Big data is all the rage. Its ‘trending’ in every aspect of sales and marketing. Understanding the customer – who he or she is, where they live, what they own, what they buy, what they’ve looked at or ‘liked’ online etc. This data picture is becoming the ‘must have’ in an increasingly digitally dense world of modern global enterprise.
But there’s one corner of this world which remains vital to business, but hidden from Big Data – and that’s what we humans do. What we do that traditionally is out of sight or hearing of our digital technology. I’m calling this space the data gap. And it’s because of this data gap that I founded calls2account.
I believed that the measurement of real and complete customer and sales staff experiences were missing from the digital understanding of sales and marketing effectiveness. The closest businesses in most cases might get to measuring it, is through emulation activities such as mystery shopping or market research. And there’s another aspect of the sales process which is vitally important to understand and to monitor – and that’s the experience of sales staff. Do they know their stuff? Do they even like the product they’ve been ordered to sell? Are they motivated and enjoying the process? Are they using the most appropriate techniques or do they need help? Is the sales process working or is it broken?
I invented TrackBack so car manufacturers wouldn’t have to guess what was happening in that data gap – the bit of the sales process that happens between sales lead identification and conversion. I also invented it so car dealers could provide data quickly and accurately back to the providers of those leads about their value as well as giving vital feedback about the experience of their own sales people.
Today TrackBack, which substitutes trackable phone numbers and email addresses in CRM and lead management systems, is live in over 30 countries for a wide variety of car companies who now have a continuous digital view of their business by filling that critical data gap between marketing and sales.
By Calls2Account Chairman – Jerry Horwood