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Sales reports are a key component of effective management. Without these, it is difficult to accurately forecast the financial performance and identify potential areas for growth or improvement. Sales reports can be tricky to prepare but this guide will help you get started quickly with your next report project.
A sales report is a summary of data presented in such a manner that company leaders can see how their teams and campaigns are doing. These reports, which often involve monitoring sales activity, income, and leaderboards, may help companies set and assess the appropriate sales objectives using spreadsheets or customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Template for a Free Sales Report
Screenshot of a sales report template: sales activities
Many full-featured CRMs have sales reporting capabilities, but if yours doesn’t, you may manually generate sales reports and dashboards using a spreadsheet. Although time-consuming, this technique allows companies to generate bespoke sales reports tailored to their particular requirements. We’ve developed a template to assist you to get started producing a sales report using spreadsheets.
What Makes Sales Reports Work?
Data from product sales, pipeline activities, and sales campaigns are gathered and compiled into reports to provide a visual representation of how your sales activities and campaigns are working. You may use this information to generate reports for certain time periods, such as daily, monthly, or quarterly. You may also create dashboards, which are a collection of reports with your most significant sales data visually presented on one page.
Small companies benefit from sales reports because they keep them informed about trends and behaviors that influence sales. Sales reports, for example, may monitor total income or indicate which salesperson makes the most calls, adds the most prospects to the pipeline, and closes the most transactions. Finally, for each of the KPIs you wish to monitor, you should build a sales report.
Because you can compare activity data to defined objectives when you have a structured plan with established quotas, all sales reporting becomes more relevant. As a result, sales reporting is an essential sales management best practice for any company. You help you assess total sales goals, be sure to include parts of your sales strategy and sales quotas into your sales reports.
6 Steps to Creating a Sales Report
To produce successful sales reports, you must first collect and arrange data in such a way that it offers valuable information and tells a narrative about your overall sales performance. Here are six basic procedures to follow when putting together your own sales reports:
1. Decide what your sales reports will be used for.
Choosing your objective is the first and most essential stage in producing sales reports. Because there are so many different types of sales reports, it’s crucial to know why you’re making them and who will be reading them. Before you start producing sales reports, consider the following questions:
- Is our sales report intended to highlight high-level sales patterns that need to be addressed before they become significant issues?
- Do we want to keep sales teams responsible by focusing on daily sales activity such as the number of phone calls made, proposals submitted, or demonstrations conducted?
- Are you looking for a way to encourage and educate your sales staff by establishing leaderboards?
- Do you want salespeople or company owners to be able to identify which campaigns or items are the most effective in order to get a better understanding of market share?
For example, you may want your sales report to monitor quarterly or monthly sales to determine whether your income is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. Alternatively, you may want a sales report to monitor each sales rep’s individual performance to see who needs assistance or training, who are your top performers, and who might be eligible for a promotion or raise.
2. Determine who will make use of sales reports.
You’ll want to tie in who will be using your sales reports after you’ve defined their purpose. A sales manager who is focused on sales activities and deals in the pipeline, for example, would want a call report that shows the number of calls made as well as a pipeline report that shows opportunities in the pipeline and their likelihood of closing. A CEO deciding whether or not to devote a portion of the marketing budget to a certain product, on the other hand, may need a report detailing quarterly sales by product to assist with sales forecasting.
3. Decide which sales activities you want to track
Because sales reports are based on sales data, you’ll need a method to keep track of sales actions and results. This is critical since you won’t be able to generate reports if you don’t monitor your sales data. For example, if you want to include the number of daily cold calls made by sales development representatives in your sales report, you’ll need to set up a system to monitor and record this information. You may use a tracking sheet to manually record the number of calls, or you can utilize a CRM to automate the process.
The number of calls, product demonstrations, units sold, and income is all manually tracked on a spreadsheet.
A CRM is the most convenient method to keep track of sales data. Major sales activity, such as phone call and email metrics, leads added, deals generated, and sales completed, can all be monitored automatically with full-featured CRMs like Freshsales.
4. Figure out the scope of your sales reports.
Next, decide what you’ll include and exclude from your sales reports, such as the time period covered by each report, the product line, and the sales team members included in each report. This data should back up the objective of the sales report you defined in step one, as well as the user you selected in step three.
Having a scope that is too broad or too limited has disadvantages. For example, if you want to analyze sales performance over the past 12 months but only include six months of data, you won’t be able to obtain the insights you need. Alternatively, including sales data from the previous three years in your report would make your report unfocused and fail to emphasize the metrics you’re attempting to track, resulting in an incorrect sales prediction.
Spreadsheet for a 12-month revenue report
Graph of 12-month revenue
5. Don’t forget to include sales plans and quotas.
Include information from your sales goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales quotas in your sales reports where it makes sense. You may accomplish this by comparing actual sales against sales targets. Many sales managers must explain why there is a substantial deviation from quota to firm owners or executives. This information, along with an explanation, should be included in your sales report to assist them in making important business choices.
6. Select the Most Appropriate Format for Your Sales Report
Decide how the information will be presented after you’ve determined the objective, scope, and audience of your sales report. A horizontal bar chart for each salesperson, for example, would be the ideal way to present a leaderboard displaying income and the number of transactions completed. A product mix report may also be better structured with pie charts indicating percentages of sales and textual explanations of quarter-to-quarter comparisons.
You may want to use a bar chart to illustrate daily trends if you’re a sales manager producing a sales report for yourself to monitor daily calls, the number of quotations, or other sales metrics. If you’re making it for the CEO, she may want to see a pie chart displaying the proportion of sales per product while choosing whether or not to invest marketing money on it. The way you produce sales reports will be influenced by who will use them.
Spreadsheets and graphics for sales reports
Manually creating sales reports takes time, but the benefit is that you have more control over the content, structure, and format of your reports. It’s a lot simpler if you use sales report templates like the one we’ve supplied for free.
However, utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) software is typically the simplest method to generate dynamic sales reports. Robust CRMs, such as Freshsales, enable you to generate sales reports with a few mouse clicks and even allow you to build bespoke reports.
When you’re on Freshsales, for example, just select the “reports” tab to get a variety of default reports. Then select a report category, such as “deals” if you want to create a custom report that just includes bargains. Then, choose “generate report” from the drop-down menu. Finally, Freshsales will walk you through filling up the report’s specifics, such as data filter criteria, creating a table, adding a graphic, selecting a time period, and who can see the report.
an example report from Freshsales
Why Are Sales Reports Important to Your Company?
Sales reports are essential because they rapidly inform salespeople, sales managers, and company owners about the status of sales performance. They offer important sales data such as:
- How much money are you bringing in?
- How many transactions are you completing?
- Which goods are the most popular throughout time?
- Early warning signs of potential sales opportunities or issues
Additionally, since sales reports indicate how near you are to meeting sales targets, they may act as motivators and help you justify sales incentives or pay schemes. Sales reports may assist sales managers to figure out who is on pace for bonuses, incentives, or competition wins.
“Sales reporting allows me to keep track of where everything comes from, such as which team members are responsible for which valued leads, which marketing messages are effective, and which of our services are selling better.” I can quickly detect problem services or problems with specific team members using this approach, and address them before they become systemic.”
ExpertSure.com CEO Ollie Smith
If you’re computer skilled, you might build computer software to monitor sales and provide reports. However, for small companies, the most common tools for sales reporting are Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or CRMs with sales reporting capabilities, each of which has its own set of advantages (along with potential drawbacks).
Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel
You can generate sales reports in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets depending on the sales data you input. The benefit of utilizing Excel or Google Sheets is that they are both inexpensive and simple to modify. The downside of utilizing any of these tools is that you’ll have to start from the beginning with your sales reporting and data collection method, spreadsheets, and formulae, and manually update the reports on a regular basis.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A customer relationship management system (CRM) stores all of the information you’ll need to generate sales reports. As a result, one of the benefits of utilizing a CRM is the ability to produce a sales report with a single click of a button, rather than needing to develop formulae or search for previous sales data. The downside is that customization possibilities are limited compared to building your own from scratch, which may be acceptable if your CRM already has the sales reports you need or allows you to modify the kind of sales reports you desire.
Here are a handful of the best CRMs that provide sales reporting:
- Freshsales: This CRM stores and records everything from deal size to daily activities, allowing you to generate a range of reports ranging from sales activity reports to completed deals and revenue reports, providing insight into sales success across the sales life cycle.
- Copper: This CRM software has a distinct objectives dashboard that sales managers may use to keep track of each individual salesperson. Sales income, opportunities gained, lead conversions, and sales activity may all be used to generate reports.
- Pipedrive: This CRM’s sophisticated forecasting feature may help you determine how likely your sales representatives are to complete transactions based on previous data. It will generate a revenue estimate for you to keep track of your sales budget automatically.
- HubSpot CRM: This is a free CRM with reporting capabilities. HubSpot generates forecasting reports based on the monetary value of each transaction in your sales funnel. You may also generate reports for each individual rep and get a summary of your sales team’s success.
Incorporate Sales Reports into Your Dashboard
A lot of data is involved in every sales transaction. As a consequence, you’ll be able to generate a broad range of sales reports, from lead source reports to revenue reports. The reports you include in your dashboard are determined by your job and how you intend to utilize them. Personal dashboards focusing on sales objectives and rankings can pique your attention if you’re a salesman.
On the other hand, business owners will want high-level dashboards that show where sales are coming from and when they are being gained and lost. Revenue, number of goods sold, real products sold, number of calls made, number and value of transactions in the pipeline, and the likelihood of deals closing are all examples. Any report you produce will start with these performance indicators as the basis.
There are many kinds of reports that you may wish to include on your dashboard, depending on your company. Consider including the following kinds of sales reports:
- Deals won vs. transactions lost: The monetary worth of won or lost deals may help you discover common characteristics or determine the number of deals required to meet your objectives. It will also inform you of the proportion of transactions you win, allowing you to tailor your pipeline appropriately.
- Sales activities: A fast visual representation of sales activities, such as the number of calls or emails sent, may help you connect these activities with sales, indicating which activities you should enhance.
- Deals now in the pipeline: It’s useful to be able to quickly understand what’s in your pipeline and how near they are to closing. This enables you to concentrate on the most crucial transactions.
Manually creating dashboards using a spreadsheet is feasible, but it may be time-consuming, particularly if you have to extract data and import or enter it into your spreadsheets. Creating dashboards using a CRM like Freshsales, on the other hand, is simple and can be done with just a few clicks since the database already has the information you need to generate meaningful reports.
Conclusion
A sales report is an important tool for identifying your sales strengths and shortcomings. They can be done using spreadsheets, but a CRM, such as an analytical CRM with sales reporting capabilities, is a better, more efficient method to produce a sales report.
