Have you ever found yourself wishing you could boost your sales processes, but discovered you're not even sure where you can find room for improvement?
Well, let's be honest, you probably have a general idea.
But as we all know, you need to be very specific if you want to be effective.
You need to find the weak link in the chain of your sales process and a sales report is exactly the tool that can get you there. It can identify the problems, highlight possible solutions, and help you realize exactly how much potential your company really has.
And that's definitely not a piece of information you'd like your competition to learn before you do.
So let's see if we can help you win that race, shall we?
A sales report is a document designed to record and report all the business activities of a specific company.
No, don't worry, that doesn't include the pens you've stolen from the office.
But what it does include is:
The size of the sales Overall revenue over a certain period of time Expenses over that same period New accounts and leads The performance of the sales team and individual members of the team.
Whereas what is the benefit of a sales report?
The answer is simple. In the same way basketball teams watch videos of their games to determine what they did well and what they did wrong, businesses produce sales reports to try and discover what they do well and where they could improve.
And, generally speaking, there's a lot of room for improvement.
Check out these statistics:
Now, these are interesting statistics, but do they apply to your company? Which side of the fence do you land on? Are your emails getting opened or are they not? Are your sales prospects a good fit or are they not?
These are the questions different types of sales reports can answer so that when you look at statistics like that, you know exactly which problems you've already dealt with, and which ones still need to be taken care of.
Different types of sales reports are aimed at different parts of the business process.
Now here's a quick overview, if the suspense is killing you:
Sales analysis report Sales summary reports Loss rate by sales phase report Conversion rate report
But if this little spoiler has only whetted your appetite, then let's examine the different types more closely.
A sales analysis report is a set of data designed to provide management with an overview of trends and various metrics that apply to the sales process and its end results.
Sales analysis reports are used by management to help them understand the performance of the existing business process and provide them with clues as to the changes that might be necessary.
It helps companies keep track of KPIs, ensures awareness of market shifts and trends, and helps ensure a proper dynamic between employees in the workplace.
A sales summary report contains data about the company's sales performance over a specific period of time. Sales summary reports can be daily, weekly, or monthly.
It is a financial record of the company's sales and is a crucial piece of data gathering. It might not be rocket science on its own, but it serves as the foundation for later analysis that helps shape the company's projections and decisions moving forward.
Every business has a bottleneck. That part of the sales funnels where sizzling hot prospects turn into what-could-have-been's. A report on the loss rate by sales phase helps shed light on the parts of the sales process where a company has to make improvements.
Are your sales reps having trouble closing deals? Is the sales funnel working well, but the number of prospects is too low? Are your sales reps having a hard time overcoming buying hesitancy?
Identifying the problems with this type of sales report can help a company make the necessary adjustments and provide their sales reps with the tools and/or assistance they need.
Sales summary reports tell management how many deals were closed. Conversion rate reports tell management how many deals could have been closed.
How much money was left on the table? Tens of thousands of dollars? Hundreds of thousands?
The question is enough to make you shudder, isn't it?
Conversion rate reports tell a company how many opportunities it has teed up, only to hit a hook shot straight into the trees.
When it comes to the creation of sales reports, there are a number of factors that come into play.
The quality of a sales report hinges above all on the data companies gather about their activities. Now, the amount of data can often be either too small or too big.
If it's too small, you don't have enough to work with. If it's too big, the problem becomes making sense of all the information.
A customer relationship management system can be helpful in that regard. CRMs offer analytics to their users and create reports on various activities that help companies make sense of the information they have in front of them.
Furthermore, once the data has been collected, the creators of the sales report must keep the audience in mind. What are they hoping to learn from the report? Why do they need it? How are the findings of the report supposed to help in their decision-making process?
These basic questions have to be answered before a company can even begin to create a sales report if they want the report to achieve its goal and provide the clarity its audience is looking for.
When it comes to creating a sales report, the first thing you have to do is consider the audience and the purpose behind the report.
Is it intended to inform the sales reps themselves or is it meant to be used by management?
We all know there are some things you might want to tell management that the sales reps shouldn't hear about.
Your audience will guide you in deciding which parts of the sales process to focus on. If the sales report is supposed to inform the sales reps, then the report might focus on informing them which aspects of their sales methods work well and which ones should be improved.
But if the report is meant for management, then the sales report should focus on the overarching sales process, covering the sales department as a whole.
As with every other endeavor, knowing what you're aiming for is the crucial aspect of knowing how to do it.
With that in mind, every sales report must have a clearly defined goal.
What does it mean to accomplish? Which part of the sales process is it meant to highlight?
If you're looking to find the bottlenecks in your sales process, then you know the information you are digging for and the process becomes much simpler.
Choosing a specific time frame means narrowing down the humongous pile of data into a smaller pile that's relevant to the time period that is being analyzed.
Not only does that help in terms of knowing which data to focus on, but it also means that different sales reports can be compared, making it easier for companies to spot trends, both within the company and in the market.
Once you've chosen the time frame, it's time to compile all the relevant data within that time frame.
This can be a headache-inducing manual task, or the data can be gathered with the help of a CRM and accessed at any given moment. The system can categorize information, allowing people to always find what they are looking for with ease.
The third step is to categorize and put the information into relevant context.
Nothing destroys the effectiveness of a report if its audience can barely understand the conclusions it's trying to illustrate. Break the report down into different categories so the audience knows at any given moment what the findings of the report are and what caused those results.
After you've tracked down all the necessary data, it is up to the writer to present an overarching analysis of the process they are reporting on and craft a summary that explains not only what happened but also why it happened.
This isn't high-brow literature, people aren't supposed to interpret the report for themselves.
The point is that a sales report should come to a certain conclusion, and provide final answers to the questions it asked at the beginning of the report.
If you've done your job correctly, you've identified the problems and backed your finding with cold-hard data.
Now's your time to shine.
Make recommendations on what the company should do to avoid problems in the future.
Which part of the sales process should be adjusted? What kind of tools or resources do sales reps need to become more productive and effective sellers? Which part of the sales funnel needs to be improved, and how could that be achieved?
Answer those questions and you'll be a superstar.
Writing a sales report can be an irritating process. Especially if the writer doesn't use the correct tools. Or if they don't use any tools at all.
Using a CRM allows companies easy access to their data as customer relationship management platforms track all the key metrics in a sales process, from customer communications to sales leads.
Whether companies want to identify bottlenecks in the sales pipeline or wish to track the effectiveness of their sales reps, CRMs quickly provide the necessary answers, making the writing of a sales report an infinitely simpler proposition.
Even if you've become the Elton John of your company due to your ability to write sales reports, there's always room to improve.
Ask for feedback. Discover what you could do better.
Think of it like this: writing a sales report is essentially providing a company with feedback on its sales process. That means it would be hypocritical if you weren't willing to listen to feedback on your feedback.
The final tip for the creation of a sales report is to make it easily understandable.
Boring paragraphs that go on for two pages straight aren't easily digestible.
But sales reports that take full advantage of charts, tables, and graphs have the power to catch the attention of the audience.
Look at this example. People can understand the situation with a simple glance. And then they can dive into the details and the story behind the information.
Why did Daniel have only a 3% conversion rate? This is the hook that draws them in.
It's a far more effective way of creating a sales report than one that requires its audience to dig through pages of text to find the report's conclusions.
So now that we've examined every aspect of a sales report, let's see which tools can help you improve the creation process.
It's shocking that our own CRM would be the first one listed, we know.
But that's because it's by far the best example of a sales CRM, Ringy is a sales reporting solution every company needs as a part of their arsenal. The software aims to provide companies with the ability to streamline their sales process and gain a clear insight into their business process.
The software's features include:
Qualifying leads Analytics and reports Automation Communications tracking Easy integration
The software is a must-have for any sales department of any company. Companies need to enjoy the software's benefits, especially if their competition is enjoying them as well.
But don't take our word for it. You can check out what Ringy's customers have to say right here.
And if you're interested in finding out the investment Ringy requires, you can find out all about it here.
Domo is a business cloud platform that aims to unite all the departments, systems, and software under a single roof. The goal is to give organizations the ability to easily track their business process and share the data with employees in an easy, secure way. The gathering of data on a single platform, coupled with the ease with which employees can access them, makes writing sales reports a walk in the park.
Domo offers features like:
Full integration Visualization tools Building of data apps Security
When it comes to the customer experiences, people rave about Domo's visualization features, though some claim the performance of reports decreases with larger data piles. You can check out more reviews here.
Domo's pricing is adjustable, depending on specific customers. You can learn more about it here.
Gong is a top-of-the-line revenue intelligence platform designed to help businesses gain clear insight into the sales process by recording, transcribing, and analyzing the sales calls made by each and every one of your sales reps.
It's an amazing tool that can not only help facilitate sales reports that offer detailed insight, but it also offers the opportunity for a quicker onboarding process and better employee training.
Gong offers a range of features, including:
CRM integration Calendar integration Recording communications Call transcriptions Analytics
Gong offers customized pricing structures for each customer. You can learn more about it here.
Congratulations, you've made it through the theory.
So here come two real-life examples as a reward.
TKF Telecom France sells to large companies which involves a complex sales process that includes multiple decision-makers to complete.
That means multiple sales reps became involved in every deal. The problem arose with the use of multiple tools, each containing its own mountain of data that wasn't freely shared.
As you can imagine, making accurate predictions in their sales reports might've been called a Herculean task if anyone had any confidence that Hercules himself could accomplish it.
But then the company adopted a CRM and brought all their data under one roof.
The system began taking advantage of the data, allowing the company to make accurate forecasts about future sales and take full advantage of sales reporting to plan their operations.
Synergy Enterprises is a company that has been selling data solutions for over 20 years. By using a CRM, they have taken their ability to assess their business process to the next level.
Their CRM has allowed them to track events and customer behavior, providing answers on how to provide the best value to their customers.
The customized reporting has given them the option of making accurate forecasts and providing management with the opportunity to instantly track the performance of their sales team through customized dashboards.
The role of a sales report is to cast light on the various business processes going on at a company at any given moment.
A sales report should focus on facts like:
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Facts |
Details |
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Number of prospects |
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Deal size |
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Conversion rates |
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Sales cycle |
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There are a number of elements that make up a good sales report, but these are the three main factors every company should focus on:
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Element |
Function |
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Data |
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Context |
The information gathered is only useful if it's put in the context of the company situation. |
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Conclusion |
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A sales report can be formatted in a number of ways, but there are specific elements that are used most often. The format of a sales report would usually look something like this:
Executive summary Table of contents Introduction Main report Conclusion References Appendix
A sales report that includes all of those parts is bound to provide a conclusive picture to anyone reading.
Sales reports might seem like an unnecessary annoyance. Another piece of bureaucracy that'll clog up the system with useless information and have the company waste resources on projects no one cares about.
That couldn't be further from the truth.
Sales reports have the power to illuminate the foggy parts of a business process and provide a company with the direction it has to move if it means to advance and grow.
Companies that recognize the possibilities of sales reports can make informed decisions moving forward, while the companies that ignore them might be left scrambling in the dark, merely guessing at what could be improved.
So if you don't want to end up like the latter, contact Ringy today and request a demo to discover how a sales report might help take your company to the next level.