In a competitive world, you are bound to face setbacks but what’s important, especially for people in the sales industry – is how you move forward.
Think of the last time you made a hasty decision that brought with it disappointing results? Was data used to make that decision or did you rely on intuition?
Data is crucial to your sales team for a number of reasons. It gives accurate and actionable insights to help your team make informed decisions. Sales data will help you evaluate the performance of your sales agents and enable you to understand customer’s buying behaviour.
According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, 49% of people said that analytics helped them make better decisions.
So how can you view sales data, monitor the performance of your reps, and take important decisions?
Simple – by creating a top-notch sales dashboard.
What is a sales dashboard?
Sales teams depend heavily on data to improve sales processes and make accurate sales forecasts.
The huge volume of data collated can get overwhelming. That’s where sales dashboards step in. A sales dashboard allows you to see different kinds of data at one glance, in an easy-to-read format.
It is a visual representation of your sales data showing all the critical information such as the total number of leads, average deal size, conversion rate & revenue. All the information is updated in real-time, as soon as a deal is closed.
A good sales dashboard should be able to give you a clear picture of where your team is at currently. This will help you figure out what the next steps should be.
Sales dashboards are always customized. You have to choose the metrics that you want to display on your sales dashboard. These metrics will guide your team to build its sales strategy. With the help of a sales dashboard, you and your team will be able to monitor all the contributing KPIs that make up your sales funnel and take important strategic decisions.
Sales dashboards show you the areas that need improvement and will help you build a stronger sales team with information that will motivate and inspire your team to perform better.
How to create the perfect sales dashboard?
Each business sets its sales dashboard differently depending on its business goals. The CRM that you implement also has a key part to play in configuring sales dashboards as each one has its customization options.
Irrespective of the type of CRM you choose, there are a few basic steps your team can follow to create your sales dashboard.
Consider the following, before you set out to evaluate your software options:
- What is the overall purpose of your dashboard?
- Who will view it and how frequently will the stakeholders need to access the dashboard for updates?
- What information are they looking for? What are the metrics, visuals, or calculations you will want to include?
- The amount of data you want to include.
- The time duration you wish to represent.
With these in mind, you are all set to design your sales dashboard. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Define the metrics which are most important to you
This is the first step to creating your sales dashboard. According to reports, companies backed by data are 58% more likely to meet their revenue goals.
To make the most of a sales dashboard, you need to measure the right KPIs that impact your business performance. You will need to select KPIs that are most important to your team.
Before you determine your most important metrics, establish what you want your team to focus on. Whether your focus is on relationship management or sales management, you are likely to have a few metrics that you and your team intend to monitor on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
Revenue is a good metric to start with, almost every sales team needs to track it. Revenue per sale, conversions rate, sales per rep, sales growth, and sales by region are other important metrics in sales to include in your sales dashboard.
2. Set targets for your team
Once you have determined your metrics, it’s time to set targets for your team to achieve.
Tracking metrics is pointless if you don’t have a specific goal in sight. Refer to past data( for example, statistics from the last year) on these metrics and discuss it with your team to understand which areas need improvement and what will be a realistic target to set. This will get you and your team on the same page.
3. Pick a template
Once you have determined what your most important KPIs are and set targets for your team, it’s time to extract the data from your CRM to present the most actionable information to your team.
Your CRM software is likely to have some sort of template that you can use. It might auto-fill your dashboard with some metrics and let you customise later.
Choose a template that displays some of the most important metrics in sales, but don’t let it crowd your dashboard. Pick a template that lets you represent data over a certain period of time like a week, a month, or a quarter.
A well-implemented CRM system can result in an ROI of 245%.
However, if you are not using a CRM, there are reporting tools that will help you sync or import data to create dashboards and reports.
4. Add the metrics into the dashboard
It’s now time to customise your sales dashboard. Get feedback from your team and move metrics around if you have to. Modify the visual displays of your metrics, maybe a pie chart provides better clarity than a bar graph. You can monitor different metrics as you go along.
For instance, your team may need to keep a closer watch on the conversion rate rather than on the growth rate as the former took a huge hit in recent weeks — and you want to improve the numbers to get them back on track.
5. Give your team access to the sales dashboard
Everyone on your team must be referring to the same sales reporting dashboard and not data from different sources. This will ensure that you are collectively working towards a common goal and targeting the same numbers. If a sales rep is not performing well, the sales dashboard can serve as a reminder to step up their game.
Double up your sales team’s performance with sales dashboards
Sales dashboards back your team up with all the right information required to improve their performance and motivate sales. Use them to your advantage to gain a better understanding of every aspect of your sales environment from how many sales a rep closes to which are the leads that generate the highest sales.
With this bird’s eye view of your sales process, you can identify bottlenecks and overcome problems before they start to affect your sales efforts. If you are yet to use a sales dashboard, it’s not too late to start. And if you are looking for ways to build your sales strategy and motivate your sales team — say no more, sign up on Unomok today!