A sales report is an overview of a company’s (you guessed it!) sales performance. It is a document that provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of sales activities and performance within a given period. 📈
In this article, we’ll cover:
Now, let’s break it down. 👇
Typically, a sales report is an insight into:
If you’re a salesperson or sales manager or work in any role remotely related to sales, a sales report is your holy grail.
As a salesperson, you need to monitor and assess your progress with your sales pipeline. This includes calculating revenue, keeping track of your accounts, and completing related tasks.
As a sales manager, it’s crucial to keep track of your team’s performance and track your sales strategies. This involves monitoring their progress toward revenue goals, targets, and other key performance indicators. By doing so, you can effectively manage your team and help them succeed in their sales efforts.
Sales reports can take various forms, such as weekly or monthly reports, quarterly reviews, and annual summaries. They are crucial for making informed decisions that drive business growth.
The purpose of sales reports is to provide valuable insights into a company’s sales performance. Here are some reasons why sales reports are important:
To compile a successful sales report, it’s essential to keep a few key things in mind:
Next, we will list a few metrics that are commonly used for all stakeholders and, most importantly, for your own data sanity.
To make things easy for you, we have laid out 8 different examples of sales report types and how to create them, complete with their respective formulas.
A sales pipeline is a visual representation of the sales process, from generating a lead to closing a sale. It helps sales teams track their sales leads through each stage of the sales cycle.
By monitoring the pipeline, sales teams can identify potential bottlenecks and adjust their sales strategy accordingly. The pipeline also provides insight into tasks associated with and how much revenue can be expected in the future, allowing businesses to plan and allocate resources accordingly. A well-managed sales pipeline is crucial for businesses that want to optimize their sales process and drive growth.
You can create an Excel sheet with the columns: Company Name, Contact Name, Contact Email, Stage (as a drop-down), and Value. You can set it up in Excel as shown below:
In addition to the pipeline, you must report on the conversion rate of your leads. This report analyzes how your prospects are moving through the pipeline.
It also gives you an idea of the conversion rates from stage to stage, as well as how long each won opportunity stayed on average in each stage of the sales pipeline so that you have a good overview of how much time and effort each stage needs.
Conversion rate for a stage = (Number of opportunities who moved to the next stage / Number of users in the current stage) x 100
Sales forecasting is the practice of making predictions about a company’s future sales revenue for a defined period, typically a month, quarter, or year. This involves estimating the amount of products or services that will be sold during that period.
Accurate sales forecasting allows companies to make well-informed decisions about how to allocate resources and budget effectively. By analyzing past sales data, businesses can generate forecasts that help them plan for growth and stay competitive in their industry.
Expected revenue = Probability of closing the deal x Potential revenue
Probability of closing the Deal = the estimated probability that a deal or sales opportunity will be won
Potential Revenue = the total amount of revenue that could be generated from the sales opportunity.
To accurately calculate this win probability per stage, a sales CRM solution like Salesflare can crunch the historical data about your opportunities as shown in the report below ✨
This is done continuously based on historical data so your report is always up to date. The “Expected revenue vs. revenue goal” report in the “Revenue” dashboard will not only forecast your revenue for the selected period but also compare it to your revenue goal. That way you know whether you’re on track to reach your target. 🎯
The average sales cycle refers to the average length of time it takes for a new opportunity to be “won”. The average value of a deal refers to the average dollar amount of revenue generated from a single transaction or deal. You need a report on this because it helps you understand your sales process and revenue potential.
Average sales cycle = (Total number of days for sales cycle of all deals) / (Number of deals)
Average value = (Total value of all deals/ Number of deals)
A leaderboard report can help you to track and display the performance of your team members in relation to a specific goal or metric. If you like to see how well everyone is performing versus their revenue quota, you need a leaderboard.
Calculate the performance of each person by dividing their actual won revenue by their target and ranking them from highest to lowest based on the percentage achieved. Display the results in a clear and easily understandable format, such as a bar chart.
MRR is the predictable and recurring monthly revenue generated primarily by a subscription-based business from its active customers, excluding one-time or sporadic payments.
Add up the total amount of monthly subscription revenue generated by all of your customers. For example, if you have 100 customers paying $50 per month for your service, your MRR would be:
MRR = 100 customers x $50 per month = $5,000 per month
The report of all top-earning accounts and slipping accounts is not the most common report you’ll see when reading about sales reports, but we believe it is absolutely important for all stakeholders.
Tracking top-earning accounts is important for identifying the most valuable customers and ensuring that they are receiving the attention and support they need.
By focusing on top-earning accounts, your team can maximize revenue to identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell additional products or services and strengthen relationships with key customers.
Calculate the value of the won opportunities per account and rank the accounts in descending order.
Salespeople also need to keep track of slipping opportunities in Salesflare to identify deals that are at risk of slipping away and to take action to prevent them.
By tracking slipping opportunities, salespeople can analyze the reasons why deals are slipping and make adjustments to their sales process to minimize this risk.
To calculate slipping opportunities, you can filter your opportunities by expected close date, identify opportunities that haven’t had any interactions within a specified time period, calculate the total opportunity value, and prioritize accordingly.
As a manager, it’s important to keep track of your team’s productivity and sales metrics. One way to achieve this is by having the ability to quickly view your team’s overall activity.
This not only helps you track productivity but also provides valuable insights into key sales metrics like emails, meetings booked, and client calls. It’s not always easy to keep track of, but with a tool like Salesflare, you can easily monitor your team’s performance.
As a salesperson or sales leader, in order to keep those sales rolling in, you need to track your progress with sales reports. These reports aren’t just number-crunching exercises – they provide valuable insight into customer behavior, revenue trends, and the overall health of your business.
If you want to find out how this built-in reporting works, you can download the free template here. 👈
Salesflare is built for small and medium-sized businesses that sell B2B, so if that’s you, check it out. If that’s not you, check out this overview of example CRMs per use case.
If you want to explore Salesflare in detail, you can easily try the software for free or book a demo with us so we can personally show you around.
Ready to report on your sales? We’re here to help if you have more questions. Just ask our team using the chat widget on salesflare.com. 👈
We hope you liked this post. If you did, spread the word!
Customer Success Manager at SalesflareI help Salesflare's customers be successful with their customers by helping out with organizing and automating sales. I am originally from Nepal and currently living in Belgium, writing poems and performing them every once in a while.
Latest posts by Shivila G C (see all)