Accurate information and thorough analytics are an important part of successful sales strategies. Sales professionals may use a variety of reports to gather valuable insight into their sales team’s performance. Understanding a variety of sales reports and their uses may help you make informed decisions about your sales strategy and could lead to improved results. In this article, we define sales reports, discuss their importance and provide a list of commonly used sales reports with descriptions for each.
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What is a sales report?
A sales report is a document that outlines sales activities within an organization. Organizations may use several kinds of sales reports at various phases of the selling cycle to measure progress, determine success, expose areas of improvement and gain valuable insight that may influence their future strategies. Sales reports may also help organizations discover new market opportunities and improve their results.
The different kinds of sales reports may focus on different areas of performance, such as sales development, sales target presets, and customer lifetime measurements.
Why are sales reports important?
There are several reasons sales reports may be important for sales professionals to implement and regularly assess, including:
Improving performance
Sales reports provide valuable details about your sales performance that may help you improve your results. Understanding which parts of your sales strategy are successful and which parts need adjustment can help you more effectively tailor your sales efforts to meet your objectives.
Monitoring your team’s performance may also help to motivate individuals by giving them an understanding of their progress and encouraging improvement which may boost productivity.
Making informed decisions
Informed decisions have an important part in the success of a sales strategy. Sales reports provide accurate, timely information that may help sales professionals make well-informed decisions about important sales activities. Reports that are frequently run, such as daily or weekly reports, may help organizations track and correct tactics that need adjusting before they lead to larger issues.
Increasing efficiency
Sales reports may help your team understand which leads and strategies are worth pursuing and which should receive less of your attention. This could help your team more efficiently manage their time by providing information about how to prioritize tasks and may improve results. For example, by using specific sales data, your team may contact high-quality leads first and reduce the length of the sales cycle- providing more time for exploring other revenue opportunities.
Types of sales reports
There are several types of reports that may provide valuable insight into the success of your sales efforts. Below is a list of 8 useful sales reports to consider:
1. Revenue by salesperson
This report provides information about the amount of revenue generated by each individual on your sales team. You may run this report monthly as a performance indicator and it may help your team members adjust their strategies as needed. The information included in revenue by salesperson reports often contains:
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Quotas
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Sales goals
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Percent contributed to team revenue
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Number of deals closed
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Number of deals lost
Assessing this kind of report regularly may help you understand which members of your sales team are succeeding and which need further coaching. It may also help you determine how market trends influence your team’s performance and produce strategies to combat these fluctuations.
2. Conversion rate
Conversion rate simply means the percentage of deals won against the percentage of deals lost throughout a period. You may run this report monthly, quarterly or yearly to determine the percentage of sales made or deals won by an individual, department or organization. While basic revenue reports offer a general understanding of the amount of money brought in by an entire organization, conversion rate reports provide direct information about the revenue generated by the efforts of your sales team and may offer more details about the cause of increases or decreases in sales.
3. Loss rate by sales phase
This type of report provides data about the number of sales or deals lost during particular phases of the sales cycle. By determining exactly when deals are being lost, you may more accurately adjust your strategies to prevent future losses. For example, if your team is consistently losing deals after product demonstrations or sales presentations, you may need to assess your team’s sales pitches or an individual’s presentation delivery. Finding exactly where throughout the sales phase you’re losing deals may help you determine steps toward improvement.
4. Average sales cycle length
This simple and essential report may help you determine how long it takes your team to begin and close a sale. The average sales cycle length can help you better understand your sales process and make more informed decisions about which actions to take throughout. For example, if you know it takes your team an average of thirty days to complete the sales cycle from start to finish, you may strategically schedule a follow-up meeting with your clients on the fifteenth day.
This report can also decide how to manage your efforts throughout different phases of the sales cycle. If a lead is taking longer than the average cycle length to complete a sale, you may need to adjust your strategies or reconsider your approach.
5. Average deal size
This basic report provides important information about the average amount of revenue gathered from each deal or sale. You may run this report monthly or yearly to help you track revenue and monitor the consistency of your sales. This report may also help determine individual sales quotas and objectives for your team. The information gathered from average deal size reports could also help you set milestones and timelines throughout your sales cycle.
6. Marketing collateral usage
Marketing collateral is the collection of materials used by marketing teams to assist sales teams in securing deals. A marketing collateral usage report can help you determine which of these materials and resources are successful based on how frequently your team uses them. You may use this information to determine which marketing efforts are worth your investments and which should be replaced with more successful materials.
7. Sales call
Sales call reports are a great way to measure the effectiveness of individuals on your sales team. This report generates data about the number of visits or calls sales representatives make to prospects during a time. You may run this report weekly, monthly or yearly to determine the number of calls or visits that resulted in successful sales. This ratio may help you determine which of your team members are consistently meeting their sales objectives and which need coaching or adjustment to their tactics.
8. Lead aging
A lead aging report provides information about your sales team’s communication with prospects, such as the date of last contact and the contents of previous interactions. You may run this report to ensure your team provides the appropriate attention to your leads throughout each phase of the sales cycle. Prospects that are left without contact for extended periods may result in loss of sales. Lead aging reports are a great way to prevent this by remaining organized and prioritizing customer outreach.
