You need to be a sales expert one moment and a friend, confidant, or tough-talking manager the next. You bear responsibility for everything, from planning tomorrow's tasks to ensuring there are sufficient funds to keep the office running. Making more money and growing are constant objectives. But achieving growth requires more than simply increasing sales. Look beyond the number of deals closed within a given period and delve into the factors directly impacting your sales success. Learn from them, invest in them, and strive to improve. Regular sales pipeline reports are a valuable tool for understanding your business. They provide insights into crucial questions related to your sales pipeline metrics and immediate processes.
Conducting regular sales pipeline reviews will help answer the following questions:
1. What is the total number of opportunities in our pipeline?
2. Does the total value of those opportunities meet our revenue goals?
3. Do we have the resources to close the deals in our pipeline?
4. What percentage of our leads do we successfully convert into sales?
5. How many leads do we lose, and what are the reasons behind it?
6. Which salesperson, season, and customer segment yield the best results?
7. Is our product maintaining its relevance?
8. How quickly and why are our customers leaving us?
9. Can we enhance our after-sales program?
10. What is the expected revenue in the immediate future?
11. Does my sales team require any sales enablement support from me?
12. What additional resources do we need?
13. Where can we invest more effectively?
14. Where should we reduce our investments?
15. Are we moving in the right direction?
Generating sales pipeline reports using NetHunt CRM:
With all your business data stored and managed in a CRM system like NetHunt CRM, generating sales pipeline reports becomes a breeze. NetHunt CRM offers a user-friendly, built-in report generation feature to analyze the valuable data within your pipeline. The best part is, it only requires two simple steps. First, you need to create a view with relevant filters to facilitate reporting. Then, you can generate a report based on that view in your preferred format.
Here's how you can generate sales pipeline reports in NetHunt CRM:
1. Navigate to the relevant folder containing the records you want to report on.
2. Group those records by any field of your choice.
3. Apply the necessary filters to refine the data.
4. Click the "Create report" button.
5. Choose a chart type and select "Create a report."
If you're not yet a NetHunt customer, you can sign up for a free trial. Enjoy unlimited access to a growing library of features within our Gmail CRM, including sales pipelines, reports, sales automation, email capabilities, tasks, web forms, native integrations with Messenger, Intercom, LinkedIn, and much more. NetHunt puts the power of your entire business at your fingertips.
Key sales pipeline metrics for C-level executives to monitor:
The following list presents crucial sales pipeline metrics that C-level executives must monitor, embrace, and champion in their pursuit of growth, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
1. Total pipeline opportunities:
- Definition: The number of unclosed deals in your sales pipeline at any given time, including new deals, ongoing negotiations, and offers sent.
- Importance: Forms the baseline for immediate forecasting and resource allocation.
2. Win rate:
- Formula: (Closed deals [won] ÷ Closed deals [won and lost]) x 100
- Meaning: Percentage of successfully closed deals in a specific time period.
- Importance: Reflects the effectiveness of your sales process, identifies lead generation channels, and highlights individual/team performance.
3. Revenue growth:
- Formula: ((Revenue generated [previous] - Revenue generated [current]) ÷ Revenue generated [previous]) x 100
- Meaning: Indicates the change in revenue between two periods, highlighting business growth or decline.
- Importance: Guides Sales and Marketing strategies to create or close more deals.
4. Churn rate:
- Formula: (Lost customers ÷ Total customers at the start of the time period) x 100
- Meaning: Measures the rate at which customers discontinue their subscription or cancel actively.
- Importance: Reveals product-market fit, customer satisfaction, and areas for improvement in after-sale support.
5. Average deal size:
- Formula: Total revenue from client orders ÷ Total client orders made
- Meaning: Average value of deals in the sales pipeline.
- Importance: Indicates deal profitability and helps identify opportunities for cross-selling or upselling.
6. Average sales cycle:
- Formula: Number of days for all deals ÷ Amount of deals in that period
- Meaning: Average time taken to complete a sale.
- Importance: Provides transparency, guides marketing efforts, and aids revenue forecasting.
7. Revenue by region:
- Meaning: Analyzing revenue generated from different geographical regions.
- Importance: Identifies where leads originate, informs resource allocation, and supports marketing strategies.
Understanding and monitoring these sales pipeline metrics empowers C-level executives to make informed decisions, drive growth, and ensure customer satisfaction.