With the right method and tool
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:
- What is a sales report?
- What is the purpose of sales reports?
- How can you create effective sales reports?
- What are the types of sales reports + how to calculate them?
- Free sales report template
You can download a free sales report template here. No email address asked. 🆓
Now, let’s break it down. 👇
Definition: What is a sales report?
Typically, a sales report is an insight into:
- Revenue generated along with the percentage of sales achieved compared to targets
- Top earning leads and various KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) related to sales operations
- Other metrics that track progress, evaluate the effectiveness of sales strategy, and forecast future sales
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.
What is the purpose of sales reports?
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 evaluate the effectiveness of your sales strategies: By analyzing sales reports, you can determine which sales strategies are working and which are not. This information can help you refine your approach and improve your sales performance.
- To forecast future revenue: Every business needs to predict future revenue based on current and past data. This can help you anticipate changes, adjust your strategy accordingly, and plan for future revenue.
- To make informed decisions: With accurate and up-to-date information in a sales report, you can make informed decisions about which opportunity needs follow-up, what the average sales cycle is, and other important factors that impact your sales.
- To identify areas for improvement: Sales reports can help you identify areas where you can improve your or your team’s sales performance. By identifying weak spots, you can take action to address them.
How can you create effective sales reports?
To compile a successful sales report, it's essential to keep a few key things in mind:
- Define the purpose of the report: First, you should clearly define the purpose of your report and the key metrics that you'll be measuring. This might include the number of sales made, revenue generated, or sales cycle length.
- Gather and organize data: Once you've identified the metrics, you'll need to gather the data and organize it in a clear and easy-to-understand format. Consistency in your input is crucial to ensure accuracy. If you do not have good consistent data, projections based on that will also be inaccurate.
- Use visual aids: You know what they say - “A picture speaks a thousand words”! Visual aids like dashboards and reports can be helpful for presenting your information in a way that's easy to digest.
- Consider your audience: It's important to consider your audience when writing the sales report. Are you presenting the report to your sales team, management, or stakeholders? Tailoring the report to your audience can help ensure that it's both relevant and engaging.
- Review and update the report: Finally, remember to regularly review and update your report as needed to ensure that the data remains accurate and useful. Sales CRM tools like Salesflare can help with this by continuously updating your reports based on your data.
Next, we will list a few metrics that are commonly used for all stakeholders and, most importantly, for your own data sanity.
Types of Sales Reports
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.
1. Sales pipeline report
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.
How to create?
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:
If you do not want to create it on your own, you can find the template here😉
2. Conversion rate
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.
The formula
Conversion rate for a stage = (Number of opportunities who moved to the next stage / Number of users in the current stage) x 100
3. Sales forecast
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.
The formula
Expected revenue = Probability of closing the deal x Potential revenue
where:
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. 🎯
4. Average sales cycle and average value
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.
The formula
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)
It also provides an overview of how you are doing compared to last month/quarter/year.
5. A leaderboard
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.
The formula
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.
6. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
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.
The formula
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
7. Top earning and slipping accounts
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.
The formula
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.
The formula
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.
8. Overall activity report
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.
Free sales report template
If you want to find out how this built-in reporting works, you can download the free template here. 👈
If you’re thinking about building your own custom reports, you can read this overview of dashboard examples and watch this tutorial video on Salesflare’s custom reporting.
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. 👈
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