Contrary to popular belief (especially from the point of view of salespeople), the sales dashboard is not only intended for managers! It is not either a tool to “police the team” sales.
Well developed by the sales manager and well explained to the sales forces, it has real advantages for all stakeholders.
Good to know: to obtain the support of your entire team, involve them in the design of the commercial dashboard, but also in the input. It is imperative to make your sales representatives understand the value of this tool.
Objectively measure the performance of your sales representatives with the sales dashboard
One of the advantages of the commercial dashboard is to evaluate the commercial performance of your team using reliable and quantified data. No room for amateurism or subjectivity!
You compare the actual results of your sales forces with the forecasts. And you analyze the reasons for the discrepancies! It clearly appears that the commercial actions carried out are not sufficiently effective? Are some employees struggling to achieve goals? It is by no means a question of slapping on the finger of “bad students”.
On the contrary, this evaluation and this follow-up have two objectives: to detect difficulties and to find avenues for improvement. You and your salespeople are moving in the same direction: make sales to make money.
It is the excitement of concluded sales and turnover (and of course the associated remuneration), which make employees flourish in their commercial job.
And to be successful, they must have the right tools and the right methods. Your role as manager, coach, must be based on objective data to help them progress and have fun in their daily lives. Put yourself in the shoes of Didier Descamps who must lead the France team in the final: he analyzes the rates
Perhaps you should consider building a sales training plan to train, for example, your senior salespeople in new prospecting techniques?
Thanks to this management tool, you have a global vision of the commercial activity of your company, but also a precise knowledge of the key elements to improve.
Lay the groundwork to guide your sales team
Yes, the business dashboard allows you to measure the effectiveness of your team. No, it’s not to put pressure on your employees. It is a useful tool for you as well as for them!
Comparing the performance indicators with the objectives set allows you to set a course. The results of some salespeople are not up to expectations? This is an opportunity to take stock individually to identify the brakes and boost their motivation.
On the contrary, some collaborators exceeded expectations. It is a great source of satisfaction for them and a pretext to encourage positive competition for the rest of the team.
Your role? In support of the figures, support your sales forces and give them the means (operational, strategic, etc.) to achieve the objectives.
The commercial dashboard to increase efficiency
No more tedious sales reporting work and multiple meetings with your team!
If your business dashboard is clear and to the point, it will save you valuable time. How? ‘Or’ What? By selecting a limited number of significant KPIs! You reduce the internal information flow to integrate, but you get an efficient management tool that is understood by all of your sales representatives.
Use your business dashboard to get to know your customers better
With the advent of Big Data, you have a large amount of information that you can combine to create a complete dashboard. In particular to establish a more precise profile of your potential customers!
Adopt performance indicators that measure their expectations, their needs, their purchasing behavior, their reactions based on your commercial actions…
Test new commercial approaches in terms of prospecting or new geographic deployment of your sales representatives. Analyze their effectiveness using key performance indicators and adjust your actions according to the results for each prospect profile. Thanks to the commercial dashboard, customer relationship data is put into context. You can more easily target which methods work.
Use this tool to facilitate strategic changes
Internal employees of a company are generally resistant to any organizational change. This is also true for your sales team!
Do you want to set up a new method of commercial prospecting or a new organization? You run into “it was better before” from your sales forces. They doubt the validity of this development.
The commercial dashboard will help you get this change accepted, with the numbers to back it up. Concrete evidence is better than abstract arguments to convince your salespeople. Suggest that they compare the poor results of the old prospecting technique used with the new, much better results.
You are sure to get their membership more easily.
Is it necessary to change the organization of your sales team? Find out how to optimize the management and distribution of your employees’ tasks!
Link to “sister” article: Organization of the sales team
Choose the right tool to manage your commercial activity
A dashboard for TPE, SME, or any other size of structure does not have to be a gas plant! Neither to fill it out nor to draw conclusions…
Bet on a simple, synthetic, visual, and talking tool. To be effective in decision-making, the presentation of your commercial dashboard must meet a few criteria:
Select a maximum of ten KPIs per dashboard. Too much information, especially if it is irrelevant, may overwhelm your thinking. It is better to limit the number of indicators: take the time beforehand to choose the right ones to gain in analysis efficiency later.
Prefer graphics, curves, and circular diagrams to lists of quantified data. This type of presentation allows in the blink of an eye to analyzing a trend, visualize percentages, to compare values.
Adopt clearly identifiable color codes. The goal is not to create a “pretty” commercial reporting by multiplying the chromatic nuances, but to facilitate the analysis of the results…
Thus, the readability of the dashboard and its comprehension are optimized.
For eworldtrade business dashboard, using Excel tables might not be the best solution. It has several brakes:
This tool requires manual data integration. The risk of human input errors is increased.
The configuration is time-consuming and involves mastering the right formulas.
Automation is only possible if you are familiar with the subject to create VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macros. This programming language is not within the reach of all sales managers. He doesn’t mean anything to you? Go your way and find another tool for your commercial reporting …
Among the management tools at your disposal (Google Data Studio, Salesforce, or Zoo for example), some CRMs such as Hub spot allow you to create a commercial dashboard connected to your customer database. Saving time and efficiency for you and your employees! Easy to learn, these tools facilitate the use of data while ensuring their reliability.
You have understood it: any good manager or sales director who respects himself cannot work effectively without a commercial dashboard! This management tool is essential for evaluating the performance of your sales forces, determining corrective actions, and facilitating the achievement of objectives. He participates in the establishment of an effective commercial strategy and optimal management. Why deprive yourself of it?
