

BI software provides organizations not only with historical and current views of business operations but also with predictive analysis so they can determine the outcome of a proposed project or opportunity. This is important for sales professionals so they can identify best practices and sales analyses to see what works and what can be improved.

Facilitate interdepartmental support and coordination

BI analyses and reports benefit not only the sales team but also other departments such as marketing and operations, which will also be able to better plan according to their objectives.

The marketing team, for example, can coordinate with the sales team and get information that can help them determine which campaigns are driving sales and which are not. They can then make strategic decisions and refine campaigns. And because data is updated in real-time, other departments will be able to see the relevant information that they need to improve their own processes.

Conclusion

Listed above are five of the best benefits that BI solutions can offer sales-based businesses. With BI software, companies can manage and update different data points and key performance indicators from one hub. Using BI tools is the fast, easy, and efficient way to get relevant information to help you decide on the best steps to take to drive business growth.

Author Bio:

Erika is a marketing specialist for Betterbuys.com. Better Buys has become a trusted authority for delivering unbiased, expert insights on the software and technology that businesses rely on. You can follow us at @Better_Buys