In the modern business world, so-called “Big Data” contains powerful insights. Collecting data on sales and business operations is the easy part; it is understanding and analyzing the collected data that can be challenging. In insurance telemarketing, identifying qualified leads by leveraging the power of sales intelligence data can point to new opportunities, helping your agency to grow. In this guide, we will explore sales intelligence and how you can use this data to increase your deal closure rate.
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What is Sales Intelligence?
Gathering information – collecting intelligence — before business decisions are made is a time-honored formula for success. Conducting intelligence is a key method to avoid cost overruns, reducing or eliminating strategic mistakes, and helping to identify new business opportunities.
Sales intelligence is the process of collecting sales data, then analyzing that data to reveal insights about your business prospects – either leads or existing customers. Numerous third-party data collection and analysis tools are available for insurance agencies, giving them the means of better understanding what their prospects and customers are after. Ultimately, sales intelligence facilitates the closing of deals.
What Sales Data is Important?
Hundreds of data sets are available when collecting intelligence to make business decisions. While each set can have benefits for business growth, several sets stand out in sales intelligence. These include:
- Why current customers converted or made the transition from prospect to paying customer.
- What purchasing or information-collecting intent your prospects and customers have before making a purchasing decision.
- Preferences and behaviors of customers.
- Demographic characteristics of your target audiences.
- Satisfaction levels of customers, particularly after a sale is completed.
It is important to note that sales intelligence will be unique to your business operation. It is a good idea to evaluate general business data in the intelligence-gathering process, but your own customer preferences, behaviors, and intents stand out as the keys to unlocking new opportunities, such as in insurance telemarketing initiatives.
Four Factors Influencing Sales Intelligence
Now that we have gained an understanding of sales intelligence and what data can reveal customer patterns and preferences, there are four factors that influence your agency’s ability to leverage this information as a means of improving deal closure rates. These factors are:
- Gathering data from multiple sources. Not every source will agree, thus necessitating data collection from as many different sources as possible to gain real insights.
- Using sales intelligence tools and apps to collect data in different formats or ways.
- Organizing the data that is collected.
- Making sure the data being collected is from real-time sources, allowing for real-time decisions.
Perhaps one of the leading real-time sources of this concept is that of social media. Buying signals and consumer preferences/interactions are a valuable source of details for sales teams. And, because social media moves so quickly, being able to make sales decisions in the same fast time frame is critical in closing deals.
What can Sales Intelligence Tools Do?
Insurance telemarketing relies on several strategies for success. The first is identifying prospective customers, or those most like to begin and end the purchasing journey with your agency. Sales intelligence can help you to pinpoint those prospects – qualified leads that save your sales team time, effort, and money. Sales intelligence tools offer a dizzying array of abilities, including:
- Automating certain sales processes, letting sales reps do more with their time.
- Facilitating data analysis, helping to reveal patterns that can point to new sales opportunities.
- Helping to personalize customer outreach initiatives.
- Integrating data streams with sales software or customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.
Sales intelligence is the future of insurance telemarketing. By leveraging the power and the potential of this data collection and analysis technique, insurance agencies can improve their sales figures and help the agency to grow organically with a relatively small investment in the tools to facilitate this process.
About Neilson Marketing Services
Since 1988, Neilson Marketing Services has been implementing innovative marketing solutions and strategies for our clients in all areas of marketing. Contact us today at (866) 816-1849 to put our talent, expertise, and vast resources to work for you. Let’s make things happen, together!
