1. Know Why You Need Data

Knowing why you need data is the most basic—and most often skipped—step in building a marketing intelligence engine. Once you have a specific goal in mind (e.g., how does web traffic correlate with social media, or how does billboard marketing impact point of sale month-over-month) then you are ready to set measurable goals and key performance indicators.

2. Know What You Want to Measure

Measuring total sales or web traffic is not enough—but measuring keywords, demographics, search engines, location, browser, spend, cost per lead, conversion elements and other highly detailed points will likely get you closer to your goal. Each metric must be tied directly to an end purpose or goal.

This question is the litmus test to determine if a metric is going to help you achieve business goals: “What do I want to be able to do as a result of this metric?”

3. Make Sure You Really Are Measuring It

Nothing stings quite like figuring out that your CRM is not configured to capture a key component of your cost per lead, web traffic data, or any other KPI. Even if your data sources are configured for the data you need, human error, late reports and doctored numbers always have a way of working themselves in to muddy up the data.

You need all of your data in one place if you’re ever going to keep your focus, your accuracy, and your sanity.

4. Choose the Right Technology

Here are three ways to identify the kind of solution that puts a data-driven CMO at ease:

• Choose technology that allows you to consolidate all your existing data sources. Many offerings only capture data from a finite or fixed number of sources; that’s not going to serve all your needs now, and it certainly won’t scale into next year or the year after that.
• Choose a solution that enables you to add new data sources quickly and without significant cost (if any). Any time you have to code data source connections and design dashboards to match, you’re introducing significant costs to a project.
• Choose a solution that lets you combine data from different sources into a single chart or graph. The beauty of combined data sources is that they can help you consume trends and relational information exponentially faster than you could if they remain separate.

5. Share the Love through Data Democracy

Practical business intelligence is centered in letting everyone else in on the secret. Marketers sure could use information from operations on what kind of inventory is on your hands, or data from sales to measure the impact of six different campaigns. Even data from finance and HR could make your job easier.

To that end, consider the broader application of your dashboard technology. Is it easy to share your data throughout the company? Does it have role-based permissions? Can it really provide “one version of the truth” for all interested parties? Few options have these valuable attributes; be sure that yours does.

The Final Word

Business intelligence can—and should—be the most practical thing about your data. The right kind of technology can be the most valuable way to reach your business goals.

If you’re ready to see all your marketing data in real time through a mobile-friendly dashboard-like view, give Domo a call. Our executive management platform will transform the way you manage business.

Upon accepting the invitation, I naively envisioned boarding an aircraft like the personal corporate jets I saw in the movies. I’d never been on a private aircraft before, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

Of course as we arrived at the community airport hanger, we parked next to a four-seat, single-propeller trainer plane likely born in the 1970s. The plane’s interior was about the size of the car we had just exited. Our “GPS” guidance system was the paper map wedged between the front seats.

I was remarkably calm about the situation until just before we were ready to take off. Our pilot friend had just completed all the required pre-flight checks, but the plane’s engine wouldn’t start. I’ll never forget how he looked over at me and calmly asked, “Would you mind getting out of the plane and yanking down on the propeller to help start the engine?”

Soon after we sputtered down the runway, lifted off, and circled around. With Mount Rainier on the horizon we buzzed over the city, Lake Washington and over Bill Gates’ compound. It was great.

But just as I relaxed a bit, our pilot pointed out a half dozen similar sized planes scattered above, below, and on either side of us.  They seemed to be everywhere, buzzing about in every possible direction. It was crazy!

As he focused on flying the plane, he asked me to navigate us through the traffic. This new assignment was physically and emotionally draining. From that moment on, I could no longer enjoy our little site-seeing trip until our wheels were firmly on the ground.

I could see all the planes in the sky. But what could my pilot see? Of course he saw the one heading right for us…right? What else did he need to know? Were the planes above and below us also something I should point out?

I could see a lot of what I thought was critical information, but I couldn’t process much of it because I was missing the bigger picture of where we were headed. Every piece of information seemed equally concerning. And as a result, my efforts to guide us through the air traffic congestion weren’t particularly productive.

Without perspective, despite my eyes being very wide open, I was flying blind.

For a company to be successful today, co-pilot “operators” need to efficiently keep company pilots “executives” informed. Business leaders need data and insight that’s quick, accurate and relevant.  When flying high in the sky, there is no time for non-relevant information.

But information relevance is often gleaned through a proper perspective. In a business context, this is gained from shared vision, context and access to shared information and insight. Too often, the data was always there. But the proper perspective to act appropriately was missing.

By bringing all key data and insights into one place and on one platform, Domo gives businesses that crucial perspective to keep co-pilots and pilots alike from flying blind.

To learn more about Domo, read “4 Reasons Business Leaders are Flying Blind (And How to Eliminate the Danger).”

“4 Reasons Business Leaders are Flying Blind (And How to Eliminate the Danger).”

4 Reasons Business Leaders are Flying Blind (And How to Eliminate the Danger)

 

Business leaders have enough statements. They get financial statements, sales stats, marketing results, and so on. But business leaders don’t often get the full story—what happened, why it happened, and how it might happen again.

Until business leaders know the reasons why, they can’t make accurate decisions to produce a better end result.

Here’s a retail example:

• Digital camera sales are down.

That’s not a story. That’s a statement, and it’s clearly insufficient. When executives learn that that sales are down, there is nothing that can be done with that information alone. Business leaders need more. Let’s try again.

• Digital camera sales are down, and marketing hasn’t experienced a change in traffic from their online campaigns.

Now we have more info, but there’s still no dynamic. There’s also virtually no connection between the digital camera sales and the marketing metrics. You can infer a connection, but it’s neither implied nor explained. Let’s take one more pass:

• Digital camera sales are down, because there was an error in the supply chain that stopped the cameras from being stocked. The sales department wasn’t aware of the error, and therefore did not alert marketing to pause the campaign. When sales discovered that revenue had dropped and customer complaints had risen, they alerted the fulfillment department, which discovered the error. Marketing has now paused its campaign until a new shipment can be delivered.

The full story makes all the difference—and it gives you a chance to make necessary adjustments.

But the story of what happened in this scenario reveals a deeper layer of business practices that need to be improved: the inherent lack of communication when information falls between departmental cracks. What if all stakeholders had access to the information they needed in real time—marketing having access to fulfillment stats, sales having information on marketing campaigns, and fulfillment being connecting to sales data, all without sending out a single spreadsheet?

Business professionals need to be able to get the full story out of their data so that they can get accurate insights and make better decisions. When you get the full story behind the numbers, you can capitalize on more opportunities than just the situation at hand.

If you’re interested in getting better insights from your data, download our complimentary whitepaper, “4 Ways Retailers Can Beat The Competition (With Data They Already Have).”

4 Ways Retailers Can Beat The Competition (With Data They Already Have)

 

But it’s a darn good thing that data is occupying less space these days, since we’re seeing it increase astronomically in volume. The most critical challenge we face is transforming all this “big” data into “this-actually-makes-my-business-better” data. And when you’re dealing with enough data to reach the moon, that’s no easy task.

When it’s up, so is productivity. When it’s down, you’ve got a serious problem on your hands. Organizing a few parties or handing out spot bonuses isn’t the fix. You need to examine your culture from the inside out.

Not to give away the punchline, but employee engagement matters more than you may think: organizations with high employee engagement experience a total shareholder return 19% better than average. By contrast, low-engagement organizations suffer a shareholder return 44% below average. Ouch.

For the rest of the story, check out this infographic from Domo and CEO.com.

As my wife and I looked at various pieces of furniture, he continued to pop up to answer questions.  I knew that like most furniture sales people, he was anxious to help (and anxious for the sale and the commission that goes with it).  Once we had made our selection, we went to the counter and the salesperson rung up the ticket.  After entering everything in the system, he told me the total and handed us off to a cashier – and left without saying anything further.

Once we paid, I waited for a moment for the cashier to say something – and she didn’t say anything either – other than, “you’re all set.”

I have to confess, I was a little disappointed that neither the sales person nor the cashier thanked us at any point in the sales process for coming in or for purchasing over $1000 worth the merchandise from their store.

While this likely won’t stop me from shopping there in the future, it got me thinking about the importance of continual customer service.  It seems to be somewhat of a dying art these days.

Every place you go, every restaurant you eat at, every website you visit and every doctor’s or dentist’s office you go to, there is some form of customer service – good or bad.  To me, this is what sets organizations apart from each other.  If you are treated well, you are much more likely to return.

In fact, in the neighborhood I live in, I am part of a Facebook page for residents – 725 residents to be exact.  On this page, people constantly ask the residents for advice…”Who knows a good mechanic?” “Who is a good children’s doctor?” “Who knows a good place to get Chinese food?” “Who is the best company to engage for landscaping or fencing?”

In all these cases, the community is sharing information with each other based upon each other’s recommendations.  And I see poignant examples of how customer service can make or break an organization in our neighborhood.  Those that have had good experiences gladly share them.  And those that have had poor experiences don’t leave out any details.  And just like an amazon.com review, you know who the five star organizations are and who the two star ones are.

In our data-driven society, people are increasingly talking to each other and learning from each other.  Ten years ago, a bad experience could go unnoticed and would have little impact on business.  Today, a good or bad experience is one click away from going viral.  Just ask the Chili’s restaurant in Midvale, Utah that helped an autistic girl experiencing a minor crisis with her hamburger.  A simple act of kindness by a server and manager garnered over one million likes on Facebook and ended up as one of the top stories on CNN.com.

Ultimately, customer service is about that way people are treated. People want to be treated professionally.  They wanted to be treated like human beings. They don’t want to be talked down to or feel like they are inconveniencing anyone– they want to be treated with respect.  There is an old saying that “the customer is always right.”  While there are certainly exceptions to that rule, (and some customers do need to be fired), it’s good to practice the art of listening to your customers, working to understand them and then thanking them for their business.  After all, they are the reason you are in business in the first place.

I once saw a sign at a McDonalds drive-thru (that other companies have since incorporated) that says, “We know you have other choices. Thanks for choosing McDonalds.”  More organizations should take that same approach and realize that in our social media driven society today, people know more about their other choices than during any other time in our planet’s history.   Showing appreciation is one big way to keep clients happy.  And to keep them coming back.  They will thank you and you will thank them.  It’s the attitude of gratitude – and it pays huge dividends for both sides.

So thanks….thanks for reading this blog!

Thanks to the infiltration of analytics into everything digital, we, the audience, are now the engines of the news business. And many of us are also the producers.

With Omniture, we saw the beginning of this transformation, as sites used our analytics software to optimize content consumption. Today, analytics still define and direct a healthy portion of the stories that are written. However, the power of brand strongly influences what gets consumed.

If you think about analytics as bringing an audience to the water, brand is often what makes them drink. Brands built by news outlets, news reporters and the people in our networks whom we respect all go a long way in determining what content makes it through our human filter after technology has done its job serving up the content.

For the CEO-as-a-consumer segment, the importance of brand is clearly evident. In a new report from Domo and CEO.com, the Wall Street Journal has held its place as the number one source for business news amongst chief executives. This brand still wields tremendous influence despite the rise of countless online publications. According to our CEO respondents, the Wall Street Journal was also the publication they turned to most often for business news 10 years ago.

I like to see what people in my business and personal networks are reading. That’s why tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Flipboard are so valuable to me, and why, according to our report, they are gaining in importance to other CEOs. I know I am more likely to read a story if it’s been recommended by someone I know or trust.

This has massive implications for media. It’s also why I believe publications such as Forbes and Fast Company, and new media sites like LinkedIn, are becoming less single, traditional publications and more publishing platforms. They are part of the open-world order that allows people get more of what they want, and less of what they don’t.

I believe the social nature of news is unstoppable – not only because it’s smarter, but because it is based on a level of trust that has already been established by the personal brands of the people who produce or recommend the content. Beyond the analytics, content connected to trusted entities – people, publications or companies – creates the ideal environment to foster meaningful engagement.

We’ve taken this concept about connecting data to trusted entities into consideration when designing Domo. When data is taken out of dark silos and put into the light, conversations start to happen amongst different stakeholders and you start to find new value in data that you may never realized existed. It’s the same with news – getting different insights into something you may have once taken for face value, helps you understand the world in a different way.

1. Old assumptions no longer apply to new information

Not very long ago, we ran things on assumptions, axioms, and conventional wisdom. But now that we have data on virtually every part of our business, old assumptions no longer apply. We have new information to guide every decision.

But something you’ll hear regularly in this blog post is that having the data is not enough. We have to gather, interpret, and then use the data we have at our fingertips in order to survive.

2. Data is becoming your core differentiator

The real differences between companies in a given industry are becoming blurred. For example, the major reasons for using an iPhone or an Android phone come down to culture, not features. All of us are in industries that are being radically disrupted by changing economics and an increasingly connected user base. Companies across the board are scrambling to carve out a niche for themselves.

The core differentiator for almost any company is its use of data. Data is where you find core competencies, areas for innovation, and your five-year strategies. As an executive, you need to have access to critical information. And that brings up to the third takeaway.

3. Mobile BI is important…and we’re waiting for someone to step up

Mobile BI and analytics are critical. So why is it that so very few mobile apps can give you what you’re looking for? Creating a dashboard that syncs perfectly—and beautifully—between a desktop and a tablet is, admittedly, quite difficult.

But that doesn’t mean that such tools don’t exist. Mobile applications for your BI and analytics are on the rise, so we should expect a ridiculously high level of functionality from these tools. Solution providers know that there is a high demand, so we as business users don’t have to put up with something sub-par.

4. It’s time to be experimental

Being experimental does not mean that we have to do something dangerous. But it’s time to do things with our data that we haven’t done before.

Some of this unchartered territory is what we call “data democracy.” The walls between departments are crumbling (or should be), and we all depend on each other’s data. Sometimes it’s painful to be so open with other execs where our data is concerned, but the consequences of not having open data are being demonstrated by failures and slip ups every day—even by the big dogs.

5. Information and analytics will power revenue growth

Though most companies have the data they need to make decisions, that data isn’t in a useable format. And executives know that; it’s why IT typically handles BI reporting. But executives can never make the kinds of decisions they need if they always have to stand in line to ask for a new report from someone else in the company. It’s a slower business model that bleeds revenue opportunities.

Executives need to get their data on their own terms and not on someone else’s timeline. It’s easier said than done, of course, but the revenue that comes from it is worth the effort.

A Parting Word

It’s all perfectly doable. Any company could implement these five takeaways from the Gartner conference in under a year and see clear growth from it. The biggest challenge facing us will be to simply take the first step. Once you get started and make the investment, the numbers start falling into place from there.

How are you implementing better BI and data analytics? Let’s talk in the comments.

Whatever the reason, whether it is the physiological sights, sounds and smells of the ballpark or the subconscious hopes that Spring has official sprung, Opening Day is medicine to the human condition. It was the poet Walt Whitman who said “…we have observed several parties of youngsters playing ‘base’, a certain game of ball…Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our close rooms…the game of ball is glorious.” I couldn’t agree more.

From a data perspective, the game of ‘base’ has no equal. It’s a game where every movement is recorded. Every pitch, every swing – all motion is measured by percentages, averages and time. It is a game so majestic that its measurements transcend time limitations; a game so holy that a tied score would be a sacrilege. Over the years, the statistical analysis has increased and new measures are garnering attention by scouts, managers and the front office in making decisions on personnel contracts. For me, I am a huge fan of the statistic applied to pitchers called WHIP (Walks + Hits per Innings Pitched). It measures the pitcher’s effectiveness at keeping runners from reaching base, their ultimate goal. ERA (Earned Run Average) is a solid metric for sure. However, if a pitcher walks a batter with two outs and the next batter hits a deep fly ball followed by the center fielder making an error, the runner scores. That run is considered “unearned” and is not reflected in the pitcher’s ERA. The way I see it, if a pitcher has a low WHIP, he removes scoring risk, regardless of “fault.”

WHIP is combination of three measures (walks, hits, innings) that provide tremendous insight. Just looking at the number of walks issued, hits given up or innings pitched as silo metrics certainly has some value, but the combination of the three is infinitely more telling about the pitcher’s effectiveness and probability of winning. My gut tells me that in your company you have all sorts of “walks, hits and innings” metrics floating around the office, some in spreadsheets and some in your CRM or financial system. Those metrics probably get dusted off once a quarter for a meeting or two then go relatively unnoticed for months at a time. Why is that? I think that while they aren’t all that interesting by themselves, combining relevant data points to provide context and possibly new measures transforms those old, stand-by metrics into game changers. So, on a day when we celebrate that glorious game, I challenge you to find your business “WHIP” and see how it changes the way you run your business.

I bring this up because after 25 years of sales leadership, it has become clear to me that marketing and sales departments everywhere have a similar relationship. We have a mutual respect for one another, we have to play together, but we can’t help taking a swing or two as we go. Here are 3 steps that I have learned to make sales and marketing work together to grow a company:

Get Over the Us/Them Mentality

The ages-old sales/marketing rivalry primarily comes down to a question of data: Is marketing’s research up to date, or does sales’ intuition for customers trump the industry stuff?

Have you noticed that whenever there is a sales and marketing meeting these days, each side brings their data analyst along (today’s version of the old west gun slinger) with their view of the data and, more strategically, their view of the other team’s data?  Marketing has numbers to show its campaigns are bringing in qualified leads, and sales has its own data sets about which sales people or messages are performing better.

The point is to make revenue—period. Sales people need commission and marketing needs a paycheck. Neither one gets what they want if business isn’t coming through the doors. No amount of data is going to help sales and marketing develop synergy if every metric is presented in a way to make the other team look bad. And that brings me to step 2.

Check Your Bias at the Door

You want to prove that your department has what it takes to build the business, so you show all your great numbers…along with whatever bad numbers you can drudge up on the other department. But there’s something inherently wrong with presenting the data in this way; you’re making the numbers tell your story instead of the real story.

If you have an incentive plan (compensation, commission, MBO bonus structure, etc.) that incentivizes you to sideline the true story, be an adult and say so. Then change it. Get rid of it. Do what you need to do to align your incentives to the goals of the company.

That’s why I get really excited about Domo. You see the entire, honest story right in front of you so that marketing and sales can both adjust.

Don’t Meet in the Middle

Once you get over the data bias and start looking at real numbers, you both just do what’s best. Don’t compromise. Don’t insist on doing things partially your way. If sales tests a message or angle that closes more deals, marketing needs to move toward that. If marketing has a better way to respond to pain points and introduce the right product or feature at the right stage of the buying cycle, sales had better listen up.

Sometimes sales has got it. Other times, marketing knows best. Don’t meet in the middle. Meet at what’s successful. And use your data to define what “success” really means, and to figure out incentives for when we collectively get there.

Now Go Get More Business

I don’t think that the professional world will ever quite rid itself of the sales/marketing rivalry; just like young boys, they probably fight for the fun of it from time to time. But when businesses use data the right way, there’s a lot more peace in the house. Right now, a lot of the problem stems from marketing and sales having different types of data and different ways to measure. Stop the in-fighting. Get a single, clear view of the data. Then go and bring more business through the door.

How do your marketing and sales teams share data? Share your strategies in the comments (If you are in marketing, we will accept your comments in crayon).