Back
Research shows that 81% of organizations believe data should inform every decision they make. But even when that data is available, it’s typically gated by IT, stuck in someone’s inbox, lacks context, and is outdated by the time you’re able to analyze it. Shouldn’t it be accessible and in the hands of the people putting strategy into action every day?
When people on the frontlines can visualize what success looks like and where they stand in relation to it, they see a clear trajectory of how to achieve it for themselves. Courtenay O’Connor, Forrester consultant, calls this “democratizing the data.” That information can’t be privileged to only certain people, nor can it be difficult to understand. If you really want to make data-driven business decisions, you have to democratize the data itself.
In a recent conversation, Adam Khan, Director of Inbound Sales at Jobber, talked about how democratizing data has revolutionized his team. When he became a manager in 2018 at Jobber, a job tracking and customer management software for small home service businesses, Adam managed 11 of the 40 reps.
Adam took it upon himself to manually pull reports, crunch the numbers, and develop strategies for his reps. But as a manager, he was also busy fulfilling a host of other responsibilities like forecasting, recruiting, training, coaching, and enabling. When this self-proclaimed spreadsheet guy wasn’t able to update the spreadsheets, his people were left to play guessing games.
“I had spreadsheets that were linked to other spreadsheets that I was updating daily for my team so they had their numbers,” said Adam. “If I wasn’t there, honestly there were times they were probably flying pretty blind.”
This is a perfect example of why data can’t just be for the spreadsheet guy—it has to be for the people, and it’s how modern revenue teams hit and exceed quota quarter over quarter. Adam couldn’t be solely responsible for pulling and analyzing the data. He needed a way to give everyone real-time access to their numbers.
Truly democratizing the data means more than making it accessible. It means giving the numbers context and enabling reps with clear next steps. “Ambition gives you that single source of truth for every rep in our sales org to be their own analyst, to run their own data, to check on things themselves.”
With revenue performance management like scorecards, Adam’s team was able to visualize success more clearly than ever before. They could see exactly what “good” looked like, and they could build out a clear plan to realize it for themselves, own their success, and have accountability. When you eliminate the mystery around how to achieve success, you eliminate the mental barriers that often prevent people from succeeding.
“Getting those numbers in front of the reps was huge in terms of the impact they saw in terms of control over their output,” he said. Within just one quarter, Adam’s team saw a 20% improvement in key SDR activities.
While this optimized visibility increased rep productivity and performance, it also resulted in massive time savings for managers like Adam. “[Managers are] not spending 6, 8, 12 hours a week running data and spreadsheets. They just save an analytics report in Ambition,” he said. “Even better, their reps save it for themselves, and they come to that conversation prepared to talk about their own metrics, KPIs, and how they’re performing themselves.”
Salespeople aren’t analysts. But when you arm them with data that’s rich in context and filled with actionable insights, they become powerful revenue engines who can visualize and unlock their own potential.
To learn more about how democratizing data can save you time, boost productivity, and inspire more meaningful coaching moments, watch this on-demand webinar.
