Every business needs to create a sales report.
This sales report is needed to see how much value the company gets from sales.
Based on this report, you can make a plan or strategy for the future of your business.
You can find the sales team’s weaknesses and strengths in making sales with in-depth analysis.
Based on the information obtained from the sales report, you can maintain successful sales strategies and correct those that fail.
Understand more about the sales report through the explanation below.
Definition of Sales Report
Quoting from Deskera, a sales report is a recording that combines a systematic record of sales activity during a certain period.
The period can be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
This sales activity record is poured into a report to be seen by stakeholders or certain positions to be used as evaluation material.
The systematic records cover three important activities: sales operations, strategy, and analysis.
Sales reports are prepared to provide insight into the entire process.
Allows you to analyze the information and understand the sales team’s work progress.
You can also see if the sales team is on track to meet the required results.
In addition, sales reports can give you warning signals about potential problems and take constructive steps to anticipate them.
The sales report process can be carried out by individual employees in the sales team or the head of the sales team.
This reporting includes sales volume, new customers, revenue generated, ongoing opportunities, and customer acquisition costs.
Once you see all the information and sales results, you can clearly understand the sales team’s efforts.
Then make constructive decisions about schedules, prices, or other important things to keep your business going.
The Purpose of Making a Sales Report
Based on the explanation above, you must have started to understand what a sales report is.
While sales reports may not be as exciting as other more creative parts of the sales process, they are still an important part of a successful sales strategy.
The definition of a sales report shows itself as a powerful analytical tool. According to Nethunt, sales reports allow businesses to evaluate current sales performance and assess broader sales strategies.
However, the meaning of the sales report goes beyond that. The following are some goals and reasons a company should produce a sales report.
1. Finding Problems in the Sales Funnel
It’s not uncommon for businesses to reach a point of stagnation or even see sales decline. All the most successful companies will go through a downturn.
Sales reports allow you to track all sales activity that occurs in your business.
So whenever there is a drop in sales, you can find the problem and eliminate it effectively.
Having a detailed and intuitive sales report allows you to quickly find out exactly when the problem arises, including what might be the cause.
2. Helping Sales Team Closing More Transactions
Sales reports can give you information on the sales context and highlight which processes produce certain outputs.
In turn, you can figure out the right things for the sales team to improve in getting more deals.
You can facilitate training and workshops to improve certain skills of the sales team. This way, your team gains more new expertise in their field and potentially brings more profits.
3. Finding Positive Trends in Certain Regions
When you have a complete record of sales activity, you can see the source of the lead.
It means you can see which lead sources generate the highest quality leads and which practices are most effective for maintaining and scaling them.
4. Reduce Downturns Due to Staff Changes
It is perfectly normal for large companies to have high staff turnover rates.
People come and go as they discover new opportunities for themselves.
However, your employee’s career path doesn’t have to impact the company’s sales performance negatively.
You don’t want your important sales information out the door with employees on hold when they leave the company.
To keep all your data safe and well organized, you must have a centralized sales reporting system.
5. Give the Sales Team Direction and Motivation
Sales reports can cause your employees to feel closely watched and even overwhelmed.
On the other hand, sales reports can motivate them to work harder.
When they know how to track performance, they will try to hit all the sales targets.
Types of Sales Report
After knowing the meaning and purpose of making a sales report, you also need to know the types.
The following is a list of several types of sales reports that you can apply to your business. Each type of report can provide specific information about sales.
1. Revenue by Sales Staff
This report provides information on the revenue generated by each sales team member.
You can run this report monthly as a performance indicator and help team members adjust their strategy as needed.
The revenue reports by sales staff often include quotas, contribution percentage to team revenue, number of closings, and number of failed transactions.
This sales report can help you determine how market trends affect team performance. Instead, you can devise strategies to combat these fluctuations.
2. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate or conversion rate means the percentage of transactions won against the percentage lost over a certain period.
You can run this report monthly, quarterly, or annually to determine the sales team’s percentage of closings.
The conversion rate report provides immediate information on the revenue generated by the sales team’s efforts.
This type of report can show more detail about the cause of an increase or decrease in revenue.
3. Loss Rate by Sales Phase
This report provides data on the number of lost sales or transactions during a particular phase of the sales cycle.
By pinpointing when a transaction is lost, you can adjust your strategy to be more accurate to prevent future losses.
Finding exactly where sales are failing at a given phase can help you determine the steps towards improvement.
4. Average Sales Cycle Length
This simple and important report can help determine how long your team will take to initiate and close a sale.
The average sales cycle length allows you to understand the sales process better and make more informed decisions about which actions to take.
For example, based on this report, it took the sales team an average of thirty days to complete the sales cycle from start to finish.
You can strategically schedule follow-up meetings with clients on the 15th day to speed up the process.
5. Average Deal Size
This report provides important information about the average revenue collected from each transaction or sale.
You can run this report monthly or annually to track revenue and monitor sales consistency.
This sales report can also help you determine individual sales quotas and goals for the sales team.
The information gathered from these reports can also help you establish milestones and timelines throughout the sales cycle.
6. Use of Marketing Assurance
Quoting from Indeed, marketing collateral is a collection of materials used by marketing teams to help sales teams secure business deals.
These usage reports can help you determine which materials and resources work based on how often your team uses them.
You can use this information to determine which marketing efforts are viable and which should be replaced with more successful materials.
7. Sales Call
Sales call reports are a great way to measure the effectiveness of individuals on the sales team.
This report shows data on the number of visits or calls made by the sales team to prospects over a certain period.
8. Lead Aging
Lead aging reports can provide information about the sales team’s communications with prospects, such as the date of the last contact and the content of previous interactions.
You can run this report to ensure the sales team pays proper attention to prospects at every sales cycle phase.
Prospects left without contact for extended periods can result in lost sales.
Lead aging reports are a great way to prevent this by staying organized and prioritizing customer outreach.
That’s a brief explanation regarding the sales report. If you want to make a sales report but are confused about where to start, you can use a template.
Several related platforms provide free sales report templates. You can download it in Smart Sheet or Slide Bean. Happy reporting!