What industries are we strongest at selling in to?

Can you easily and consistently segment all of your customers and then go on to generate win/loss sales figures for each segment?

Of course the first issue to address is whether there is an agreed 'universal' list of industries (or segments) in use within your organisation.

Assuming that this hurdle has been overcome the next issue is that of consistency.  Take for example that you have industries for "Communications" and "Transportation".  You then have an account for a courier firm, which industry would you put it in?  Or, if you have "Public Sector" where do you put private schools, or defence contractors?
Even if you know where you would put these accounts are you sure that your staff do so consistently?

Once the accounts have been classified it is necessary to overlay Opportunity information to gauge Win vs Loss rate and possibly even data from your accounting system.

Useful Links and Further Information

ProvenWorks preferred solution for market segmentation is for users to search a list of Standard Industrial Classifications for instance the United Nation's ISIC Standard.  Each SIC code within this is mapped by an administrator to a single segment/industry/vertical market which removes the ambiguity in users selecting an industry themselves.  For Salesforce CRM users please contact us to be informed of the forthcoming release of our IndustryComplete product which performs this function.

ProvenWorks can build a bespoke Management Reporting Platform which then takes appropriate data from your finance system, overlays it with your account profiles within your CRM data and presents it in an easy-to-read fashion which can then be re-run at the push of a button.