- For years I used to complain that in my industry
the lack of data was really frustrating.
I came to realize that I wasn't alone,
and that sales managers across many types of businesses
felt the same way.
We all got summary data okay,
but after that a lot of metrics came too late
or didn't give a full picture of the state of the business.
Today there are some fantastic account tracking tools.
Sell through reporting programs,
and other customer relationship management
software available.
The amount of ways that data can be reported,
sliced and diced is really only limited
by our imaginations.
You'll now here people complain about data overload,
and being slowed down because they feel there's
just too much to digest.
That's why it's very important to have a
reporting and measurement strategy for your
key performance indicators.
The use of dashboards is a terrific way to
organize and present data in a very user friendly way.
So we are clear,
a dashboard is a visual display of the metrics you are
tracking for your company.
They're organized in a way that in one spot
you can view all of your key performance indicators.
Once you determine which metrics fields to follow,
you can have your tech savvy sales operations person,
or team, assist you in dashboard development.
However it's worth an extra meeting to
include peers from other departments,
to get their feedback as to what they want included.
Believe me that's a good investment in time,
as it avoids re-doing dashboard later on.
It also helps reinforce the team approach
to the sales process.
From a performance measurement perspective,
the use of dashboards enables you to report on your
business in a variety of ways and for different groups.
Here are some examples,
but remember there are many types that you could have
created specifically for your business.
Snapshot, this would take just three of four items
such as sales, account tracking and maybe
new accounts opened.
Nothing really fancy,
but basic information that will provide the user
with a quick status report of the business.
Consolidated.
There would be more summarized details here
and a few more charts.
This one has information about individual sales people,
year to date summaries, and a few other KPIs.
You can customize this for your specific sales people,
or channels.
Complex.
What I like about this example, is that there are about
10 items tracked, but since it's designed so well
it doesn't look confusing.
A sales manager or marketing person could view this each
morning when they start their day to get a view
of the business.
I've seen dashboard with even more metrics tracked,
but those can be a bit overwhelming.
Leads, Opportunities, Closed Sales.
This is a really good dashboard for a focus
on the pipeline from a lead to a closed sale.
In spot you can see where you are,
and where there may be red flags.
The amount of sales and marketing information we
can now get from our various systems is in my mind
one of the great advancements in the past 10 to 20 years.
It's made us all smarter, better prepared and more
focused on the critical metrics that
drive our businesses.
Starting your day with a quick view of your business
with a sales dashboard should be a part
of all business routines.
Refine them, enhance them,
and share them across your company and it can
make you a more aware and more professional organization.