Tips on creating an engaging sales report

With so much of the business riding on the back of sales performance, keeping tabs on the overall return on investment for your sales activities can be challenging.

That is why it is important to have a sales report, and not just a straightforward one that tabulates the number of sales made during a particular period.

When it comes to creating a sales report, one should always look at it as a navigation tool. Not only should it show the direction of your company (and sales), but it should also lead you to your goal. On top of that, a good sales report should also be able to show you how your company and team are performing.

This is why it’s imperative that your sales report captures key information and is presented in a meaningful, digestible way that can help inform the forward strategy for your business.

As a leading expert in all things sales within the region, SalesWorks believes in tailoring each approach unique to our client. This is why we provide in-depth reporting to our clients at different stages of activities in order to provide them with a cohesive and clear picture of every single activity and its impact.

We’ll show you exactly how to do so in this article, but first, let’s go through the basics.

What does a sales report consist of?

 

As mentioned earlier, a sales report outlines the sales operations of a business over a specific period of time, containing information on sales volume, leads, new accounts, and revenue.

The idea is that it should reflect and align with your activation strategy in the first place. In other words, it should measure metrics that contribute to the KPIs you set out to achieve.

There are different types of sales reports, but more popular and frequently-used ones include:

• Forecasts: A prediction of performance over a time period that helps you anticipate challenges and work out contingencies to bolster performance.
• Funnel and conversion stats: A detailed look at the sales funnel where we can see what’s happening at each stage and how that leads to or impacts conversion rates.
• Frequency-based reports: These can be monthly, weekly, or even daily reports that spotlight key metrics that are integral to the primary goal.

How to create a sales report

Now that you’re up to speed on what a sales report should entail as well as the different kinds of reports you could potentially work with, it’s time to create one.

The key methods to creating a solid report, regardless of what type they may be are as follow:

1. Determining the purpose of your report

Having a goal in mind helps inform the type of report that’s relevant to the business and the kind of data you need to create the report. This focuses on the audience or person that’s going to be reviewing and digesting the report, so you can better decide on what matters to them.

2. Knowing where to find data

 

Not knowing where to extract data can prove to be a total nightmare for you, especially if you’re seeking useful information to include in your report. For this, we recommend leveraging tools like customer relationship management (CRM) that allows you to filter data, remove duplicate records, and pull specific information.

3. Interpreting the data

Pie charts and bar graphs can mean nothing if your stakeholders don’t have a clue what the data is about, where you got it from and what to look out for. Don’t let them assume – explain the data and guide their perspective as to what should take priority.

4. Making it visually pleasing

Hitting numbers and breaking records all sound very nice, but if your report is an explosion of big data then it can be confusing for a stakeholder to understand what matters. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words”, you should endeavour to tell your story better through visuals and elevate your reporting game to grab your stakeholders’ attention.

Templates to use for sales reports

Working in sales is understandably time-consuming, which means that you may not have time to start a new design from scratch. Worry not, we’ve got some solutions for you with these ready-made templates such as the Total Sales template from Zendesk:

Or the Sales Forecast report template by HubSpot:

All it takes is for you to fill in the necessary and you’re all set for your report!

Ace your sales target with SalesWorks

If you’re a growing business or even an established business looking to level up your sales strategy, partnering with SalesWorks can get you there.

We offer comprehensive, end-to-end services in sales activation – from employing failproof methodologies like face-to-face marketing to campaign reporting!

To find out more about how we can help, reach out to us through this contact form.