“Data-driven” is a popular term in the business world these days and it makes sense why: data is the helping hand that decision-makers have been needing. Data helps you troubleshoot your organization, understand your performance, and make better business decisions. It can’t come as too much of a surprise then that data is also of huge benefit for salespeople! By using the right data, salespeople will know whom to contact, when to contact them, and why to contact them. Knowing these things is part of what makes data an invaluable resource for the modern salesperson.
While the positives of applying data into your sales processes should not be discounted, it is important to note that the success of your data-driven sales efforts will ultimately be determined by the quality of the data you have access to. As a matter of fact, using erroneous data may actually end up doing you more harm than good!
For this reason, the applicability of static data for salespeople in a business environment, where change is constantly occurring, is limited, as the data quickly becomes inaccurate and outdated. Conversely, dynamic data enables a salesperson to keep their fingers on the pulse of organizations, helping salespeople stay up to date and informed as organizations undergo change. You’ve got to walk before you can run so, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s walk through the two types of data in a little more detail.
What is static data?
Static data is exactly what it sounds like: data that doesn’t change from the time it was originally recorded. In B2B sales, a typical source of static data is companies’ annual reports. The fact that static data is simply a notation of how something was at a specific point in time in the past, not necessarily how that same something is now, is what makes it a liability. How can you make informed decisions based on data over six months old?
Today’s world is changing at breakneck speed, and, as a result, companies are in flux. In fact, reports say that every 30 minutes, 120 business addresses change, 75 phone numbers change, 20 CEOs leave their jobs, and 30 new businesses are formed. Evidently, static data becomes erroneous in no time at all.
For this reason, the efficacy of purchasing static prospect lists is limited. Despite this, there are many organizations that continue to spend significant sums of money on the procurement of static data lists that will quickly grow obsolete. Why? If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that it’s likely that the organizations aren’t aware of the existence of a better way. Luckily for you, we’re about to talk all about it.
The efficacy of purchasing static prospect lists is limited. Despite this, there are many organizations that continue to spend significant sums of money on the procurement of static data lists that will quickly grow obsolete. Why?
A better way: dynamic data
In contrast to static data, dynamic data refers to data that is updated, after its initial recording, to maintain its quality. By implementing the use of dynamic data, you guarantee that your decision-making process will always be drawing upon up-to-date and accurate data, ensuring that you are able to make well-informed sales decisions.
In this way, dynamic data allows salespeople to be customer-centric in a way that static data does not. It makes sales prospecting easier. By having access to data that informs them of the current situation of an organization, as well as what recent changes the organization has undergone, salespeople are able to tailor their messaging and offer a personalized experience.
For example, salespeople working for a recruiting agency will obviously be on the lookout for companies that have job vacancies. Moreover, if they’re feeling a bit more proactive, these salespeople might also keep their eyes peeled for new capital investments: a company that has recently received an influx of capital is likely to start hiring soon after all! By having this information readily available, the recruiting agency salespeople would know exactly who to contact. And that’s the crux of this example: this type of information wouldn’t be useful if it came from a static list. By the time the salespeople got their hands on the static list of companies, which had openings when the list was created, the vacancy would already be filled.
That being said, with the overwhelming number of organizational changes that occur daily, attempting to manually update your data would prove to be an insurmountable task. Luckily, in today’s day and age, it is often the case that automation is close at hand when we need it most. Sales intelligence technology is one such solution.
Set static data in motion with sales intelligence
Sales intelligence technologies, such as Vainu, are constantly at work collecting and indexing company data. By tapping into this technology, you can guarantee that your data will always be accurate and up to date. Better still, when integrated with your database, sales intelligence technologies can automatically update your data as changes occur, ensuring that your database is filled with truly dynamic data.
If that wasn’t enough to pique your interest, sales intelligence technologies have more to offer, such as data points that go beyond mere contact details. Sales intelligence technologies provide an organization with the contextual data needed for their salespeople to build an accurate picture of their prospects and customers. Such contextual data includes, but is not limited to, an organization’s financial, technological, or website-related data, which can work together to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a potential customer. By having access to this kind of information, a salesperson will be able to make well-informed decisions of which organizations to contact and when to contact them.
In addition to keeping your database up to date and enriched with relevant data, sales intelligence technologies help salespeople discover sales opportunities that they might otherwise have missed. As the saying goes, “change brings opportunity” and, ultimately, any change in any company could prove to be the right time to contact an organization. After having implemented workflow triggers, a salesperson will be able to receive notifications as soon as a specified type of organizational change occurs within their customer segment, ensuring that they can be always at the right place at the right time.
If we have both your curiosity and your attention, and you want to learn more about some of the aforementioned concepts, consider reading these other blogs:
- What Is Sales Intelligence And How To Win More Leads With It?
- Actionable Insights: Turning Raw Data Into Automated Workflows
- 7 Sales Triggers to Win More Business: An Example From The Staffing Industry
3 reasons why salespeople should start using dynamic data
Just in case you have yet to be convinced of dynamic data’s edge, here are three important reasons why salespeople should make the transition from static data to dynamic data.
- Dynamic customer groups: Market segmentation and the creation of relevant customer groups, preferably based on your ideal customer profile (ICP), is the first step in a successful sales process. “Time and the world do not stand still” and, as a consequence, the companies that match your ICP criteria will change, and the quality of your data will decay. But, by using dynamic data, you’d be able to avoid this decay, as your established customer groups would be updated automatically whenever such changes occurred. With dynamic data, you’d even be able to receive notifications as soon as a new company fits your ICP, signalling a new prospect for your salespeople to contact.
- Better timing: Buying intent is not fixed. Companies’ willingness to buy your product or service will wax and wane with time. Fortunately, thanks to dynamic data’s ability to track company information over time, you'll know when a company’s buying intent is high and the odds are in your favour. In this way, dynamic data ensures that you are able to contact a potential customer at the opportune time and strike while the iron is hot.
- Data hygiene: As should hopefully have been made clear by now, the quality of data deteriorates over time. However, by feeding dynamic data into your databases, you won't have to worry about poor quality data, or the possible negative consequences it could have on your sales efforts, as dynamic data facilitates data cleaning. In fact, by using data that is up to date, accurate, and actually representative of your potential customer’s circumstance, you'll improve the prospects of your sales efforts.
So you want to start using dynamic data. What now?
To operationalize dynamic data effectively, and see the best possible results, it is necessary for your organization to have a sales engagement or CRM platform, which a sales intelligence technology can be integrated into. If your organization currently does not use a sales engagement or CRM platform, but you are interested in learning more about them, then feel free to download our Sales Tools Guide.
If you already have a sales engagement or CRM platform, and you are interested in implementing the use of dynamic data in your organization, consider requesting a Vainu demo so that you can learn more about our solution and what we can do to help optimize your sales process.
