Business Intelligence solutions, or BI, have proven to be effective in providing sales and marketing managers with the information and actionable insights they need to increase revenue and efficiency. Yet, many companies who stand to benefit greatly from sales analytics are still avoiding it. Why wouldn’t they take advantage of such a useful business tool? Here are 6 common excuses not to invest in BI – and why they’re dead wrong.
1. “It’s too expensive!”
While some data analytics solutions – especially those marketing to very large enterprises – may have pricey plans, others can be very reasonable. If you look into it, you can find products on the market that fit your budget. Some companies even offer free apps that can make a world of difference.
Nucleus Research discovered that tapping into Big Data for predictive analytics brought an average ROI of 1,209%. Who wouldn’t want to see that kind of improvement in their business? In the long run, a company’s investment in BI solutions will pay off with a more intelligent and efficient business plan.
2. “It will take too long to implement!”
As with the money objection, a small investment of time will save you a lot in the long run, especially when using out-of-the-box software-as-a-solution (SaaS) BI solutions. Such solutions allow you to be up and running within hours of installation and implementation.
With BI solutions, you won’t have to spend forever entering your data by hand, only to discover that one small mistake has ruined the entire set. You might think that IT already has too much to do, but in fact, adopting a BI solution will make their jobs easier. Plus, you won’t need to spend hours creating graphs just to make sense of your data – you will be set up for all of this. Why work harder than you have to?
3. “I don’t need anything fancy!”
The point of sales analytics is to make everything simpler. BI helps you clear away the clutter, leaving a clear set of data that actually means something to you. If you enjoy the time you spend forcing Excel to bend to your will, then you are totally in the minority. For the rest of us, a quicker, user-friendly system is a welcome solution. BI actually isn’t fancy; it’s simple.
Remember that change is good. Plus, BI is catching on. Fast. You don’t want to be the last of your competitors to make the switch just because you thought what you already had was “good enough”.
4. “My data is all wrong anyways!”
If this is the case, then you have bigger problems than having trouble analyzing your data for meaningful insights. However, there must be a reason your data is inaccurate. If you use BI solutions, you will skip many of the steps that lead to common mistakes. Plus, it will be easier to notice discrepancies.
Your data might never be 100% perfect, but wouldn’t it help to remove as much potential for human error as possible? Data analytics software often has a data monitoring element that uses an algorithm to catch the mistakes you make. Adopting BI may not change your past mistakes, but it can help you cut down on future ones.
5. “We’re hiring right now; we can’t afford more change!”
This would be the perfect time to invest in BI. Your new hires will learn how to use the new products as part of joining your company. It won’t seem like a change to them, so they might adapt even faster than your veterans.
BI can also help you with the onboarding process. It makes it easier to track your employees’ progress. You can see who is adapting quickly and who is already falling behind. Use this data to nip sales problems in the bud or pick out bad employees before they waste any more of your time.
6. “It doesn’t make sense for my company!”
You may think that BI is only for large companies with several hundred employees. In fact, even the smallest businesses are generating enormous amounts of data. Often, they cannot afford to dedicate one employee to keeping track of their data, so BI solutions can fill the hole where larger companies might hire an expensive data analyst.
On the other side, SaaS companies are not only interested in the biggest players. There are data analytics companies that create solutions specifically for SMBs. Many of their plans are customizable, so you can find exactly the plan you and your company need.
Do you have any other excuses not to invest in BI? Share them, and why these excuses are unjustified, below!
