Yes, you have been collecting Sales & Marketing data as an organization. In fact, your organization has made great progression in collecting data and you have lots of it. It is said to be the ‘oil of the 21st century’. But you are not able to turn it into a competitive edge. No, you are drowning in it.
Making the choice to become insight-driven
When talking to business leaders there seems to be consensus that insights from data can help you to make better decisions and bring focus. The examples are all around. Like being able to assess the outcomes of different scenarios in a fact-based manner to decide on the best next step. And being able to improve sales team performance by coaching based on insights.
But consider this: it is a strategic choice to become more insight driven as an organization that requires a focused effort. It does not happen by itself overnight.
What does it take
Spoiler-alert: it does take more than having the right technology to become truly insight-driven. Technology will not create value by itself. Capabilities need to be aligned across 5 dimensions to be able to fully reap the benefits of an insights-driven organization:
- Technology
- People
- Management
- Organization
- Data
There needs to be a fit with the technology you have and your people that master the skill of translating data into insights. If there is a disbalance your experts will be either overwhelmed or bored. And the dimension (technology or people) that is least developed will be your limiting factor for creating value. This is in fact true for every of the dimensions.
Do you ask the right questions and are insights used? The mindset to steer on factualized insight and not (only) gut feeling needs to be there in all management layers.
Obviously, this interplay needs to be organized accordingly. And most definitely, you want it to be built on a foundation of data you can trust. Each of these elements have the potential to hold you back.
Planning your journey
Obviously, not every organization has the same level of ambition and the same point of departure. Going all out on AI may be a bridge too far for one organization where first small steps on getting basic insights is required first. Whilst for a different organization, experimentation with advanced analytics is old news and it is now a matter of making these ‘experiments’ repeatable and operationalized.
Not one journey will be exactly the same. Yet the commonalities can be found in that growth in the 5 dimensions described need to be aligned.
What is your organization’s ambition with respect to making decisions on insights in 1 year? And within 2 to 3 years?
Taking your first step
Interested to learn on how to pinpoint in what areas you need to grow as an organization to become more insight-driven and realize your ambition? Join our upcoming webinar on Wednesday the 17th of March and sign-up via the form on the right.