Back to All Stories

Sales leaders are busy. In an age of information overload, the ability to simplify and quickly surface key insights has become critical. Sales management dashboards have long been business leaders’ go-to for monitoring high-level performance. But dashboards can be used at many levels, especially in sales, to filter the firehose of data and give you quick, insightful views into your business so you can take action.

It can be hard to know where to start, though. Building a dashboard requires vision and clearly identified goals. Write out your vision and even sketch out a drawing of what it might look like. Make sure you’re thinking about these critical inputs:

  • The purpose of the dashboard

  • Who needs to see the report

  • How often it will be seen

  • What it looks like

  • How much data is included

  • The time period

  • The types of chart(s) to use

 

The following are examples of dashboards we’ve seen sales managers use to get visibility into all aspects of their business.

1. The lead funnel dashboard

 

This dashboard gives you a view into how sales and marketing are working together. By creating a single dashboard for sales and marketing, both departments can make data-driven decisions.

For instance, should you choose to track conversion rate by team, you’ll be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the sales process. Is marketing generating leads, but those leads aren’t converting? Is your content the issue, or are your sales reps not holding up their service level agreement (SLA) for lead response times?

Ultimately your goal is to identify where sales and marketing can best spend their time and resources. If sales isn’t working through all the leads, it might mean marketing should tighten their filters or do more qualification. If all the leads are being worked quickly, marketing might need to invest in more channels or expand their efforts.

  • Key Focus: better alignment with marketing; identification of trends and course corrections (agility); accountability; ensuring pipe coverage

  • Key Reports: Leads by Source, Net Leads Versus Qualified Leads, Leads Attached to Pipeline (Opportunities), Conversion Rate, Lead Engagement

  • Distribution: sales management, marketing

 

2. The forecast dashboard



Often thought of as a “managing up” tool for public companies, a forecast accuracy dashboard can also be used for coaching, rewarding, and uncovering flaws in your sales process at any company. Are you on track for the quarter, or does marketing need to generate more leads? At what stage are you losing prospects? Which reps aren’t closing?

  • Key Focus: sales credibility, quota attainment, management visibility, finance visibility

  • Key Reports: Forecast by Rep, Forecast by Team, Forecast by Stage, Forecast by Territory, Forecast Predictions (AI)

  • Distribution: sales management, executive team, finance 

 

3. The sales leaderboard dashboard



Recognition is motivating, and leaderboards are a method of gamifying sales performance. This can drive a healthy competitive spirit, open up opportunities for mentorship, and keep reps accountable for their sales activities.

  • Key Focus: sales motivation, management, transparency

  • Key Reports: Closed-Won Opportunities by Revenue, Won Opportunities, Number of Demos, New Business Versus Upsell

  • Distribution: all sales, executive team, marketing

 

4. The competition and win/loss dashboard



The previous dashboards focus on showing how your team is doing against quotas; however, dashboards tracking competition and wins/losses will shed light on the areas you may need to focus on for coaching or intervention. This may spark some deeper qualitative inputs from sales reps about why they lost a deal, or how they’re positioning against competitors.

With visibility into these deals, sales can also funnel feedback to the product and marketing teams to help arm them with resources, or improve or alter products.

  • Key Focus: understanding threats, monitoring for best fit

  • Key Reports: Win/Loss Rates, Competitor Presence, Deals with No Competitor, Competitor Pricing

  • Distribution: all reps, product, marketing, sales manager

 

5. The KPIs and sales activities dashboard



Use this dashboard to drive discipline in your sales force. At Salesforce, we consider this part of our secret sauce for managing sales pipeline.

Find out where deals stand, which sales reps are actively working leads, who hasn’t logged into their CRM lately, and various other accountability metrics that can be used to reinforce rigor in the sales process.

  • Key Focus: rep behavior, CRM adoption

  • Key Reports: Activities by Sales Rep (calls, demos, visits), Opportunities Past Due, Number of Days Without Logging into CRM

  • Distribution: all sales

 

6. The executive daily view dashboard



As a sales leader, your time is valuable. With an executive dashboard, you can spend less time aggregating data to show your execs that you have control over the business at any given time. You’re no longer explaining your results and creating decks. Now you can spend time in the field or coaching sales reps. Demonstrate ROI, and leverage this dashboard to ask for budget or staffing increases.

  • Key Focus: total transparency, executive communication

  • Key Reports: Best of Everything — Leads, Sales, Competition, Forecast, product inventory levels, account billing status and so on

  • Distribution: executives


With these dashboards in hand, you're ready to focus on getting leads and closing deals. Want to learn more about creating reports and dashboards? Check out this helpful module on Trailhead: Reports & Dashboards for Lightning Experience »