Reﬂection - Visualisation

Challenge & Selection I work as part of the sales strategy team for a newspaper publishing organisation in India. The  regional sales teams here work on selling advertising space to various clients. The clients are  segmented by their overall advertising value into three segments: Key Accounts, Mid-tier Accounts  & Long-tail Accounts. Each sales team is given a mix of accounts from each group to target. While  working on optimising the sales process I found that the current model resulted in limited focus on  the long-tail accounts due to a perceived lack of business potential. I leveraged visualisation tool to  present my analysis to the management and highlight the missed opportunity under the current  sales model.

The reason for choosing visualisation as the tool was because I felt that it would help present the  scale of the problem and also to develop a common understanding. I was inspired by the video  from Angela Myer, where she talks about how visualisation can be a powerful tool to develop  consensus among a diverse group and to communicate ideas very clearly. This was of prime  importance to me as without a common understanding we cannot even begin to identify possible  solutions.

Application My aim in this exercise was to show how little effort the teams were putting towards the Long-tail  accounts and then to present how much potential revenue we were ‘leaving-on-the-table’ by not  covering these accounts adequately. I started by compiling the call data (for previous quarter) from  our CRM module. The call data was collated by client segments to derive the efforts put in towards  each client segment. The number of clients called in each segment was compared against the  segment’s overall client list to capture the % of clients being actively targeted (coverage ratio). As  the next step I captured the overall advertising spends of the clients not being actively targeted in  each client segment by using market databases. This analysis gave me the amount of advertising  spends left untapped in the current sales model. The ﬁnal step was to consolidate all the  information into a visual layout that would place all this data in correct context. I used arrows of  varying thickness to indicate the amount of effort put in by the sales teams towards each client  segment. I then coupled this with circles of differing sizes representing the untapped value of each  segment. The ﬁnal image was as below:

Insight & Approach This approach was really effective at helping the management understand how the current model  is working and also to present the size of the opportunity we are missing out on. With this visual  summary they gained a better appreciation of the value in focusing on Long-tail accounts which  were earlier perceived to be after-thoughts. As a result of using this approach our team has a clear  understanding of the problem and we are evaluating alternative sales models to rectify this  imbalance in focus. Another insight that I gained from this exercise was that by transforming  numbers (revenue, costs, time etc) into pictures, the audience is better able to relate to them and  also to place them in the correct context.

I would deﬁnitely use visualisation again in such scenarios. I feel that it is a simple and adaptable  tool that can be employed in any situation that require me to convey complex ideas. It is a powerful  method to develop consensus & common understanding in a diverse group of people. Also  visualisation is an apt tool in the business context since it can be deployed with Microsoft  PowerPoint very easily. In this speciﬁc example, I feel that it can be improved by the use of more  relatable graphics. For example, instead of using circles to represent the untapped value I can use  the image of a stack of money. Such graphics are more relatable and instantly convey the right  message. Going forward I will work on using more such graphics/icons in my visualisations.


Reﬂection - Visualisation Challenge & Selection I work as part of the sales strategy team for a newspaper publishing organisation in India . The regional sales teams here work on selling advertising space to various clients . The clients are segmented by their overall advertising value into three segments : Key Accounts , Mid - tier Accounts & Long - tail Accounts . Each sales team is given a mix of accounts from each group to target . While working on optimising the sales process I found that the current model resulted in limited focus on the long - tail accounts due to a perceived lack of business potential . I leveraged visualisation tool to present my analysis to the management and highlight the missed opportunity under the current sales model . The reason for choosing visualisation as the tool was because I felt that it would help present the scale of the problem and also to develop a common understanding . I was inspired by the video from Angela Myer , where she talks about how visualisation can be a powerful tool to develop consensus among a diverse group and to communicate ideas very clearly . This was of prime importance to me as without a common understanding we can not even begin to identify possible solutions . Application My aim in this exercise was to show how little effort the teams were putting towards the Long - tail accounts and then to present how much potential revenue we were ‘ leaving - on - the - table ’ by not covering these accounts adequately . I started by compiling the call data ( for previous quarter ) from our CRM module . The call data was collated by client segments to derive the efforts put in towards each client segment . The number of clients called in each segment was compared against the segment ’s overall client list to capture the % of clients being actively targeted ( coverage ratio ) . As the next step I captured the overall advertising spends of the clients not being actively targeted in each client segment by using market databases . This analysis gave me the amount of advertising spends left untapped in the current sales model . The ﬁnal step was to consolidate all the information into a visual layout that would place all this data in correct context . I used arrows of varying thickness to indicate the amount of effort put in by the sales teams towards each client segment . I then coupled this with circles of differing sizes representing the untapped value of each segment . The ﬁnal image was as below : Insight & Approach This approach was really effective at helping the management understand how the current model is working and also to present the size of the opportunity we are missing out on . With this visual summary they gained a better appreciation of the value in focusing on Long - tail accounts which were earlier perceived to be after - thoughts . As a result of using this approach our team has a clear understanding of the problem and we are evaluating alternative sales models to rectify this imbalance in focus . Another insight that I gained from this exercise was that by transforming numbers ( revenue , costs , time etc ) into pictures , the audience is better able to relate to them and also to place them in the correct context . I would deﬁnitely use visualisation again in such scenarios . I feel that it is a simple and adaptable tool that can be employed in any situation that require me to convey complex ideas . It is a powerful method to develop consensus & common understanding in a diverse group of people . Also visualisation is an apt tool in the business context since it can be deployed with Microsoft PowerPoint very easily . In this speciﬁc example , I feel that it can be improved by the use of more relatable graphics . For example , instead of using circles to represent the untapped value I can use the image of a stack of money . Such graphics are more relatable and instantly convey the right message . Going forward I will work on using more such graphics / icons in my visualisations .