Tyler Hooper
A sales report is an important staple in marketing, as it is a record of calls and sales made in a certain time frame. Communicating and portraying the most accurate sales tracking within the report is imperative to success. Many features go into creating a sales report, but here are some of the most important ones to keep in mind:
Know Who Your Audience Is
Before you even crafting a sales report, think about who the report is for. Is the report for the president of the company, the head of marketing, the financial advisor, etc? Every person or group has a different role in the company and must know if they will have a successful presentation. The president of the company needs to do a thorough overview of the entire operation. A more specialized position can make adjustments to a part of the project in progress. The head of marketing needs to know how well the sales representatives complete deals when the opportunity presents itself. The financial advisor needs to look at the same figures, but with more focus on the expenses versus the return of investments. All reports need to be specific towards the group the projections are shown.
Choose the right time frame of information
Know the correct time frame of information needed for your report. Does your audience need to view all of the sales records since the creation of the company? This is important if they want to view the overall success of the company. However, if the audience wants to view how sales can improve, then a monthly or yearly sales report is more important. This will keep the report more specialized and uniform, and make the report easier for the audience to understand. A yearly or monthly report will help your audience focus on what works and what worked in the past. Being able to compare current numbers with previous sales will help everyone understand what the focus is on or what is successful.
Choose the correct information to answer questions
The audience needs to be able to use the information given in the sales report to assess the performance of their teams and projects. They need to know if the work is on track and gets what needs to be done complete. Important questions the audience should be able to be answer are:
- Do you meet your sales goals?
- What are the expenses versus profit? Is this acceptable?
- How are the sales compared to previous quarters?
- Which products are successful and which products do not meet expectations?
- What upcoming changes need to be made to ensure success?
Include the most effective visuals
Numbers are effective in showcasing information, but which visuals will make the sales report easier to view without going into too much investigation. Graphs and highlighted information is an important attention grabber that helps bring focus to a certain part of the sales report. You need to find a way to showcase the most important parts of a report in as simple and attention-grabbing as possible. Will a bar graph be effective enough to show sales performance or would a line graph be more effective? How do you show which teams work is most effective on a project?
Gather the correct data
To create an effective sales report, you need to make sure you collect the data you need. Each report is different and accomplishes a different goal. Keep in mind the importance of the data you gather and record, otherwise you risk the potential compromise of your report.
Important Types of Sales Reports
Daily Call Report
The daily call report shows the frequency of calls made for accounts and if all accounts stick to a schedule by showing:
- Number of calls made
- Types of calls made
- Lack of certain call types
- Excess call types
- Average call time
This helps understand what call types are the most important, and if phone traffic helps production.
Productivity Report
Managers measure what type and the level of effectiveness of communication through tracking:
- Outbound calls
- Conversations
- Voice mails
- Emails
- Customer meetings
- Product demonstrations
- Proposals
This report is to compare actual results to the proposed goals for the month or quarter. This report helps assess which representatives excel or lack in productivity.
The Pipeline
The pipeline keeps tracks of all prospects a sales representative has currently. The pipeline allows managers to keep track all prospects per sales representative as well as what phase each prospect is in. The typical phases of the pipeline are:
- Phase 1: Prospect expresses interest in product or service
- Phase 2: Sales representative meets with the prospective customer
- Phase 3: Product demonstration to prospect
- Phase 4: Proposal submitted
- Phase 5: Sale either closed or lost
Project managers can see how well sales representatives do with their prospects and how well they close deals.
Sales Forecast
Consider the importance of sales forecasting as the highest among all sales documents in most sales organizations. This sets goals for salespeople and holds them accountable for what revenue they need to acquire. This also shows which opportunities they must take advantage of and which areas fall behind. This is also a good estimate of what potential revenue should be by the end of the quarter. The sales forecast helps assess what times of the year is revenue up or down. It also helps assess what is the most successful product or service is, as well as where sales representatives are most effective.
Final Thoughts
Remember, when making a sales report, you have all the data. Whoever reads the report does not know the full scale of information. You must find a way to communicate what is important with more than just numbers. That may be graphs or your own added comments for context. Make the report as accessible as possible for maximum feasibility.
References
- https://www.salesforce.com/ca/blog/2017/01/7-steps-to-create-a-sales-report.html
- https://bizfluent.com/how-5856357-write-sales-report.html
