A small tech company initiated the hiring of its first sales team. Monitoring the sales team's performance was critical during the responsibility transfer period, once the founder delegated the sales functions to the newly hired team. The company needed to establish usable reporting tools and systems. The management sought to establish a reporting and analytics system to facilitate historical analysis and daily monitoring of key metrics - evaluating the sales team performance and the overall health of the sales pipeline to focus on essential business development metrics.

Approach

Given the limited time and resources, implementing sales pipeline reports using Excel and the existing MS Dynamics CRM was suggested. The consultant exported, reviewed, and cleaned the existing CRM data. The consultant suggested improving sales procedures and operations, ensuring complete and accurate data entry in CRM. Necessary CRM views were created. The report was implemented in Excel using a dynamic spreadsheet directly connected to multiple CRM views. This setup allowed for a single-click instant report update and the integration of data from various tables into a unified report. The consultant also created a CRM dashboard to provide a more detailed view of pipeline opportunities. 

Metrics

The following metrics were selected for sales pipeline performance evaluation:

• Number of qualified leads
• Potential revenue amount
  • based on the expected revenue of each opportunity
  • categorized by pipeline stage, customer segment, and product
• Expected revenue (adjusted by historical conversion rate)
• Actual revenue

To define benchmarks, the consultant used historical data of the following metrics: opportunity conversion rates and  time to close opportunity. This set of metrics furnished clear and concise information regarding the performance of each phase of the sales pipeline.

Data Presentation

The data was presented in a compact tabular form within Excel, encompassing summary data for both previous and current periods. Several visual charts were also developed, facilitating easy detection of patterns and trends, thereby aiding better decision-making.

• The implemented reports offered a historical perspective and a current snapshot of the sales team's performance.They helped in fostering a clear understanding of pipeline dynamics, customer behavior and realistic revenue predictions based on leading indicators.
• Insights were gleaned and utilized to shape a go-to-market strategy for new products, especially concerning selecting new marketing channels and allocating the Sales and Marketing (S&M) budget. The analytics enabled an understanding of past sales performance and the key influencing factors such as market trends, seasonal demands, and marketing channel efficacy.
• Furthermore, the consultant designed supplementary reports to perform retrospective analyses and extract insights about the pivotal client-specific factors influencing opportunity conversion probability. Leveraging this data, the consultant presented actionable suggestions to the sales team to enhance conversion rates.