For years BI geeks like me have been dragging people to think beyond the basics of margin/cost/time analysis and begin using said data to change how deals are approached and executed. Just like a towel can be infinitely useful if you’re creative enough, all the data out there doesn’t help if you don’t use it to make meaningful changes. Tracking data about how customers are approached and their reactions to it is a good approach in using business intelligence to make yourself smarter.
Behavioral scientists/economists have been studying “mental anchors” for years. In fact Marketplace had a good interview about how anchors work just yesterday (available here: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/your-money/how-much-should-i-spend-well-show-me-number-first)
One of the reasons that not many companies track their anchors is that it is frankly not simple. Many companies already do a version of this with their “forecast”. However many times that data can be muddied by sales reps forecasting what they think their manager wants to see versus how they are approaching the deal, or by users just putting in data because data’s required instead of filling out the data meaningfully (or more likely entering the data after the fact). Other challenges to tracking “deal anchors” is that anchors are largely a per industry deal, there’s no obvious “one-size fits all” plan of attack and many times users feel that tracking their anchor performance is not only encroaching on how they sell but also a waste of their time.
Still if the effort is made to track you anchor your interactions with potential customers and the outcomes thereof can be one of the best uses of business intelligence out there.
