The Importance of Analytics in an Omnichannel World

How Leading Brands, Sales Agencies, and Sales Reps are Outperforming the Market with MarketTime

Our world is awash in DATA – In fact, more data has been created in the past two years than in the entire history of humanity.

The B2B wholesale industry is no exception.

We are living in an evolving landscape. Independent retailers have more options today than ever before to discover lines and procure products. Brands and sales agencies have new channels to reach their wholesale buyers. Tens of millions of product SKUs, millions of sales orders, hundreds of thousands of buyers, and thousands of sales reps all generate massive amounts of data, each and every day.

The opportunity (and challenge) for B2B sales leaders is to harness this data to support informed decision-making and action. The holy grail is to enable stakeholders to make informed decisions based on a single source of truth, with self-service analytics built in enabling easy access to the right data, at the right time.

While achieving this objective may seem simple, a few common obstacles often arise. Among them: are data on multiple platforms/programs (siloed data); antiquated reporting platforms; variation in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to determine what data is worth tracking and reporting on; and the resources to fully leverage data in day-to-day processes and decision-making.

Given the significant opportunity at hand, and the common challenges in place, sales leaders should think through how they can best get their teams to the objective. This likely means asking hard questions of your team and of your technology partners.

To your Team:

• What data is most critical to your success? Do you have easy access to that data?
• How do you utilize data to adjust your approach, improve your outcomes, better serve your customers, and increase your sales?
• Are we using the right metrics to gauge performance? If not, what new or different KPIs should we be using?

To your Technology Partners:

• How do reporting and analytics fit into your product roadmap and strategy?
• What tools do you give my team so they can access the data they need when they need it?
• How do your tools help break down data siloes and give my team a 360° view of customers, sales, and performance?

The journey to best-in-class analytics is not easy. But the potential rewards are significant. A recent study from McKinsey & Company showed that B2B companies that incorporated analytics were 1.5 times more likely to see above-average growth rates than their competitors. Are you ready to start your analytics journey?

Choosing a partner:

MarketTime, the largest provider of B2B omnichannel commerce solutions in North America uniting retailers, brands, and sales teams, believes strongly in the value of analytics. In line with their recently published white paper, The Human Factor: How Salespeople Impact Buyers, Brands, and the Industries They Serve, MarketTime is focused on giving all stakeholders in the ecosystem access to powerful and easy-to-use analytics tools.

“All stakeholders need timely, accurate, and accessible analytics that support them in making informed decisions,” said Jacob Teplin, Chief Operating Officer of MarketTime. “We believe strongly in the power of great salespeople, and we are committed to providing salespeople with the cutting-edge tools and analytics they need to succeed.”

With MarketTime’s cloud-based reporting tools, sales reps, agencies, and brands can access the data they need, anytime and anywhere. This includes: discovering sales opportunities; accessing comprehensive customer sales history; identifying top products, tracking salesperson activity, monitoring commissions, and more.

When asked why she chose to partner with MarketTime, Robin Kert, Principal, Owner, and Founder of SE Marketplace said, “MarketTime understood the multi-line rep environment. They were the most flexible and understood how dynamic our industry was and how adaptable they had to be.” Kert continued, “I love to analyze my business so the more drilled down I can get, the better. And I’m finding as time goes on, the access to drilled down information keeps improving all the time. MarketTime does it better than any other.”

Matt Kutner, VP of Sales for Fred & Friends, another MarketTime customer, said “Having the power of data at your fingertips allows you to speak intelligently to your customers on the fly, at any given moment.”

People often say that “Knowledge is Power.” In an evolving B2B landscape, brands, sales agencies, and salespeople have more data at their disposal than ever before. Stakeholders that are ready to utilize this sea of data and leverage it through targeted analytics can outperform their peers. If your company is ready to embark on your analytics journey, the MarketTime team is excited to support your success.

##

Davis, W., Gavin, R., Hostetter, S., & McCrory, W. (2022, January 12). B2B commercial analytics: What outperformers do. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved August 19, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/b2b-commercial-analytics-what-outperformers-do