A sales dashboard is one of the main online marketing tools that companies can use to manage their business. The information you see on a sales dashboard is crucial for driving your business forward, since it provides real-time data. However, not all dashboards are created equal.
What is a Sales Dashboard?
A sales dashboard is an organized spreadsheet that contains key indicators of your business, such as revenue, expenses and cash flow. It’s important to have a clear picture of how each part of your company is working together. A sales dashboard allows you to see the big picture sooner by tracking trends in these key areas for better decision-making.
The information on a sales dashboard is often visualized with graphs, charts or other images. This allows you to read the data quickly and easily, since there’s no need for a computer background in business analytics.
What are KPIs?
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) measure your performance against targets that you set for yourself. They’re broader metrics that show how well you’re achieving your goals. For example, a KPI can be the number of leads you receive over a certain period. A sales dashboard’s KPIs track your revenue, expenses and cash flow.
Setting up a Sales Dashboard
Before you set up a sales dashboard for your company, you need to know what information needs to go on it and what metrics will serve as your KPIs. This information can come from sales forecasts, for example, or internal documents that show where you are now in revenue and expenses.
Once you have all the necessary information, create a spreadsheet template on Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. During this process, ask yourself what indicators are most important to track so that you can be prepared to make any necessary changes to your strategies.
You can also use a template for a sales dashboard, which you can find on sites like Microsoft Office and Google Docs. This allows you to quickly enter the information from your documents into a spreadsheet that you can adjust as needed. You can use cloud-based applications such as these to create an instant sales dashboard.
Once you have your template, you can get to work on the hard part: entering the data. It’s important to get this step right so that you can find quick solutions if there are problems with any of your sales indicators. If you’re not sure how to enter the information, consider hiring a business analyst or using an automated data-entry service online.
Of course, having your sales dashboard on a spreadsheet is very limiting. A better option is to go for a sales dashboard software, or get a custom solution built specifically for your business.
What a Sales Dashboard Looks Like
Once you have all the information needed for your sales dashboard, enter it into the spreadsheet template or your custom software, and you’ll be ready to analyze your company’s performance. If on a spreadsheet, the data should be divided among several pages or tabs so that you can see all of it at once. This is known as a “dashboard in a spreadsheet.”
It’s crucial to ensure that your data is up-to-date and accurate, since this will affect how well you can make business decisions. Keeping your data current means updating it each time something changes. You’ll need to update your numbers at least once per week or month – depending on the frequency of your updates.
What are the Benefits of a Sales Dashboard?
Your sales dashboard allows you to track your business performance at a glance, making it easier to make decisions quickly when you need them. For example, if you don’t have enough leads coming in, you can explore new marketing strategies with your team in real time. This type of sales dashboard can also help you to spot trends in your sales data.
There are several advantages of using a sales dashboard, including:
Faster Decision-Making
Since you have all the information on one screen, taking action is much faster than looking at different spreadsheets and pie charts separately. This saves time each day when making decisions.
Clear Focus
With all the information in one place, it’s easy to see where your company stands. You can make updates to your strategies based on real numbers instead of estimations. This also helps you to narrow in on the most important metrics, so that you can work on improving them.
Less Data Entry
When you use a spreadsheet template to create your sales dashboard, less data entry is required. This means that you have more time for analysis since it takes less time to enter the information. What’s more, there are tools online that can help with this process, such as Zoho Reports.
Better Meetings
When your team meets each week or month, using a sales dashboard makes it easy for everyone to get caught up on their progress. It helps you present specific information instead of generalities, which ends up saving time when it comes to making decisions.
Easier to Share
A sales dashboard can help your entire team stay up-to-date on what’s happening with the company. This is helpful when brainstorming ideas for new strategies, for example. Everyone on the team will be working from the same information and can make decisions more quickly.
The Bottom Line
If you’re serious about onboarding customers and growing your business, then it’s crucial that you track your sales on a daily basis. This means using a dashboard in a spreadsheet and making sure it’s up to date so that your company can make informed decisions quickly.
Sunvera Software develops next-level software applications from start-to-finish. We are a premier software and mobile app development agency specializing in healthcare mobile app development, custom mobile app development company, telehealth software, sales dashboards, custom mobile app development services, retail software development, supply-chain software, ecommerce, shopify, web design, iBeacon apps, security solutions and unified access software.
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