Cognos solutions for sales

A Sales force with the right information, at the right time and driven by the right incentives is formidable. Accurate and speedy information can help improve sales results and reduce selling costs. And information flowing through Sales can affect every other department in the company. For example, high demand forecasts can drive greater future production.

Unfortunately, better performance management for many Sales departments is hindered by three barriers:

• You don't set sales targets and allocate effort based on maximizing overall contribution. Many companies focus on short-term revenue. So Sales does not have or need a perspective on long-term customer contributions. As a result, it doesn't measure cross-sell and up-sell revenue paths or the estimated life-time value of a customer.
• There is no two-way clearinghouse for the right information at the right time. Companies need customer insight into what works, what doesn't and what is most important. Without this information, Sales reps are at a disadvantage in trying to build reliable customer relationships and loyalty.
• You don't measure the underlying drivers of sales effectiveness. Your goal is to increase sales productivity and adjust tactics when something doesn't work. If you don't set expectations and monitor the underlying drivers of sales effectiveness, you will likely suffer both higher selling costs and missed sales targets.

To improve the speed of sales execution and enable a more effective use of Sales time, companies should focus on five decision areas:

• Sales results: What is driving sales performance?
• Customer/product profitability: What is driving contribution performance?
• Sales tactics: What drives sales effectiveness and performance?
• Sales pipeline: What drives the sales pipeline and performance?
• Sales plan variance: What drives the sales plan and performance?