Visualizations: The Key to Communicating the Value of Your Salesforce Analytics

If you've read our playbook, or the last few blog posts related to sales, you know how better analytics can seriously improve the efficiency of your team. One big part that we haven't covered, however, is how to use those beautiful dashboards to improve your communication (and hopefully persuasion) skills.

According to IDF Research Services, 77% of leaders that use visualizations to communicate with their audience improved their ability to make decisions. The problem is that developing the visualizations that actually tell a good story can be hard. I'm sure you've experienced it: Finding the right reports in Salesforce, exporting them to excel, massaging the data to generate the answers you need, then dropping those results into PowerPoint or Tableau to actually create the visualization.

That process is enough to make your CEO or VP of Sales turn blue in the face - which isn't a good look on anyone. Lucky for you, that process is already built into most sales analytics apps.

Here are four reasons why the right pictures and visualizations will help you tell a more clear and compelling story to all of your execs and peers:

1. Faster decisions.

Pictures are worth 1,000 words. Similarly, good visualizations eliminate the "can-you-explain-it-to-me" layer of complexity often associated with data. That means decisions can happen more quickly, and without having to lean as much on IT or analyst resources.

2. Longer-lasting decisions.

Pictures don't just eliminate complexity, they also help you build trust through shared understanding and meaning. When peers and executives understand and buy into your plan, you get more room to manage.

3. Eliminate barriers.

When you visualize data, you strip away technical or mathematical jargon so everyone speaks the same language.

4. Accountability.

With a common story and language, it's easy to agree on ownership of numbers.

"The expectation of backing every decision with data came hand in hand with our team's obsession with charts and visualized data."

Zoltan Toth
Prezi