At this point, it’s clear that enterprise revenue intelligence is here to stay, and for good reason.
Forrester says that enterprise revenue intelligence platforms are now core to a go-to-market (GTM) tech stack, claiming that, “It is now imperative for B2B organizations to have a comprehensive view into buyer relationships and engagement activity.”
According to G2, revenue intelligence and similar software help sales organizations increase revenue from key accounts by aligning with other customer-facing functions, such as marketing and customer service, to become an extended revenue team. This tighter integration across teams leads to bigger deals and shorter sales cycles by fostering a better understanding of the customer.
So, we know enterprise revenue intelligence is necessary — and on the rise. Looming economic uncertainty and the resulting need to maximize every sales opportunity, customer interaction, and internal resource only furthers the stakes.
Oracle, a longtime leader in CRM and other sales management software, has announced the next generation of Oracle Fusion Sales, which is designed to transform the sales process into a modern revenue engine. Naturally, customers want to maximize its use, in concert with a revenue intelligence platform that provides action-driven insights across the B2B revenue waterfall.
More and more, we’re seeing revenue intelligence platforms popping up across the landscape. But with many vendors making similar claims, it can be difficult for buyers to know what to look for (or, more importantly, what to avoid).
That’s why we made a list of the three biggest considerations when evaluating revenue intelligence platforms and the key questions you should ask potential vendors.
According to one report, 91% of CRM data is incomplete, with 70% decaying annually. To make matters worse, Gartner found that most organizations surveyed lose $14.2 million annually because of “dirty” data, while MIT’s Sloan Management Review puts the cost of bad data at an astonishing 15% to 25% of revenue for most companies.
So it’s not surprising that solving the data problem is a big draw for buyers looking to purchase a revenue intelligence platform. After all, more data is better, right?
Well, it depends!
The goal isn’t to add more data, it’s about adding the correct data. Sales teams don’t need a data dump. They don’t have the time nor the desire to dig through hundreds of different data points to make a decision.
Rather, sellers need the right data at the right time to make decisions that will grow pipeline, increase deal sizes, shorten sales cycles, and boost win rates. They demand actionable insights to do their jobs efficiently. Example data points include:
Ask how the platform collects data and how that data is actionable for your team. Today, an average of 60% – 73% of enterprise data goes unused for analytics, so it’s time to break the cycle.
Two words no enterprise business leader ever wants to hear: data leak.
With more data comes the need for enhanced data security. Without it, you may find yourself in a situation where 20,000+ employee 401(k) statements accidentally synced to your CRM.
As the desire to automate the outdated, manual process of capturing prospect and customer data into CRM grows, so does the risk. While 80% of business activity data (e.g., emails, meetings, etc.) should be captured in CRM, the remaining 20% of what’s happening in your GTM teams’ inboxes must remain private.
Robust filtering capabilities are vital to preventing the ingestion of highly sensitive information. Intelligent filtering removes noise such as:
The revenue intelligence platform you select needs to understand the nature of the content it captures and processes, the roles of the sender, and the recipient in the business process. This is a critical sticking point with any potential solution you’re considering, so it’s essential to dig in on strategies for both detecting and redacting sensitive information.
Jesse Dailey, our VP of Solution Engineering, and Mark Gallant, our Sr. Director of Marketing, recently dove into how People.ai handles automating data capture and filtering. Watch the 20-minute webinar replay to learn more.
If there’s one thing worse than no data, it’s dirty data. So it should come as no surprise that 84% of CEOs are concerned about the quality of the data they’re basing decisions on, according to KPMG.
Let’s face it: CRMs like those from Oracle and Salesforce are a significant investment. The revenue intelligence platform you choose to integrate with them must improve the quality of your data — not make it worse (quick aside: 90% of leaders already say their CRM doesn’t help their business grow).
And while that may seem like a simple enough task, the truth of the matter is that most revenue intelligence platforms fall short when it comes to associating activities and contacts to the right opportunity or account record in CRM.
Let’s take a look at an example scenario to illustrate why this is so difficult to get right:
Acme, Inc. is an existing account with two open opportunities: a renewal with a close date of December 31 and an upsell with a close date of September 1. The most recent activity on the account is a CSM meeting held in May.
If you’re thinking the CSM meeting would be associated with the renewal opportunity, you’d be spot on. Too bad most revenue intelligence platforms won’t come to the same conclusion.
That’s because most lack the ability to make sophisticated matches that take into consideration rules around role or ownership. Based on those exclusions, bad matches like the one illustrated above can be completely avoided. This means when it comes time to planning next steps, teams have the right signals to drive decisions.
As you’re evaluating platforms, ask vendors to walk you through how they approach matching, what strategies they employ, and how they ensure that the correct information is making its way to the right place in your CRM.
If it’s not clear by now, let’s state the obvious: you’re responsible for driving sustained growth, but you can’t afford to take chances with your data. That’s why choosing a revenue intelligence platform that effectively harnesses data to deliver insights that fuel efficiency and growth is important.
People.ai is the premier enterprise Revenue Intelligence & Operations platform, empowering industry-leading data quality and enterprise-grade privacy, security, and configurability. With People.ai enterprises across industries like high-tech, manufacturing, life sciences, and more can:
Learn more about how People.ai helps Oracle Fusion Sales customers take enterprise growth to the next level.
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