If you’re a Salesforce user, especially in sales, you’ve likely been asked, “Did you update Salesforce?” Keeping Salesforce updated with the latest data can feel like a chore, but it’s essential for teams that rely on accurate, real-time information to drive decisions. Maintaining high data hygiene standards ensures every interaction is informed by the most current data available.
However, while current Salesforce data is vital, it often lacks historical context. Once data is updated, previous information can become difficult to find or is lost altogether. This gap makes it challenging to track changes over time, spot emerging trends, or uncover patterns that could guide future strategies. Without a full view of data history, you might miss out on valuable insights and more effective planning.
Why Historical Data Matters
Historical or time-series data captures values over specific intervals, providing a comprehensive view of how these values evolve. Here’s how integrating historical data into your Salesforce strategy can transform your insights:
1. Identifying Trends and Patterns
Trends often only become apparent over extended periods. Analyzing historical data allows you to identify patterns in customer behavior, market movements, and sales performance.
For example, recognizing seasonal variations in sales or detecting gradual shifts in customer preferences requires a historical perspective. By examining multiple years of data, you can determine if fluctuations are typical for a season or indicate an unusual trend.
2. Spotting Anomalies and Outliers
Anomalies or outliers are data points that deviate significantly from the norm. Without a historical baseline, detecting these irregularities is nearly impossible. Historical data helps establish what “normal” looks like, making it easier to spot when something is off.
For instance, a sudden drop in sales might seem concerning, but if historical data reveals a similar drop at the same time each year, it could be attributed to a seasonal trend rather than a deeper issue. This insight is crucial for proactive problem-solving and preventing minor issues from escalating.
3. Making Informed Decisions
Historical data provides the context needed to make more informed, strategic decisions. Take a marketing campaign, for example. Salesforce is excellent for tracking immediate results like leads generated, conversion rates, and ROI. However, understanding long-term trends may require combining Salesforce data with other datasets, such as market research or customer feedback over time. This broader view can reveal shifts in customer preferences or market conditions that aren’t immediately visible in campaign data.
4. Improving Forecast Accuracy
Accurate forecasting heavily relies on past performance. Historical data enables more precise predictions by revealing long-term trends and cyclical patterns. Time-series analysis, which examines data points collected at consistent intervals, captures underlying trends, such as upward or downward sales trajectories over time.
This analysis identifies patterns like seasonality (recurring changes at regular intervals, like holiday sales spikes) and cyclical movements (longer-term trends tied to business cycles). Leveraging this data enhances the reliability of sales forecasts, budget planning, and resource management.
Where Can You Access Historical Data in Salesforce?
Most CRMs, including Salesforce, primarily contain the current state of your data. If historical data is tracked, it’s often limited in scope, duration, and accessibility. So, where can you find this crucial historical data if not in your live production environment?
The answer lies in your backups.
While analytics may not be the first reason you think of when backing up data, backups offer several unique advantages for deriving insights. Backups capture data in a time-series format, preserving how information evolves over time.
By using backup data that is already fully assembled, you eliminate the manual effort of preparing data yourself and can start gaining insights faster. Moreover, backups are comprehensive, containing all your data, providing a complete repository of historical information whenever needed.
Final Thoughts
To explore how you can leverage your Salesforce backups to fuel valuable insights, visit our website or register for our upcoming Dreamforce session: Know Your Past, Fuel Your Future: Historical Data for AI.
