How To Use Sales Intelligence To Make Your Business More Profitable: The Ultimate Guide

Hey there! As a fellow data geek, I‘m excited to dive into this guide on how to leverage sales intelligence to accelerate growth and boost profits. With the right intelligence, you can gain a major competitive edge. But done wrong, it’s just wasted effort.

So in this guide, I’ll share my perspectives as an analytics nerd on how to extract real business value from sales intelligence. Think of me as your data-savvy friend walking you through the critical aspects step-by-step. Let‘s get to it!

What Exactly is Sales Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?

Sales intelligence refers to collecting and analyzing data related to your sales processes, performance metrics, customers, and market landscape.

The goal is simple: arm your sales teams with timely insights to engage prospects more effectively and win more deals.

But how big of an impact can sales intelligence really have? The data shows it’s significant:

89% faster quota attainment
32% higher win rates
67% larger deal sizes
27% shorter sales cycles

That‘s based on research by Aberdeen Group. So companies leveraging intelligence close more deals, faster, and with bigger price tags.

As your data-focused friend, I can’t stress enough what a competitive advantage sales intelligence delivers. The data and visibility it provides pays dividends across your entire revenue engine.

To put some numbers to it, for a company doing $10 million in revenue at a 20% profit margin, if sales intelligence helps boost revenue growth by 15%, that’s an extra $1.5 million in revenue and $300,000 in pure profit…year after year!

So in my view as an analytics advocate, NOT investing in sales intelligence is leaving a ton of money on the table. With the right data and insights, your sales teams can systematically target the right accounts, have relevant conversations, and execute strategies that turn more prospects into customers.

Okay, let‘s now dive into the different types of intelligence you should be gathering.

The 4 Buckets of Sales Intelligence Data

In my experience, there are four high-level categories of intelligence to harness:

1. Firmographic Data

These are overall attributes and demographics of your target customer companies, such as:

Industry, sub-industry
Location, headquarters
Company size/headcount
Revenue, growth rate
Funding details
Technologies used across their business

Firmographic data enables you to identify high-value accounts in your ideal market size or vertical. It also helps you understand their landscape and tech ecosystems.

2. Behavioral and Intent Data

These signals reveal prospect engagement levels and buying considerations, for example:

Website visits, content downloads
Email opens, call-to-action click-throughs
Online ad views and clicks
Tradeshow attendance
Keyword searches
Social media channel activity

Collectively, these intent indicators allow you to see which prospects are in-market for solutions and ready to buy.

3. Technographic Data

Technographic data provides visibility into the specific solutions prospects currently use, including:

CRM, marketing automation platforms
Developer tools and frameworks
Infrastructure like cloud hosting, servers
Industry-specific applications and systems
Integrations and APIs

Understanding prospect tech stacks sheds light on potential pain points and where your solution can add value. This data is like gold for crafting tailored messaging.

4. Tactical Win/Loss Data

Win/loss data encompasses granular analysis of previous deal outcomes:

Buyer persona models of won vs. lost deals
Sales cycle stages and bottlenecks
Pricing thresholds and deal terms
Competitor presence in won/lost deals
Gaps in positioning or messaging

As your data-focused friend, I view win/loss reviews as a goldmine for identifying what’s working well versus areas for improvement.

With this complete view combining market analytics, intent signals, and historical deal forensics, you gain an information advantage over your competitors. Now let’s explore some proven ways to gather intelligence across these areas.

Top 8 Ways to Gather Sales Intelligence

While sales intelligence software can automatically aggregate data, it’s also important to manually gather intelligence.

Here are eight ways I recommend based on experience:

1. Analyze Your CRM Data

Your CRM system should be ground zero for intelligence gathering. Pull reports on:

Win/loss ratios by deal size, industry, account type
Sales cycle length trends by product line, region
Average response times, overall lead engagement
Common bottlenecks in the pipeline

Uncovering patterns in won deals versus losses helps illuminate sales effectiveness gaps. Look for actionable correlations in the data to fine-tune strategy.

2. Voice-of-Customer Insights

Connecting directly with current or past customers, whether via interviews, surveys, or reviews, provides qualitative insights into their buying journey:

How they initially perceived your company
Pain points that prompted purchase consideration
Where competitors fell short
Standout elements of the sales process

Incorporating their candid feedback into your intelligence helps uncover blindspots and opportunities to improve. I’m a huge fan of VoC insights.

3. Sales Team Debriefs

Your sales reps are on the front lines engaging prospects daily. Their observations and anecdotes contain valuable intelligence, so proactively debrief them:

Common prospect questions, objections, frustrations
Major competitive threats
Product capabilities buyers ask for most
Vibe at recent industry events or conferences

Empower sales reps to feed key insights upward into your intelligence system.

4. Support Ticket Analysis

Your customer support logs contain a goldmine of ‘voice of user‘ intelligence:

Integration and compatibility pain points
Workflow hurdles and desired enhancements
UX friction and complaints
Bugs impacting adoption

Analyzing these signals helps sales teams articulate product value and improvements better.

5. Marketing Campaign Performance

Marketing campaign analytics reveal which strategies and messaging resonate most with your audience:

Highest converting lead gen offers, ads, landing pages
Top downloaded content assets
Most trafficked website pages and blog content
Referral sources generating quality leads

Lean heavily into campaigns, content, and channels that move the needle.

6. Third-Party Firmographic Data

Services like ZoomInfo, DiscoverOrg, and Clearbit offer expansive B2B database profiles. Leverage these tools to:

Search for companies matching your ideal customer profile
Identify key accounts in target regions, industries, company sizes
Uncover org charts, contact details, and technographics

Their data powers precise lead targeting and prioritization.

7. News Monitoring

Staying on top of news and events impacting accounts, competitors, and your market allows you to capitalize on opportunities. Set up alerts for:

Funding events, leadership changes, M&A activity
New product or feature launches
Quarterly earnings, financial results
Partnerships, integrations, tech stack moves

Major developments often prompt evaluation initiatives ripe for your solution.

8. Competitor Tracking

Monitoring competitors provides perspective on their offerings, messaging, pricing, and more. Regularly assess:

Product updates, releases, feature gaps
Launches, campaigns, and positioning
Pricing changes, discounts
Events, sponsorships, content plays

Their moves could impact your strategy or provide new sales ammunition.

This “outside-in” data spanning customers, prospects, competitors, and your market combines with internal intelligence to craft informed strategies that outmaneuver competitors.

Now let’s pivot to tactical ways sales teams can activate intelligence based on their sales model.

Sales Intelligence for Account-Based Sales

Account-based sales focuses on targeted, strategic accounts versus high-volume lead generation. Here are 5 ways sales intelligence powers account-based models:

1. Profile Your Ideal Accounts

Analyze your historical won deals and best customers. Look for common attributes like:

Industry, sub-vertical
Revenue size and growth
Tech stack similarities
Geography or regional clusters

Define specific ideal account profiles to target across segments. Data is your compass.

2. Identify and Prioritize Target Accounts

Leverage intent data and firmographic databases to surface accounts matching your ideal profiles. Prioritize accounts considering:

Revenue potential
Recent funding, growth signals
Tech stack alignment
Competitor presence
Known needs or pain points

Concentrate on accounts where you can create most value.

3. Map Account Stakeholder Networks

For priority accounts, use LinkedIn and specialized tools to map the decision-making unit:

Executives
Business unit leaders
Technical teams
Project management roles
Finance stakeholders

Understand the hierarchy and relationships to navigate the complex web of influencers.

4. Monitor Digital Body Language

Track target account activity across the web for engagement signals to guide outreach timing and personalization:

Visits to key website pages
Content downloads
Paid ad clicks
Webinar registrations
Email opens, click-throughs
Social media mentions

Activity spikes suggest accounts ramping up evaluations.

5. Orchestrate Omnichannel Outreach

Map intelligence insights to tailored nurture streams spanning:

Segmented email sequences
Targeted digital and social ads
Personalized direct mail campaigns
Sales plays aligned to use cases

Thenexecute orchestrated outreach personalized to each account.

With the right intelligence, your account-based strategy can zero in on high-value targets ready for solutions.

Sales Intelligence for Lead-Based Models

For transactional lead-driven sales, intelligence powers your entire funnel to improve conversion rates.

1. Build Detailed Buyer Personas

Analyze won deals to uncover your best customer profiles based on:

Firmographics like company size, industry
Demographics including role seniority, location
Psychographics like motivations, challenges, values

Map personas into your lead scoring model to qualify prospects better.

2. Understand Digital Body Language

Review web analytics and marketing campaign data to identify:

Where target personas congregate online
Assets and content resonating most
Highest converting inbound channels

Double down on proven channels and content types.

3. Monitor Prospect Interests

Leverage keyword and topic tracking tools to identify themes your audience searches:

Industry terminology
Product features/capabilities
Common pain points
Competitor brand searches

Then align content and messaging to trending interests.

4. Build a Robust Tech Stack Taxonomy

Catalog the wide array of technologies prospects use across:

Categories like CRM, marketing automation, collaboration tools
Popular tools like Salesforce, Slack, WordPress
Specific versions used

Tag leads accordingly to personalize outreach.

5. Analyze Anonymous Website Activity

Use intent monitoring to uncover patterns in anonymous website activity:

Pages visited, entry/exit points
Content downloads
Company attributes based on IP identification

Retarget and nurture anonymous contacts showing engagement.

6. Continuously Optimize Lead Management

Regularly evaluate metrics on:

Lead response rates
Nurture stream effectiveness
Sales cycle trends
Qualified lead sources

And fine-tune lead scoring, nurturing, and routing to maximize conversion.

With the right sales intelligence, you can supercharge the entire lead-to-customer journey.

Key Takeaways on Leveraging Sales Intelligence

Alright, let‘s tie this all together with some key takeaways for making the most of sales intelligence:

Sales intelligence should be a core element of any profit-focused sales strategy. The data it provides guides smarter targeting, conversations, and strategy.
Compile a mix of firmographic, intent, technographic, and win/loss data for a truly comprehensive view of your market landscape and opportunities.
Gather intelligence from both internal sources like CRM and external signals like news alerts and market reports.
For account-based models, identify ideal customer profiles, monitor engagement, and orchestrate personalized outreach.
For lead-based models, build buyer personas, track digital body language, and refine lead management accordingly.
Regularly evaluate performance on key indicators like win rates to optimize your intelligence-driven strategy over time.
Ultimately, implementing a rigorous approach to sales intelligence establishes an empirical foundation to boost revenue growth and profitability.

I hope these perspectives and tactics resonate as a data-focused guide to elevating your sales effectiveness through intelligence. Let me know if any questions pop up along your journey leveraging these strategies!