National trivia day: Test your knowledge of data analytics in the context of a sales department

Picture a football coach preparing for the big game. He watches game‑tape, studying player metrics, analyzing every play and using real‑time stats to inform strategy. That’s exactly how sales managers and sales leaders should approach their coaching program—with a data‑driven approach.

Sales professionals operate in face-paced environments with savvy customers who have a lot of choice. Whether you're in B2B sales or working with consumers, the sales process is challenging with longer sales cycles, more decision-makers and higher expectations for follow-up and advice. To stay competitive, sales reps and sales teams need the best sales tools to reduce administrative tasks and improve sales team performance.

“Free BI tools trial, business analytics software for free, free BI reporting with AI-powered insights”– these offers are tempting business people all the time especially as new open-source players enter the market and want cut-through.

For many sales professionals, the phrase daily sales report used to conjure up thoughts of frustrating delays and data that's already stale by the time it is received. Often these reports were created by the IT or finance team who had a long list of requests, so the information was more of an historical snapshot. Fortunately, the creation of sophisticated data analytics has improved this work, transforming sales reporting into a self-service and quick task.