This is the second of a two-part series covering the most useful Salesforce reports for leaders based on the type of sales team. Click here to read part one.
As a modern sales leader, you are often inundated by data.
You know the information you have in Salesforce is important, but you’re not sure where you should focus your time.
To help clear things up, we put together a list of four vital Salesforce reports that anyone running a team of “closers” (as opposed to sales development) should have on hand.
4 Essential Salesforce Reports for Sales Leaders
Here are three of the most helpful reports for sales leaders. Each covers what the report is, why it matters and how to use it. We don’t cover how to build the reports, since every Salesforce instance is different, but the “what it is” section tells you what to look for when setting it up.
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Account-Based Activities
What it is: This report documents the activities that are happening within a set of accounts.
Why it matters: Sometimes salespeople try to do too many different things within one account — such as providing customer support and trying to uncover upsell opportunities — and it causes them to not do any single thing really well.
How to use it: Check this report every couple of days to see if you need to coach your reps around focusing on the activities that really matter.
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Pipeline Progression
What it is: Once an opportunity is opened, this report will show how quickly it moves through the different stages of the sales process.
Why it matters: It’s important to know which stage slows opportunities (or stops them entirely). This shows you which part of the sales process deserves your attention — maybe to revisit qualifications up to that stage and provide some coaching around the stage to reps.
How to use it: Check this report once a week to monitor the pain points in your sales process.
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Closed Lost
What it is: The Closed Lost report shows you a list of the deals you’ve recently lost.
Why it matters: Trying to understand why opportunities didn’t turn into a sale (like in a sales win/loss analysis) is obviously critical. Take a look at things like whether that prospect really fit into your buyer persona and what stage of the sales process the deal was lost at so that you know where you can improve.
How to use it: This depends on your sales cycle. Perhaps once a month makes sense, or you could choose to view quarterly.
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Closed Won
What it is: The Closed Won report shows you a list of the deals you’ve recently won.
Why it matters: This report is another great tool for post-sales analysis because it can help you confirm (or add to) your ideal customer profile. Take note of things like employee size, market segment and use case. You can also analyze how the sales process for these deals worked: Where did the lead initially come from? What was the duration of each stage?
How to use it: Like the Closed Lost report, this also depends on your sales cycle. Monthly or quarterly makes sense for many teams.
Bonus: Real-Time Scorecard
What it is: As opposed to a sales report that tells you what has already happened, the scorecard tells you what’s happening right now by displaying the daily sales activities of your team members, such as calls, proposals sent or opportunities created.
Why it matters: Scorecards help motivate behaviors in individuals without micromanaging them by giving them insight into the impact of the activities they’re doing. They also help you view whether your team is performing the right activities to be on pace to hit your sales goals, allowing you to course-correct when pacing falls off.
How to use it: Monitor your team’s scorecard on a daily basis, so that you can keep track of activity metrics and rally the team around a specific activity (such as calls or meetings) when it starts to fall behind.
To get the best visibility into your sales organization, use a combination of scorecards and Salesforce reports. To learn other ways today’s top sales leaders are driving performance in modern sales teams, download one of our most popular guides:
