Define Your Reporting Requirements To manage your sales process effectively, you’ll need to capture each prospect’s contact information and update the record as the prospect moves through the sales process. Contact Management or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is designed specifically to manage prospects, leads and customer data. There are many different levels of CRM software-‐-‐from seven figure enterprise deployments to simple, inexpensive solutions for small teams. In this exercise you’ll determine what data to track and the reports to produce to help you effectively manage your sales process throughout the year.
Summary EXERCISE SUMMARY
When to Address
Who Should Participate Where to Use the Results Why it’s Important
After you’ve defined your sales process and the conversion percentages at each step Marketing and sales leaders IT department Use your results in your revenue forecasts, marketing campaign projections, sales management and marketing plan & budget.
Good reports make it easier to share concrete projections and results and identify and improve problem areas.
You’ll need good reports for sales management and to improve areas of your sales What Builds Upon it process. A couple of hours to a few days, depending on your situation Timeframe to Completion Potential Business Impact
Low to Medium
Sales Process Define Your Reporting Requirements
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Deliverable
You’ll determine the reports to run.
Next Steps
Determine your reporting requirements.
Target Completion Date
PARTICIPANTS TASKS
PERSON RESPONSIBLE
DUE DATE
Notes
Sales Process Define Your Reporting Requirements
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Define Your Reporting Requirements
What to Complete
1. DETERMINE PIPELINE DATA TO TRACK 2. DEFINE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Where it Fits in Sales Process Determine Your Current Selling Effectiveness Define Your Customers’ Buying Process Determine Sales Tools & Literature to Deliver at Each Step Define Measurement Criteria Determine Conversion Criteria Set Revenue and Customer Goals Calculate Pipeline Requirements to Meet Goals Determine Pipeline Data to Track Define Reporting Requirements Diagnose Sales Process Problems Determine Solutions Further Define Qualified Leads
1. DETERMINE PIPELINE DATA TO TRACK
Most likely your sales process data will reside in a customer relationship management software application. Populate software for SMEs are produced by vendors like Salesforce.com, SalesLogix, ACT!, Right Now, SugarCRM, Microsoft CRM and niche players like Zoho CRM, Entellium and InfusionSoft. The Customer Relationship Management section can guide you through the evaluation process if you need to add CRM or update your existing software. You can also create your own tracking system as long as you’re capturing and reporting on important metrics. Here are the basic requirements to track your success:
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REQUIREMENTS Stores the contact information for every prospect that enters your pipeline Stores the source of the lead so it can be tracked back to specific marketing campaigns Stores multiple contacts at the prospect company and identifies who plays what role (i.e. decision-‐ maker, influencer) Contains a field to identify the last stage the lead reached in the pipeline Contains a field to mark the lead as active or inactive Contains a field to mark the last activity date
IS YOUR CURRENT SOFTWARE CAPABLE? Y N TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Summarizes the number of active companies and inactive companies that reached each stage Enables you to estimate projected revenue for the account
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Enables you to project expected revenue by time period based on its stage in the process and the probability that an account will close Aggregates data so that a manager can review it for the entire sales team, individual reps, certain territories, etc. Tracks activities so a manager can see what is happening with an account Captures a reason the account became inactive
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
Y
N
TBD
NOTES
Now, outline the activities necessary to complete your requirements. Can you internal staff handle? Do you need to bring in outside IT resources? REQUIREMENT
Sales Process Define Your Reporting Requirements
ACTIVITY NECESSARY
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REQUIREMENT
ACTIVITY NECESSARY
What is your conclusion? Can you proceed with creating reports from your existing system? You may also want to create a schedule to add additional reporting capabilities.
2. DEFINE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
After you develop good reports, use them consistently and focus on continuous improvement to produce the best results. Here’s a list of basic reports and suggested frequency for review: SUGGESTED VIEWS REVIEW You should be able to break FREQ NAME EXPLANATION out this data by these Status (Wkly, Mo, variables (check if you need Q) them) Calculates your anticipated revenue Sales rep Monthly Have Revenue based o n t he c onversion r ates a nd C ustomer s egment Need Forecast number of prospects currently at Product each step of the sales process. Source of lead Other Lists or summarizes the prospects Sales rep Weekly Have Pipeline that have reached each stage of the Customer segment Need Report sales process and compares them Product to your goals. Source of lead
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Conversion Report
Leakage Report
New leads by source
Other
This report should also break out “new entries” for the period as well as movement among existing prospects. Of the prospects that have cumulatively reached each step, this report calculates the percentage that move to each successive step in the sales process, then compares those percentages to your goals Of prospects that are no longer in the pipeline, this report breaks out the reasons prospects “leaked”
Sales rep Customer segment Product Source of lead Other
Monthly or weekly
Have Need
Sales rep Customer segment Product
Monthly or weekly
Have Need
Have Need
Source of lead Other Summarizes how many leads were generated by each source
See 85-‐C for a sample pipeline report. REPORT TO CREATE
USE
Notes
Sales Process Define Your Reporting Requirements
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