The Sales dashboard is a salesperson’s best friend, and rightly so. It’s where salespeople can get quick and easy access to digest information on a variety of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). And with the vast amount of today’s digital tools storing so much data within its systems, a Sales dashboard is where users can easily monitor crucial metrics without having to search their entire databases. 

However, setting up these effective dashboards requires users to keep certain best practices in mind. Regardless of the tool you use, here are seven of the best practices for effective sales dashboards.

1. Simple and easy access

Your Sales dashboards should be easy to access and view. Having to spend 20 minutes looking for your dashboards defeats the purpose of having the information “at your fingertips”. Make sure the data is visible to everyone that requires access to it.

2. Keep it accurate & current

Sales, Marketing, Support and other managers rely on dashboard information to make strategic decisions such as setting sales quotas, creating projections, and so on. Therefore, it is imperative for this information to be as accurate as possible. When setting up dashboards keep in mind not all KPIs need to be updated at the same time, some may need to be updated every hour whereas others might just require a weekly update.

3. Choose the metrics that matter

Dashboard metrics should connect your sales team’s efforts to your businesses’ overall goals and strategic objectives. Metrics that just make your sales team look good, for example, the total number of phone calls made by your Business Development team is not as important as say, number of calls that resulted in a meeting with a decision maker. When selecting KPIs for your dashboards make sure they are systematic and ongoing measurements.

4. Keep it visual

A dashboard is not an in-depth, detailed report. Instead, they are meant to be easy to read. Effective dashboards are visually appealing and convey information in a visual way without much text or numbers. Displaying the relevant information in a visual way helps the human brain process the data.

5. Keep it clutter-free

Similarly to the above, for a dashboard to be effective in communicating data it needs to be simple in its visual appeal. If your dashboards are too flashy or visually sophisticated, users might have a hard time reading the data. If a dashboard tries to display too much information it will get cluttered, and become hard to read, defeating its original purpose.

6. Make it actionable

Effective dashboards go beyond just “painting a picture”. Your sales team should be able to view the dashboard and know what action needs to be taken based on the metrics displayed. If more information is required, users should be able to easily drill down to see the full story behind a certain KPI on the dashboard.

7. Take metrics mobile

Your salespeople are likely on the road a lot so they need to have access to the information required to whilst out and about. Salespeople are now accessing their CRM via mobile devices and failing to provide your users with mobile functionality will end up hurting your business. To maintain consistency of key objectives and allow users to take action remotely, make sure your dashboards go mobile.

Your sales dashboard is a powerful tool for motivating your staff and managing your sales targets. Let us know how you get the most out of your dashboards and where they make the biggest impact on your business?