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Sales Analyst

Introduction

Any business relies on sales. No matter if you are in the B2C or B2B segment, offer products or services, operate on a local or international level — you will need sales to keep moving forward your ROI and company. And, while each separate purchase may depend on your sales representatives, large-scale companies need a person who would see a bigger picture of sales and be responsible for it.

What’s more, today, businesses have more data available to them than ever before. Therefore, the need to sort and leverage that data gave rise to sales analysts. A Sales Analyst is a valuable asset to any business, no matter how large or small.

These professionals are often employed within midsize to large companies that need to optimize promotional strategies and achieve new growth. So, are you looking to become one? Those interested in pursuing this career path can expect to enjoy highly rewarding careers if they build the right skills and abilities.

In this guide or blog post, we address some common topics asked by those who desire to pursue a career (in sales but that which pushes the limits of a traditional sales rep’s role) and job of Sales Analyst, such as:

What are Sales and Pre-Sales?

Sales is a term used to describe the activities that lead to the selling of goods or services. Businesses have sales organizations that are broken up into different teams. And these sales teams are often determined based on the region they’re selling to, the product or service they’re selling, and the target customer.

Salespeople reach out to contacts that might be interested in purchasing the product or service that their company is selling — prospects that demonstrate interest through actions like visiting the company website or interacting with the company on social media.

The goal is to reach out to leads who have shown interest in or fit the description of the company’s target customer, in hopes of providing them with a solution that results in a purchase of your product or service.

In-order to understand the sales-process you need to first understand some of the common terms that are associated with sales and selling. They are:

1.Salesperson

A salesperson is an individual who performs all the activities associated with selling a product or a service. Synonyms for salesperson include sales associate, seller, sales agent, and sales rep or representative.

2.Prospect

A prospect is a point of contact at a company that the salesperson would like to sell products or services to. The salesperson uses prospecting techniques like making warm calls, email outreach, and social selling. And if they’re interested in the product or service, the sales rep can apply different sales closing strategies to turn the prospect into a customer.

3.Deal

A deal represents the product or service you’d like to sell and the price associated with it. Deals have multiple stages, which can vary depending on the business, its processes, products, and industry — and deal performance can be tracked using a CRM. Salespeople can put together deal plans to make the selling process easier on the prospect and the sales rep.

4.Sales Pipeline

Sales pipeline describes all the steps in your sales process. It gives salespeople a visual representation of where prospects are in the sales cycle.

5.Sales Plan

The sales plan outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies for a sales organization. It includes details about target customers, market conditions, revenue targets, pricing, team structure, and more. It also lays out the tactics the sales teams will use to achieve their goals.

Now that you’ve a clear idea as what sales are let’s move onto pre-sales and what it encompasses.

So, what is “presales”?

Presales support refers to the distinct activities that occur before the sale has been closed. This typically includes qualifying, proposing, and renewing deals.

Presales can be a valuable component of your sales enablement strategy. Focusing on it can help your team successfully close more deals in less time.

You can generally say that the purpose of a pre-sales process is to connect and understand your target audience. It allows you to generate the interest in your product.

For a meaningful negotiation, you need to first collect adequate information about the prospect. Afterwards, the pre-sales process involves supplementing the prospect with enough information for further progress in the sales process.

You also need to furnish adequate information to supplement the prospect with data for the latest sales stages.

Key tasks related to presales include: Prospecting, Making discovery calls, Performing product demos, Qualifying leads, and Drafting proposals.

Now that you know what sales and pre-sales refers to, let’s review the most common types of sales to better understand the sales-process.

The Types of sales most typically used for Selling

Type 1: Business Development Sales

Though business development doesn’t account for an entire sales transaction, it’s an important aspect of the sales function for many companies. This role is typically held by business development managers, who are responsible for generating new business and qualifying leads for their company. Once the business development managers have qualified the new leads, their sales rep peers can take the leads through the sales process to close the deal.

Type 2: Agency Sales

This type of sales involves generating and converting new leads to sign onto service packages from an agency.

In the agency sales space, clients are typically signed either by project or on a retainer. For agencies that sign clients by project, they primarily focus on bringing in new business, selling service packages to new clients as their current projects wrap up.

With a retainer model, agencies can engage with clients on an on-going basis which allows for predictable recurring income with less dependence on bringing in a steady stream of new customers.

Type 3: B2B Sales

This common acronym stands for “business-to-business” and describes companies that sell products and services to other businesses, instead of individual consumers.

B2B sales tend to have a higher ticket value and more complex terms because the goods sold to other businesses typically play an essential role in how the buyer’s business operates.

Within the realm of B2B, sellers can primarily support SMBs (small to medium businesses) or enterprise customers.

Type 4: B2C Sales

Unlike B2B sales, B2C (or business-to-consumer) sales revolve around transactions between a company and its individual consumers. These deals tend to be of lower price-value and complexity than B2B sales and can involve multiple deals with a variety of customers.v

Type 5: Inside Sales

When sales teams engage with their prospects and customers remotely, often from an office alongside their team members, they follow an inside sales approach. This means they are selling from within their company. Organizations that use an inside sales approach often tend to have leaner, more automated processes and structured hours.

Type 6: Outside Sales

On teams where salespeople broker face-to-face deals with the prospect, they are following an outside sales approach. This implies that they are selling from outside their company — traditionally through door-to-door or field sales. These teams tend to not have strictly regimented processes, allowing freedom and flexibility for reps to develop and implement their own sales strategies.

Type 7: Direct Sales

With a direct selling model, individuals are able to sell directly to consumers outside of a traditional retail environment. With this method, sellers conduct the sale one-on-one with their customers, often earning a commission. This form of selling is commonly used by network marketing representatives and real estate professionals.

Type 8: eCommerce Sales

Though this type of selling is more hands-off than other types, it can work well for lean companies who can’t staff a full sales department, or for companies who offer products that can be effectively sold through targeted digital marketing.

With that said, let’s get familiar with the dissimilarity between sales and pre-sales.

Sales VS Pre-Sales (What’s the Difference?)

The difference between presales and sales is implied in the former’s name — one happens before the other. Presales are the sum of the various processes and activities that occur towards the top of the sales funnel.

That often includes tasks related to elements like research, qualification, prospecting, and data analysis. A solid presales strategy gels with an organization’s sales process — making life easier on closers and other salespeople who work further down the line.

Having said that, now let’s find out why businesses need to pay close attention to pre-sales in order to boost sales.

Why Businesses must pay more attention to Pre-Sales to Improve Sales?

In today’s customer success-driven industry, business is in a constant quest for growth. But, they often overlook a promising opportunity within their organization: Presales. An integral part of the sales team, Presales plays a crucial role in not only acquiring new business but also lay the foundation to retain customers for a lifetime.

Presales operations kick-start when the potential customer has been identified. They carry out a specific set of activities that lead to qualifying, present product demonstration and help sales win deals as well as to renew.

More specifically, it refers to the technical side of the sales; responsible to demonstrate technical aspect and business value of the product.

It’s the first “proper interaction the customer has with the product/solution so the pre-sales group sets the standard and tone for the technical support and engagement they will receive” throughout their lifecycle. They invest their time to have a deep understanding of the client’s needs. Presales have the ability to predict customer needs with greater precision and provide expertise before the purchase is made.

A well-run presales organization will have a lasting impact on the customer’s perception and attitude toward your business. Oftentimes, they have a significant influence on the customer during the renewal period.

How do you become a Sales Analyst?

To land a Sales Analyst Job in a top organization successfully you’ll need to master the role, key duties, responsibilities, skills, and certifications that are required by a security analyst job description.

Sales Analyst Job Description

A sales analyst helps companies optimize promotional and operational efforts through the analysis and prediction of sales trends and markets. Sales analysts assess data like customer metrics, competitor information, and sales channels to determine the best methods of increasing both revenue and market share. They may provide advice to marketing departments, sales teams, and executives to develop sales targets, assess strategies to boost revenue, and develop promotional campaigns and budgets.

It is a data-driven role that requires a balance of market analysis, budget management, and industry expertise. Sales analysts tend to work closely with sales and marketing teams while providing advice and guidance to decision-makers and company leadership.

Sales Analyst Responsibilities And Duties

Collects data from sales reports for analysis.
Develops methods and strategies for assessing large amounts of data.v
Closely studies past sales data to determine trends in productivity.
Examines company budget.
Conducts research into competitive companies and the surrounding market.
Studies shopping and purchase trends of consumer base and target demographic.
Uses sales prediction software to determine future trends.
Creates sales evaluation reports based on collected data.
Presents sales reports to company managers, directors, and/or CEOs.
Suggests adjustments and revisions to promotional strategies to improve sales and profitability.
Advises on the hiring and/or termination of personnel as needed.
Provides suggestions for budget rearrangement and re-allocation of funds to save money.
Serves as a consultant for company marketing strategies.
Assists in designing promotional materials.
Attends and participates in sales strategy meetings.
Leads informational sessions for staff to explain sales trends and new marketing strategies.
Assists in implementing budget and marketing changes, and evaluates results.
Draws up reports of improvements or lack thereof in the wake of company restructuring.
Draws up reports of improvements or lack thereof in the wake of company restructuring.
Creates and develops sales strategies for business units.
Creates and develops sales strategies for business units.
Conducts research on marketing trends and issues.
Analyzes current sales strategies and make recommendations.
Analyzes, evaluates and assesses pricing proposals.
Analyzes and evaluates competitor marketing trends.
Forecasts and projects future sales for a business unit.
Implements logistics to meet customer requests and objectives.
Initiates strategies to build new customers
Conducts regular sales meetings to analyze performance.
Ensures compliance of corporate practices and standards.

Sales Analyst Skills

Depending on our research, we determined the subsequent core skills one should own to acquire a job as a certified sales analyst. These include:

Ability to learn quickly, especially new software programs.
Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills:
Communicating clearly, both in writing and verbally, in order to create a clear and communicative environment with the Sales team and other co-workers, as well as writing sales reviews and reports;
Being able to speak confidently and articulately in front of a group of Sales professionals, conveying complex information to a broad audience;
Being capable of translating financial and mathematical jargon into non-technical terms for explanatory purposes; and
Being able to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Being resourceful, energetic, driven, structured, and displaying a strong desire to take initiative.
Strong organizational, operational, and planning skills in a sales focused environment:
Multitasking; being able to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment;
Being proactive and goal-oriented; and
Being able to handle time constraints when deadlines are approaching.v
Being able to handle time constraints when deadlines are approaching.v
Excellent analytical, problem-solving capabilities, and detail-oriented:
Identifying issues and resolving problems in a timely manner; and
Being able to gather, monitor, and analyze all types of quantitative and qualitative data into sales reports.
Dynamic, high energy individual, self-motivated, and result-driven.

Required Education Qualification, Training and Work Experience

In order to acquire the Sales Analyst Job, one should first earn:

As for the required training, a candidate should complete Certification in SQL, JavaScript, .NET, HTTP, SAP, soft skills

Whereas, the job experience to apply for the position mandates a candidate to have 0-2 years of work experience/internship in Business Development, Project exposure.

10 Best Online Courses & Certifications For Sales Analyst In 2021

Looking to start a career as a security analyst? One of these online sales courses and certifications will work best to put you on the right track to acquiring the role of sales analyst.

- Pareto – Basic Sales Training – Sales Fundamentals
- Action Selling – The Action Selling Process
- Negotiation Experts – Sales Negotiation Training
- Sales Training: Practical Sales Techniques (Udemy)
- The Art of Sales: Mastering the Selling Process Course (Coursera)
- High Impact Selling (Northwestern | Kellogg School of Management)
- Sales training for High Performing Team Specialization (Coursera)
- Free Sales Training Courses Online (LinkedIn Learning)
- Sales Machine: The Sales Training B2B Master Course (Udemy)
- Business Development & B2B Sales for Startups-Sales Valley (Udemy)

Sales Analyst Salary (Expected Earnings)

The average salary for sales analyst job according to different job experience is as follows:
An entry-level Sales Analyst with less than 1 year experience can expect to earn an average total compensation of ₹361,741 based on 8 salaries.
An early career Sales Analyst with 1-4 years of experience earns an average total compensation of ₹469,847 based on 39 salaries.
A mid-career Sales Analyst with 5-9 years of experience earns an average total compensation of ₹800,000 based on 22 salaries.
An experienced Sales Analyst with 10-19 years of experience earns an average total compensation of ₹850,000 based on 7 salaries.

Higher earnings are possible, however, salaries vary significantly – based on the industry, size of the business, and depending on the different skills you possess, it can affect your salary.

[Income figures are intended as a guide only.]

In Short

regarding the best way to become a security analyst, start with a FREE ONLINE CAREER COUNSELLING.

The team of Counsellors and Mentors at MyCareerGurukul can help you choose a career path by building a proper career action plan that’s well suited for you to reach your goals.

We hope this piece has helped you develop a better understanding of the way a sales analyst must work. The Best of Luck in your Job Securing Efforts!

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