The word ‘data’ is something many might shy away from. For some sales managers, customer data can bring to mind GDPR nightmares or messy, maltreated CRMs archaic customer records. But when data is used well, it can be the make-or-break of your sales team.

If you’ve ever wished you could understand your customers better, or know what makes them purchase your products, the answers could all be revealed from your data.

In this post, we examine how you could be making better use of your data to unlock your team’s potential and drive more leads.

What is customer data and why is it important? 

Customer data simply means the personal, behavioural, and demographic information that you hold about your customer base at any given time.

It’s no surprise then, that it has become key for any salesforce to acquaint themselves with their data, allowing them to better understand their customers. Being able to pull out and analyse the right data means sales professionals can identify customer preferences, ascertain any behavioural patterns, and make more accurate predictions and strategies.

But customer data comes in different forms, and when it is collated and examined across different systems and platforms, it can be very confusing and conflicting, especially if you’re not sure what to look for.

The four key types of data

When we talk about customer data, it’s important to break these down into different categories and use cases. The four key types of customer data go by several different names, but for now, we’ll call these basic data, interaction data, behavioural data, and attitudinal data.

Basic data

Your basic data usually covers the most generic information about your customers, e.g. the name, job title, location, budget details or income and contact details of any given customer or prospect. Basic data is often used to categorise, segment or tag different audience types according to common attributes.

Interaction data

Interaction data, or engagement data, should give information on the activities and touchpoints any given customer has had with your brand during their customer journey. Interaction data might include social media likes and shares, page views for an online campaign, downloading of gated content or email enquiries. Simply put, it means the interactions they have had with your brand usually before making a purchase.

Behavioural data

From behavioural data, businesses can gather information as to the customer’s overall experience with your brand. Depending on the nature of your products or services, there may be less of a clear distinction between behavioural and interaction data. Behavioural data can generally be defined as the actions and behaviour patterns of your customers from user logins to customer support exchanges and purchase history, which can all be used to predict future trends.

Attitudinal data

Attitudinal data refers to your customer’s sentiment toward your brand. This fourth type of data is extremely valuable as, unlike the other three categories, it gives insight into how your customers feel about your brand and your products. Attitudinal data is often gathered in the form of satisfaction surveys, online reviews, or customer support information.

The role of sales analytics tools 

In recent years, sales teams have seen better, more convenient, and more mobile-friendly tools enter the market to help them make more informed decisions, all based on their own data. These analytics tools allow sales execs and managers to dig out the data, and consume it in a more visual, comprehensible way.

Being able to pull out the right data around buyer behaviours, customer purchase history or sentiment helps you fine-tune every step of your sales cycle, make better-informed decisions, and identify opportunities more easily.

Toucan’s Sales Analytics collates your data and presents valuable customer-centric insights to your team in a user-friendly format. Managers can use Toucan to make smarter business decisions, optimise cross-selling opportunities, spot and react to gaps and trends, and use lead generation management to group or categorise leads and tailor their offering, and close more deals.

For more information on Toucan Sales Analytics, click here to request a demo.