Do you want an overview of all of your business’ sales activities? 

Sales Reports can provide you with all the information you need and so much more. 

These reports enable you to gain a greater understanding of the different sales processes occurring within your organization.

In this article, we will take a closer look at sales reports, their importance and their different types. Additionally, we will also learn how you can create one of your own in just a few simple steps.

What is Sales Report?

A sales report acts as an overview of all the sales activities that take place within an organization. Additionally, sales reports show the changes over time in the volume of sales. This allows it to give insight into the different steps of the sales funnel. 

Furthermore, it even contains analytics regarding the performance of every sales executive on the team.

There’s no one singular format that a company must follow when making a sales report. 

However, a traditional sales report typically contains these 3 following features:

1. The Project Overview

An overview appears before you dive into the actual report and provide all the details of the tracked period. Here, you should provide some background information.

Here, the best approach would be to include the report’s objective. Besides this, you can also mention your accomplishments from previous periods.

2. Breakdown of Data

Here, you take all the data you have gathered and then break it down into smaller, digestible chunks. Then, you compile and present it, with each item representing a singular process or metric. 

Remember to clearly identify what each item is measuring alongside the exact time frame it’s looking at.

3. Interpretation of Results

After establishing your objectives and presenting your collected data, comes the interpretation of results. 

In this case, it’s crucial to explain how the data can benefit your business overall.

Do not simply show random graphs and figures to your sales report readers. Instead, you must properly explain what they mean for your company.

8 Types of Sales Reports

Sales reports consist of various reports that are often of great importance to companies. Some of them include:

1. Sales Volume

It showcases how much volume of a product group was sold in a particular time frame. This is typically represented in the number of sold units for that product.

2. Sales Expenses

This report shows what expenses your business incurred in the process of making sales or qualifying leads. For example, reimbursement expenses, travel costs, etc.

3. Sales Funnel Overview

This report consists of the sales funnel according to the stages of the sales cycle.

It also shows the percentage conversions at each stage. As such, in case the percentage at any stage is falling a lot, it helps identify the issues.

4. Sales Team Performance

It includes the overall performance as well as target evaluation of your sales team. For example, parameters like sales calls made, percentage of conversions, etc. would be included here.

5. Opportunity Pipeline, Wins and Forecast

This report shows opportunities that are close to being converted to quote alongside probability in percentage. The opportunity pipeline helps your team plan and forecast better.

6. Key Accounts Performance

In this report, accounts are done in terms of volume and dollar value. These are the main key accounts and require to be analyzed regularly to help with customer management.

7. Sales Quality

This report would contain the overall sales quality of the sales process, across different stages and steps. It shows the quality of your sales processes and helps identify bottlenecks and how you can improve them.

8. Summary Dashboard

A summary dashboard consists of your business’ entire sales processes, data and KPIs. It helps you see performance and trends alongside issues with sales.

Read: Important sales kpis

The Importance of Sales Reports

A sales report conveys what trends are occurring in a company’s sales volume over time. This can then be utilized to understand if your sales are increasing or declining.

Moreover, a sales report can be analyzed by sales managers to decide the best course of action. 

For example, they can use them to identify market opportunities alongside areas wherein sales volume could be increased.

The Benefits of Sales Reports

Sales reports have the following main benefits:

1. They allow you to successfully locate as well as remove bottlenecks in the sales funnel.

2. Sales reports help sales reps close more deals.

3. Positive trends can be identified throughout specific territories using them.

4. Sales reports mitigate the drawbacks of staff turnover.

5. Lastly, they provide the sales team with a better sense of direction and help motivate them.

The reporting process of sales is, overall, a very important one to be familiar with. Because of this, you need to give it the attention it deserves and think of all the factors you need to consider. 

This helps you to ensure that the sales processes within your business are reflected fully and accurately.

Also Read – Sales Forecasting Methods You Must Know in 2022

7 Easy Steps To Create A Sales Report

Step 1 – Collect, Compile and Validate

First, you must collect, compile and validate all your sales data from various systems, teams and departments. It involves logging into your CRM software and gathering the data you need. 

You then either download it or turn it into reports right from your CRM dashboard. This step ensures that an entire complete picture can be created.

Step 2 – Considering your audience

Secondly, you identify the KPIs, parameters and reports that you require.

Assume that you are a high-performing employee presenting the report to your Sales Head. In this scenario, you might want to include many KPIs.

Step 3 – Determining your current and previous periods

You must then decide on the interval for the sales report creation i.e weekly, monthly or yearly.

Step 4 – Selecting metrics

Then, you should select the geographies or product groups that are required for the report.

Step 5 – Include the appropriate information

Here, you decide on the detail level. This decision is based on whether the report is for senior management or not.  

Typically, senior management would require less details and more insights.

Step 6 – Finalize your format and present your information appropriately

Sales Reports cannot consist solely of lists of numbers. You must finalize your format. 

Your form can range from dashboards to spreadsheets based on detail and needs of your report. Additionally, graphs and other charts can be used to clearly explain these figures to your audience.

Step 7 – Explain your data

Finally, you validate the numbers as sales data can prove critical to any business. This is considered the most important step. 

In addition to presenting your data, your audience should be able to gain meaning from it.

Conclusion

Overall, sales reports are a great way to keep a systematic record of sales carried out by your business. Moreover, they contain a lot of information and metrics that can help you better understand your sales performance.

By focusing on measurable activities with clear outcomes, you can add more value to salespeople and your company as a whole.