IMPROVING SALES GROWTH BY USING DATA ANALYSIS & STRATEGY

An increasingly popular international app startup needed to figure out why their sales team was only averaging 1.2 closes (sales) per month. Falling quite short of their goal of 2.5 closes per month, the company needed to find the problem and make improvements, before the sales slump affected investors and long-term growth.

The company was able to implement suggestions and raise their average sales closing rate by 33% among their entire sales team, exceeding their initial sales goal.

1.2 BEFORE - Average monthly sales (closes) per sales associate

3.6 AFTER - Average monthly sales (closes) per sales associate

33% Overall sales avg. increase

The multi-service platform startup company had a sales team of approximately 130 associates.

With plans to double their sales team within the next year, they quickly needed to get their sales average up to a minimum of 2.5 closes per month, per sales team member.

Unfortunately, the company was unable to figure out what was affecting their sales averages, or why their sales associates were unable to close their sales.

Luckily, a company representative discovered OWLLytics on LinkedIn, after reviewing dashboard and data storytelling content we had created previously.

The company contracted with OWLLytics for three months to analyze the sales data, gather an in-depth understanding of the sales processes, and determine what was going wrong and how to fix it.

The company had ambitious goals to grow into a large tech disruptor, and was securing investors and growing rapidly. Upon examining the company’s sales data and processes, there were several areas of concern identified:

Of the 130 sales associates employed by the company, 100 of them had been hired within the last 3 months. Only 12 sales associates had been with the organization for 9 months or more.

By breaking the sales associates down into three time-based categories, we were able to get a clearer look at the sales data to determine actual closing rates.

The three categories were identified as:

➡Newbies: on the sales team between 0 to 4 months

➡Settlers: on the sales team between 5 to 9 months

➡Veterans: on the sales team for at least 9 months or more.

Among these groups, the current average sales closing rates were:

➡Newbies average: 0.3 closes per month

➡Settlers average: 1.4 closes per month

➡Veterans average: 2.6 closes per month

It was also discovered that the company used the exact same process to train all of their sales associates, even if they had zero prior sales experience.

The immediate goal became to increase the closing rates among the two newer categories of sales associates. This would require improvements to the training process and ongoing support for the sales staff.

By looking at the individual sales metrics for each category of sales associates, we were able to see a clear correlation between the time of employment and the success rate of closing sales.

Upon discovering this information, we helped the company to do the following:

➡ Identify where additional and/or better training was needed among the various levels of sales associates.

➡ Create a mentorship and training program to help share tips and methodologies between the Veterans sales associates and junior associates.

➡ Increase the sales average among the ‘Newbies’ sales associates to 0.9 closes per month.

➡ Increase the overall sales average to 3.6 closes per month within a 6 month period, which was a 33% increase.

Additionally, the organization was able to clearly communicate these results to investors, increasing the confidence of investors and secure financing needed to maintain growth.