Is your sales team getting the most out of their data? If you’re like most companies, the answer is, unfortunately, probably not. In fact, a 2018 study by Gartner indicated that a whopping 87% of organizations have low business intelligence and analytics maturity. Yes, you read that right. Almost 90% of companies aren’t benefiting from their data in all the ways they could—and should—be.
So what’s the answer to this problem, and how do you develop better business intelligence and data maturity? It’s a pretty big issue to solve with any one strategy. However, using sales metrics dashboards that are precise, dynamic, and actionable is a great place to start! But what are sales metrics dashboards, and how do you develop one your teams will come back to time and time again? Let’s dive in.
What are Sales Metrics?
Sales metrics are the data points and key performance indicators (KPIs) that companies use to monitor progress toward goals and measure overall performance. These pieces of data, often monitored in your CRM or other tools, can track performance for an individual, a team, or the entire company—which gives leaders strategic oversight across every level.
Sales metrics can be divided into many categories, including the following:
- Sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Sales Activities and Productivity
- Demand and Lead Generation
- Engagement and Outreach
- Pipeline Sales
- Sales Conversion
- Sales Process
- Win Loss
While most companies have systems in place to track these metrics, either through old, manual data-entry processes or through more advanced automated activity capture most companies aren’t getting the most out of their data if they’re not using dashboards to aggregate and disseminate data in real time.
What are Sales Dashboards?
Like any dashboard, a sales metric dashboard is designed to give teams a quick overview of their data and performance. Sales dashboards come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from an Excel sales dashboard template to a customized Tableau dashboard to out-of-the-box real-time dashboards like those offered by InsightSquared.
Essentially, sales dashboards consolidate sales metrics and KPIs from numerous reports and multiple systems to make it easy for teams to access information on key indicators, trends, and gaps or opportunities for growth.
InisghtSquared’s sales dashboards allows teams to get meaningful metrics, automatically updated in real-time. Teams will have access to dashboards that monitor performance, connect sales activities to the overall pipeline, and provide the insights necessary to increase win rates across the board.
What Should be on a Sales Dashboard?
In short, there’s no one list of items that should be on a sales dashboard. And, to be clear, the dashboard absolutely shouldn’t include every metric available to you—that’ll get unruly fast. The truth is, sales dashboards are most useful when they’re customized to your company’s needs. So how do you decide which KPIs to use? The best sales dashboards are developed with these things in mind:
- What’s the dashboard going to be used for? Are you looking for something to display results or progress toward quotas, or are you looking for something more actionable that can inform what parts of your sales process are most effective and most ineffective? Identify a narrow purpose and go with that. Remember, you can always create multiple dashboards with multiple purposes.
- Who is the audience? Who is the dashboard designed for? Will you be showing it in board meetings or monthly business reviews? Or is it designed for sales leaders to use with their teams? Different audiences are going to care about different data points.
- What time period will the dashboard cover? The best dashboards are created with dynamic, real-time data capabilities, so users are constantly seeing the most up-to-date information. But, you still need to decide what time period you’re trying to measure. If your sales cycle tends to be fairly long, a monthly or even quarterly dashboard might suffice. Companies with shorter sales cycles may find a weekly dashboard to be more instructive.
- What actions are you hoping to get out of the dashboard? One of the most important things to keep in mind when developing a sales dashboard is how you’ll make it actionable. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s not enough to be reactive. You have to be proactive. Are you hoping to track potential leads, identify risks before they lead to losses, or identify which deals are likely to be lost so you can cut them faster? Identify the metrics that’ll lead you to these results.
How Do You Create a Sales Dashboard? With InsightSquared!
At the end of the day, you can create a sales dashboard the hard way—through manual processes and laggy Excel files—or you can do it the easy way: with InsightSquared. Our library of more than 350 out-of-the-box templates makes it easy to develop the perfect sales dashboard, no matter what your end goal is. At InsightSquared, we’re on a mission to transform sales and marketing analytics. Our tools make it easier for your team to win more deals, faster.
Learn more about some of our most popular sales dashboards or request a free, personalized demo today.
