Designed for sales managers and their reps, a sales performance tool is used to track sales target progress, foster sales team motivation, and identify sales opportunities. Business intelligence, or BI tools, are powerful data analysis and reporting systems which provide higher management with past vs present business performance data to help them make decisions. 

Which is best for your sales reps? In this article we’ll compare these two tools to help you find an answer.

Let’s get into it!

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The two biggest differences between a sales performance app and a BI tool: 

Spotting sales opportunities

With 3 minutes left on a call with top whiteware customer Sleek Kitchen Solutions, your rep has a hunch that there was an opportunity to get more sales. The rep settled on a microwave order half as large as last quarter’s, but the frustration remains; what caused the drop?

That information could have been found in a BI tool - but not easily.  Even the best sales rep would struggle to trawl BI reports, and scan spreadsheets while keeping up an engaging and professional conversation with a customer.

Designed to make customer data available at a glance, a sales performance app can effortlessly drill down to the product level showing a rep where sales opportunities and gaps lie. 

Real time sales insights

This time before their meeting, your rep was able to find Sleek Kitchen Solutions’ purchase history in their BI tool. Unfortunately, because that data was out-of-date the deal fell through: Sleek Kitchen Solutions felt as though your rep wasn’t paying attention to their recent purchases and had pitched them a product they didn’t need. 

Without a live-data stream, reps may struggle to make strong decisions, and won’t be able to change their path if they aren’t on track to meet their target mid-month. Sales performance apps plug right into your ERP, and can present live-updated customer data in the moment when new invoices come through. With this tool, reps can rest easy that each sales opportunity they identify is genuine, and that they’re giving their customers the best possible experience.

Having access to the latest and most relevant customer data can give sales reps a big advantage when they’re negotiating with customers. BI tools have their benefits, but they can’t give reps up-to-date insights when they need them most, unlike a sales performance app.

If you’re interested in another comparison between a sales performance app and another common software for sales teams, the humble crm, check out our previous post.

To learn more about how a sales performance app can help your team, click here to get a free personalized tour.