Accelerate your thought leadership by contributing to our blog. Join our community of experts now!
“Less is more.”
That’s what Chris Bolz of Retail CRM Cloud says about designing a Salesforce dashboard.
Computers have made a wealth of data available to marketing professionals, Bolz notes. It’s tempting to summarize it all on a crowded screen that includes as much information as possible. But the signal can be lost amid the noise.
“Adding too much to the dashboard can result in overload,” Bolz says. “It’s better to display only your operation’s key metrics. Remove everything else.”
Building an effective Salesforce dashboard is therefore a matter of identifying which data is important enough to earn a place on your summary screen.
We asked experts to share the Salesforce data they rely on. Here’s what they recommend:
A dashboard provides you an overview of where you stand. When designed right, it can help you assess your team’s strengths, track trends in the market, and pinpoint small problems before they become big ones.
So, how is a salesforce dashboard particularly helpful to marketing and sales teams? Alissa Pagels-Minor of VoiceBase sums it perfectly: “The Salesforce dashboard is a source of truth for go-to-market and revenue teams.
The dashboard provides a high-level view of marketing and sales performance,” Pagels-Minor says, “including how much pipeline is coming in, how it was sourced, the status of deals, and how much revenue has been closed.”
Not let’s dig into the top 10 salesforce metrics you should include in your sales reporting software.
Many marketers identify Salesforce’s pipeline metrics as essential elements of an effective dashboard.
Robin Antill of Leisure Buildings relies on Pipeline Opportunities by Close Date and Opportunity Stage to track the scale, efficiency, and pattern of marketing and sales efforts. “Comprehensive measurements highlight where and when the sales force could be coached and supported,” Antill says.
Antill’s advice about how to create a dashboard in Salesforce includes a second monitoring tool as well. “The Pipeline Prospects Through Close Date and Incentive Stage dashboard review provides invaluable information on your delivery funnel,” Antill says. “Sales managers can use this map to assess the size of the pipeline and forecast future sales. This chart is especially valuable because it can help managers tell whether the pipeline is sufficiently mature to achieve revenue objectives.
Pipeline stats also earn a place on the dashboard of Heather Davis Lam of Revenue Ops LLC.
“Pipeline Deals by Close Date and Opportunity Stage is the most important component of a Salesforce dashboard,” Lam says. “The company’s ability to make sales depends on the size of the pipeline, and if your pipeline isn’t healthy enough, your company is about to have financial difficulties.”
Lam says the KPI alerts managers when many deals are about to close. That’s a good thing, but it can effectively wipe out the pipeline, she says, leaving the company in a vulnerable position in the future. “It’s better if close dates are more evenly distributed,” Lam says.
“This report is extremely powerful,” Lam says, noting that it lets you identify problems in opportunity distribution by close date or stage early enough to take mitigating action.
At Coffee Geek Lab, Yurii Brown relies upon the Pipeline Trend report. Daily activity reports are a waste of screen space unless they’re placed in context, Brown says: “If no one understands the trends, the business could lose opportunities. Pipeline Trend helps you easily and accurately pivot marketing campaigns in real-time.”
*Editor’s note: Lead analysis deserves a prominent place on your Salesforce dashboard. Salesforce users can download this free Salesforce Leads Dashboard template to get started.
Related: What is Pipeline Velocity and How to Optimize It?
Trends are key to Because Market’s Heidi Robinson’s philosophy too.
“Every Salesforce dashboard should include data from the previous three months,” Robinson says, noting that historical data can help strategists evaluate their current campaigns.
Many people just compare numbers from one month to the next, Robinson notes, but research shows that it may take three months for a targeted strategy to initiate change.
Charts are much easier to grasp at a glance than rows and columns of numbers, observes Melanie Musson of MesaInsure.com. Musson relies on well-chosen visualizations to keep the dashboard interesting and intelligible.
“Using charts has been a game-changer for us,” agrees Jenny Winstead of LA Tutors 123.
Winstead notes that Salesforce offers an overwhelming variety of custom charts – everything from bar charts and gauges to customized funnels. The key is to identify what information you need – especially trends, projections, and comparisons. “They really open up your reports,” Winstead says.
Editor’s note: By using this Salesforce: Leads overview dashboard, you can monitor new leads according to source, and track your sales progress more accurately.
Pressed to identify just one metric for the Genbook Salesforce dashboard, India Hughes sales it’s a no-brainer: “I would include our Opportunity Win/Loss Rate.”
This indicator is essential because it summarizes the efforts of both marketing and sales. “It tells the story of the lead-to-customer journey,” Hughes says. “It tells us what is resonating and where improvements are needed.”
Angela Ash of Flow SEO relies on the Salesforce dashboard to provide notifications when members of the sales team are struggling.
“It’s important to remember the end goal of this data,” Ash says, “which is to build revenue.” Ash tracks individual sales as part of her focus on management metrics so the company can offer support to salespeople who are having trouble contributing to monthly goals.
The time it takes to move along the sales pipeline is an essential KPI for several markets.
Greg Kozera of ELM Learning focuses on how long it takes to convert qualified leads. “This information can help you adapt your strategies to reach sales goals faster,” Kozera says.
Beekeeper’s Alexandra Zamolo tracks conversion time too. “If we aren’t seeing real progress in conversion time, we need to make a pivot so we are seeing results faster,” Zamolo says.
Editor’s note: Download this free Salesforce Essentials: Expected Value of Sales Pipeline dashboard template to monitor your pipeline’s health and accurately forecast your quarterly numbers against your sales goals.
It’s natural to focus on one or two big accounts, but the 10 top accounts in your pipeline belong on your dashboard, advises Thomas Franklin of Triangle IP. “This report provides essential information to help managers prioritize sales, account management, and business development activities,” Franklin says. Your dynamic dashboard for Salesforce provides a more thorough view if you dig deeper into your account list.
VoiceBase’s Alissa Pagels-Minor recommends graphs of highly specific metrics – especially the conversion rate of leads moving from market qualified to sales qualified status.
“This KPI shows you the quality of leads that are being sent to sales,” Pagels-Minor says, noting that the data can help sales and marketing professionals align their efforts as a joint revenue team.
ELM Learning’s Greg Kozera relies on qualification percentage as a key metric for evaluating lead quality.
“Every Salesforce dashboard should include data on turning a lead into a qualified lead,” Kozera says. “Whether you convert with gated content, a newsletter subscription, or another strategy, it’s important to see how many leads can be qualified and pushed further down the marketing line.”
“I highly recommend putting Forecast on your Salesforce dashboard,” says Candace Helton of Ringspo.
Forecast provides a bird’s-eye view that helps you monitor activities and identify risks,” Helton says. “It’s great for identifying flaws in the sales process very early.”
With Forecast on the dashboard, you’ll be able to spot flaws and make appropriate adjustments.
Related: 10 Sales Pipeline KPIs to Track for Accurately Forecasting Sales
Salesforce is a powerful tool for tracking and designing your company’s relationship with potential customers. A well-designed data dashboard displays strategic KPIs to help you monitor activities and identify small problems before they become big ones. It’s no wonder marketers find them essential.
If you are looking for more useful sales dashboards, check out any of the templates from the following categories:
Get practical strategies that drive consistent growth