DISCOVERING THE WHITESPACE

Discovering the whitespace is a niche expertise that requires a methodological step-by-step approach. It starts with data mining and big data consolidation from various potential sources through an extensive defined market research, an amalgamation of bot

The ‘unknown’ has always had an element of intrigue attached to it. The same holds true even when we talk about the same in realm of businesses. The only difference is the dire need which is attached to this ‘unknown’ or ‘untapped’ when it impacts sales objectives. “Whitespace” literally means unknown spaces; to relate it more to the sales terminologies, it’s basically spaces in the prospective customer database that have not been previously tapped or discovered. Tapping the potential customer base utilizing whitespace discovery is like a gateway to enormous growth, progression and reach expansion for sales organizations and eventually leads to an increased size of the overall pie.

In today’s age of information overload and in view of the gigantic amount of data which is under the lens, this task of whitespace discovery and database consolidation can no more be based on generic and traditional processes alone and hence comes into play several technologyaided methodologies. The ultimate exercise is aimed at enhancing the market size and reach.

The sales arena minus the whitespace discovery can be viewed as a single pie catering to all the industry players. The chaos and the limited share which each player will get eventually can be imagined. In today’s competitive business environment, everyone is gunning after the same finite set of customer database. Hence the task of database digging becomes all the more crucial. Extensively leveraging technology for this database expansion 26 www.dqindia.com and discovering the untapped has become the need of the hour.

However, discovering this whitespace is a niche expertise that requires a methodological step-by-step approach. It starts with data mining and big data consolidation from various potential sources through an extensive defined market research, an amalgamation of both online as well as offline mediums. The next crucial step is to leverage technology in order to assimilate the volumes of information, removing noise and enriching the data. Then it is about making sense of the data and pulling out insights through analytics so as to define the output potential. Finally, predictive modeling comes into play in order to foresee the future trend of the data, define the lead nurturing bucket and ensure dynamic decision-making process.

The new-age sales enablement methodologies involve enterprises leveraging technology to generate whitespace database for increased sales conversion and greater sales impact. The growing trend of big data or analytics is also hugely dependent on the richness of the database and the insights driven out of them. Analytics in fact has made rapid strides from data modeling to big data management to predictive analytics, and combined with smarter implementation, can bring tremendous benefits to an enterprise and its sales team. It is a dominant tool for making informed decisions and discovering opportunities to improve and make sales processes more efficient. The best sales teams not only collect data, but act on that data and derive useful insights to achieve success with customers.

With acquired access to untapped potential customer database, whitespace discovery results in higher sales force productivity, greater average sales price and eventually maximized revenue generation. It also facilitates insights for sales teams from demographic data, research findings, currents trends right from initial strategy formulation to customer relation management. In order to build a solid base, whitespace database discovery with its impeccable execution is therefore increasingly becoming critical to drive the future of sales enablement. The author is Global Head - Transformation, Denave