How the Right Tools Are Helping Increase Sales
Time to market is why Dean adopted Qlik. When she joined Takeuchi US, the company’s president directed her to help the organization become more data-driven.
At the time, Dean didn’t have the staff to integrate all the disparate data into a data warehouse. But Qlik was so intuitive and easy to use that she was able to produce the first set of reports in two weeks.
“It gave us a foundation to get it up and running and get data into people’s hands quickly,” she says.
Since then, Dean and her team have built an on-premises data warehouse using Microsoft SQL Server databases. Initially, the 170-employee company, based in Pendergrass, Ga., used the on-premises version of Qlik, but executives wanted to make data available to Takeuchi’s dealers, so the IT staff migrated to the cloud by adopting Qlik’s Software as a Service offering.
Qlik integrates in-house and third-party data on overall construction equipment sales in every county. Qlik analyzes the numbers and produces reports and visualizations. Executives and the sales team use the dashboards to gain insights on the overall business and seek opportunities for growth based on geographic data and sales.
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For example, executives can find regions that may need more dealers, while the sales team can use the information to create sales strategies, Dean says. The company’s 100-plus dealers can now log in to a cloud portal to gain a 360-degree view of their business with Takeuchi, from orders and invoices to detailed sales data in their region, including on how they are faring against the competition.
“The cool thing is the dealers have the same information we do. Our sales staff can say, ‘Look at your dashboard. Did you see that? You need to focus on this,’ or, ‘Here are some opportunities that you could pursue,’” she says. “The conversations are better. They can show in black and white exactly what it looks like, because dealers can follow along on their dashboards.”
Overall, data analytics has made the entire staff more productive, Dean says.
The sales team used to spend most Fridays putting data together and building sales reports manually to prepare for the next week’s meetings with dealers. Now, it’s done automatically through Qlik.
“It took the busywork out,” she says. “The data gets updated overnight, and you can see the reports the next morning.”