Data Driven: How Performance Analytics Delivers Extraordinary Sales Results - Hardcover

Dearborn, Jenny

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119043123 ISBN 13: 9781119043126

Publisher: Wiley, 2015

Synopsis

A "how-to" guide to boosting sales through predictive and prescriptive analytics

Data Driven is a uniquely practical guide to increasing sales success, using the power of data analytics. Written by one of the world's leading authorities on the topic, this book shows you how to transform the corporate sales function by leveraging big data into better decision-making, more informed strategy, and increased effectiveness throughout the organization. Engaging and informative, this book tells the story of a newly hired sales chief under intense pressure to deliver higher performance from her team, and how data analytics becomes the ultimate driver behind the sales function turnaround. Each chapter features insightful commentary and practical notes on the points the story raises, and one entire chapter is devoted solely to laying out the Prescriptive Action Model step-by-step giving you the actionable guidance you need to put it into action in your own organization.

Predictive and prescriptive analytics is poised to change corporate sales, and companies that fail to adapt to the new realities and adopt the new practices will be left behind. This book explains why the Prescriptive Action Model is the key corporate sales weapon of the 21st Century, and how you can implement this dynamic new resource to bring value to your business.

• Exploit one of the last remaining sources of competitive advantage
• Re-engineer the sales function to optimize success rates
• Implement a more effective analytics model to drive efficient change
• Boost operational effectiveness and decision making with big data

There are fewer competitive edges to gain than ever before. The only thing that's left is to execute business with maximum efficiency and make the smartest business decisions possible. Predictive analytics is the essential method behind this new standard, and Data Driven is the practical guide to complete, efficient implementation.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Praise for DATA DRIVEN

"Too often, the only data sales leaders have are backwards-looking, seen through the rear view mirror; but now with the ideas and models in Data Driven, you can use data to look through the windshield, to see where you're going."
―Randy Seidl, CEO, Revenue Acceleration, LLC

"This enjoyable read by Jenny Dearborn combines a relatable story about a struggling sales force with real-life, cutting-edge concepts that will teach you and your team all about data analytics and how to apply them. Read this book and learn from an expert how to transform the sales process in your organization and get powerful results."
―Ken Blanchard, Coauthor of The One Minute Manager®

"Jenny Dearborn has written a must-read for leaders at every level of growth-hungry businesses. Data Driven is a blueprint for building winning strategies, successful sales teams and sustainable customer relationships."
―Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP

"Jenny Dearborn's Prescriptive Action Model wrestles sales strategy from the grips of hindsightdriven thinking and offers a refreshing approach to real sales growth using data driven foresight."
―Charles L. Fred, Group President, Xerox and author of Breakaway

"If you want to take the sales function of your company to the next level, you've got to read Data Driven! Through an engaging fictional story and insightful commentary, Jenny Dearborn makes the complex subject of data analytics interesting, accessible, and practical."
―Chuck Battipede, Senior Vice President, Learning & Development, Hewlett-Packard

"A must read for all sales managers. Jenny uses colorful, fictional characters that engage in a constructive mind-set shift, which leads them to integrate all sales functions into a comprehensive data driven system. A fun and fast read for Millennials and a career survival handbook for anyone over 35."
―Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and Publisher, Selling Power

"Jenny Dearborn knows more than anybody about learning, analytics and sales organizations. If your future involves any of these, read this book!"
―Brandon Hall, Founder, Brandon Hall Group

"While Data Driven is a 'must follow' for any organization struggling with sales effectiveness, the roadmap and lessons included are relevant for any business transformation that requires accelerating team performance through laser-focus on the game-changing actions derived from multi-dimensional analytics."
―Angela Cinefro, Chief Human Resources Officer, Clarity Solution Group

"Regardless of your role, if you aspire to succeed in a strategic and predictable manner, you must embrace the power of analytics. This book focuses on sales, but it's applicable to just about any part of the organization. And, it's written so well that you don't have to be a numbers geek to understand the potential of data analytics. Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop―it's that good."
―Tony Bingham, President and CEO, Association for Talent Development

From the Inside Flap

Across business functions, competitive edge is being replaced by competitive efficiency. There are few, if any, unexploited market openings. Instead, winning businesses gain their advantage by taking smarter actions and predicting. Big data and analytics are the keys here, but so far almost no one is optimally leveraging these tools. Especially in sales, we pick up crumbs of insight here and there and timorously try a few things out, but mostly stick to the safety of our gut reactions. What we've been lacking is an all-encompassing approach to data analytics. Data Driven: How Performance Analytics Delivers Extraordinary Sales Results is the first book to show how to make data an integrated part of the entire sales cycle. When we can do that, the breakthrough results will follow.

Sales used to run on hunches and intuitions, but those days are over. Author Jenny Dearborn was one of the pioneers of this revolution in the sales function, and she has worked at Hewlett Packard and SAP and collaborated with dozens of other firms including Microsoft and Salesforce.com to revitalize sales in even the tightest markets. These experiences, along with over 100 interviews with top global sales leaders, formed the foundation for Data Driven, which presents the fictional story of Pam Sharp. Pam is the new Chief Sales Officer at Trajectory Systems and readers will see themselves in her effort to turn a flagging sales department into a driver of sustainable growth. Instead of taking a "buffet" approach, Pam generates organizational buy-in and builds data right into the structure of the company in a way that any enterprise-level sales leader can replicate.

In each chapter of Data Driven, Dearborn summarizes and provides insightful commentary on Pam's story, distilling the crucial lessons into how-to steps. The book culminates with the Prescriptive Action Model--a four-step process for going from data collection to action and pushing sales into the future. Charisma and "sales sense" won't get businesses far in today's tech-driven markets. Successful sales managers are already transforming sales into a fluid system of in formed actions that translate into productivity. Data Driven will help leaders stay on the leading end of this fast-moving curve.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1119043123
• ISBN 13: 9781119043126
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256