Sales data analysis

Keep an eye on all the details with Tableau

Analyzing data in sales can be a challenging task. A large and internationally active retail company serves as an example. With several thousand branches and tens of thousands of products in each of these branches, it records a huge volume of data. Sales, product and branch data is collected and stored. If the company relies on an intelligent visualization of the data, it can react “just in time” to country-specific trends by evaluating customer experiences and rapidly improving the availability and quality of the products.

Providing the right people with the right information at the right time and in a specific location is a huge challenge for selling a company. Being able to analyze and manage all sales activities at a glance and to be able to provide all necessary operating figures up to date requires a intelligent and versatile compatible software solution. It is the only way to ensure that a sales team performs at its best, that sales quality is maximum and that adaptations to changing sales structures are flexible at any time.

Tableau in sales

tableau covers every stage of the sales process, from customer acquisition to area analysis and sales coverage. The software makes it possible to control and positively influence the process. With user-defined analysis dashboards and special sales dashboards, automatic visualizations can be created in fractions of a second, even for inexperienced users, without programming, and retrieved from any browser or tablet. The presentation of various views makes it possible to take a look at the global sales view as well as to drill down at individual sales measures. Various sales channels with their independent IT systems, such as online shops and stationary cash register systems, can also be integrated and visually consolidated with Tableau.

The software combines data from various sources and in different formats via a so-called connector. This can be presented clearly and in real time according to selected criteria. Excel sheets, in-house and web databases, and social media can be integrated as data sources, as can Salesforce cloud computing solutions and other CRM systems. Regardless of fixed geographical borders, such as postal code areas, users can define their own, flexible sales structures and link them with data.

Sales and opportunities in the sales dashboard

Who is the best salesperson and who is the best saleswoman? In which sales region do we operate best? With Tableau, sales professionals visualize all relevant performance indicators at a glance. To do this, the software connects to Salesforce, for example, and simultaneously feeds in additional data sources.

Controlling and forecasting made easy

Tracking meaningful quota reports and targets offers managers the opportunity to use daily sales reports to gain an understanding of what percentage of sales goals have already been achieved in the respective month. In this way, a live visualization shows at a glance which region or which sales staff are performing well or poorly. The presentation of possible performance bonuses is automatically included. As soon as an employee from sales has reached his or her quota, the corresponding bar in the bullet chart automatically colors in. If there is still a need for action, it can be determined exactly how the sales slumps could have occurred.

By including data on sales quotas, demographics and market developments, it is not just an automatic forecasting function that can be used to meet quotas. Helpful “what-if” scenarios can also be simulated with Tableau. Changes in compensation, quota and commission can be modelled in this dashboard for sales. So how bad would supply bottlenecks be if everyone was already prepared for them?

‍