What is Sales Intelligence?

Sometimes, it is interesting to try to classify different areas of research and intelligence to see how certain specialties have originated, evolved and grown into their own species, so to speak. This study of the “origin of the species” can provide intelligence practitioners with the ability to see how their efforts might support or interrelate with other disciplines.

So, let’s define the top rung as general market research. The purpose of market research is to answer any question that might be of interest to a company. This is very broad and probably doesn’t do justice to all of the value a skilled market research director can provide. But, the umbrella of market research covers the entire gamut of information collection.

A subset of general market research is competitive intelligence. Again, this can be a pretty broad area and it is concerned with gathering information and answering questions that are influenced by the presence of competitive forces.

A sibling to competitive intelligence is market intelligence. To me, this specialty works to understand the market, value proposition, opportunity and forces in play against your company and product which are not influenced by the competition.

Sales Intelligence sounds like it should be a sibling to competitive and market intelligence. It could be defined as the information that is used to help sales sell more. If you limit this type of information to sales data (stuff like contact name, phone number, email, etc…) I guess you could say that’s true. But, overall, I don’t think this is the right approach.

To me, the definition of sales intelligence is:

Intelligence (competitive or otherwise) that can and will be used by a sales individual or team to increase the chances of ultimately
winning a quality sales opportunity.

This is a definition that is still evolving, so don’t get too stuck on any particular point. Overall, sales intelligence seems less like a specific discipline and more like a purpose. In other words, bits of competitive intelligence, market intelligence, general market research, (branding, pricing, value, etc…) can all be included in sales intelligence. If the information can be used to help sales people sell more, I think it can properly be classified as sales intelligence.

If a business exists to make money (and really, what other purpose does the business entity have?) as efficiently as possible, and the role of sales is to create the revenue streams as effectively as possible, then isn’t sales intelligence potentially the most important information a company can generate?

There are so many research initiatives that clamor for budget. When deciding which efforts to support, give the proper amount of gravity to those project that will have a direct effect on a company’s ability to sell more effectively in a market against the competitive landscape. Your company will benefit from this approach.

If you would like to help me refine the definition of Sales Intelligence, let me know. Send your suggestions to cdalley@primary-intel.com.