How Data Can Help Your Business Make Its Next Pivot with Confidence
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Nathan Resnick, CEO at Sourcify.
2020 has been a tumultuous year for both big brands and small businesses. Changing economic factors have caused many companies to close their doors for good, while others have been able to adapt to meet changing customer needs.
If there is one thing this year has taught us, it’s that brands need to be able to pivot — and pivot quickly — if they wish to remain relevant and profitable. From diversifying your supply chain to transitioning to a more digital-oriented method of serving your customers, making the right changes at the right time can save your company.
On the other hand, an ill-informed or ill-timed pivot could lead to disaster. Fortunately, you don’t have to leave such decisions to guesswork. By learning to take advantage of your organization’s data, you can move forward with confidence.
Utilize Historical, Real-Time Data
The COVID-19 crisis has drastically increased how much companies rely on data dashboards and analytics on a daily basis. In fact, one survey found that 50% of companies reported using their data “more often” or “much more often” now than they were before the pandemic.
The reasons for this are clear. In a time when more business interactions and purchases have shifted to the digital world, more data is being produced than ever before. Data insights are there for the taking for brands looking to improve their operations.
The right data analytics dashboard will provide access to both historical data and current, real-time information. This data comes from your website, internal departments, social media platforms and more to provide a comprehensive view of what is happening at your company.
Such a wide swath of data makes it easy to identify historical trends and shifts in consumer behavior. This allows businesses to take a proactive approach in changing services, marketing or other factors that could influence sales and brand perception. For example, HubSpot was able to identify spending slowdown and increased web traffic early in the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to changes in marketing messaging and ad spend.
Share Information Across Departments for Greater Insights
Data silos are a common issue in businesses with poor data practices. In such companies, different groups or departments are limited in how much data they have access to, whether the result of company culture or technological limitations. The sales team only has access to sales data. The marketing team only has access to their campaign results. Neither is able to utilize logistics or manufacturing data.
This separation of data causes teams to make decisions based solely on the perceived needs of their own department. A lack of communication and transparency keeps departments from coordinating effectively to keep the business running smoothly.
Data silos could even directly hurt your sales potential. One research report found that 47% of marketers said company data was siloed and hard to access, hurting their ability to understand and market for the customer journey.
When data is shared across departments, it is easier for your entire team to get on the same page. This makes your business more agile, enabling faster decision making and helping each department understand how a pivot in one area will affect their work. Teams can gain additional insights from other departments’ data that help them become more efficient and make needed operational changes.
Of course, too much data can create problems of its own. Writing for Harvard Business Review, Edd Wilder-James recommends a more strategic approach to data integration. “Look to identify high-value opportunities. Analyze your business needs and choose a problem where data could provide a tangible benefit, perhaps in enhancing sales or preemptive incident response. Draw in the data from around the organization and invest in these use cases first.”
Forecast Future Trends and Outcomes
While data can help you identify historical trends and become more efficient, perhaps its most exciting application is the potential for predicting future trends and outcomes. Predictive analytics uses historical data, machine learning, and statistical modeling to help businesses understand how various actions could affect their growth — and their bottom line.
As John Edwards explains for CIO, “Airlines frequently use predictive analytics to set ticket prices reflecting past travel trends. Hotels, restaurants and other hospitality industry players can use the technology to forecast the number of guests on any given night in order to maximize occupancy and revenue.”
Some analytics programs take things even further. Prescriptive analytics tools use machine learning to predict the outcomes of various decisions, helping decision makers better gauge the risk of potential actions.
By simulating the probability of different outcomes that could occur from a single decision, these analytics tools then recommend which actions a company should take. This data-driven process helps decision makers implement changes much more quickly so they can move forward with confidence, while being better prepared for worst-case scenarios.
Moving Forward with Confidence in Your Data
When you take full advantage of your company’s data — or upgrade your business analytics tools so you can learn from your data — you will gain the insights you need to better understand your current situation, as well as the potential impact of future changes.
Make a reliance on data a part of your company’s culture. When everyone is onboard with a data-guided strategy, your business will become more proactive and better able to pivot to gain a competitive advantage.
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Nathan Resnick is the CEO of Sourcify, the fastest growing sourcing platform that helps businesses manufacture products across Asia.