COGNITIVE SKILLS SPOTLIGHT 3: Data Orientation & Data Affinity
Because data driven decisions deliver value to Customers
Customers expect help in leveraging data insights
The role of data in influencing Customer choices and decisions has been growing in the recent years. Customers now expect salespeople to help them leverage insights from data. So, Data Affinity and Data Orientation has become a must-have cognitive skill for all sales professionals
Benefits of Data driven Decisions
Data driven decisions eliminate the possibility of serious errors due to (i) Emotional or impulsive conclusions (ii) Mental shortcuts and views based on patterns (iii) Susceptibility to biases and assumptions (iv) A preference for narratives unsupported by data. Sales presentations supported by data win over Customers much faster
Where to start in building Data Affinity
But for all this to work, the salespersons have to develop a comfort with numbers and data. They should then build on this orientation to cultivate an affinity for data. Building data literacy could be a good starting point
Harvard Business School (HBS) suggests the use of 3 blocks to build data literacy
- Reading data
- Communicating with data
- Working with data
How can data orientation help in adding value to Customers
Friendship and comfort with numbers gives you an X-ray vision. You develop the ability to “see” the real story hidden in the data. It adds depth and width to your probing in a Customer call. You then tend to ask meaningful and “data-rich” questions like - How much does it cost you to acquire each new customer? Or what is the contribution that every additional unit bring to your profit? Or how frequently do your Customers come back to you? And so on. You are able to diagnose the Customer need with greater precision and craft a value proposition unique to each Customer
Data is usually analysed in 4 different ways. Each of them generates a different insight: (i) Descriptive Analysis (what happened) (ii) Diagnostic Analysis (Why did it happen) (iii) Predictive Analysis (What is likely to happen) (iv) Prescriptive Analysis (What should we prepare for)
Data affinity also sensitises the salesperson to non-linear trends, while looking at sales graphs. A simple example of this is a sales trendline of a newly introduced model in a product range. It increases gradually at first, then rises more steeply. Ability to pick out non-linear trends is a valuable skill
4 Strategies to Internalise Data Orientation
How can this cognitive skill be internalised? Insights from HBS suggest 4 ways to accomplish this:
(1) Look for patterns everywhere
(2) Tie every decision back to the data
(3) Visualize the meaning behind the data
(4) Learn more and start liking data and numbers
“Without data”, as Edward Deming said “all we have is an opinion”
Welcome to the 'New Mercuri Mail'.. The India Journal of Mercuri International!
This is the 'Go To Place Sales Newsletter and Journal' of the discerning Sales Community! Continuing its 35 year long tradition of sharing knowledge curated from the best of sales and management literature, here come interesting new features, all with an unwavering focus on making a difference!
Happy reading and reflecting!
Team Mercuri India