Sales Report

What is a Sales Report?

A sales report is a tool for analysing the success of various sales operations inside a firm. Sales teams utilise these reports to identify patterns and insights to enhance the quality of their products and services, armed with robust KPIs.

They provide a snapshot of the company’s exercise within a given period to analyse and identify the best option and action to take. These reports aid in the identification of prospective new market prospects where they may boost performance by utilising contemporary internet sales reporting software.

They can take numerous forms: 

For example, a daily sales report format will measure sales KPIs that are significant daily, like the phone calls or meetings by a salesperson or the number of leads generated. Typically, weekly sales report templates can track the number of transactions closed or income made by the team. Finally, a monthly sales report format will offer a complete view of each sales rep’s or the team’s work. 

Combining it all on sales dashboards allows you to automate your data and focus on human-centric tasks without requiring time-consuming manual calculations and repetitive exports.

There are also several variants of reports that will focus on different aspects:

• The overall development of sales
• Outlining the income earned
• Sales volume evolution
• Assessing it against the pre-set sales objective
• The CLV

Other reports focus on the salesperson and their performance throughout the sales cycle, from lead generation to completing a contract.

Sales Report Format

The Critical Elements of a Sales Report

The essential parts differ depending on the type of report. However, in general, sales reports should include the following figures:

1. Relevant KPIs as defined by the criterion above
2. Volume of sales
3. Net Sales 
4. Gross Sales
5. Change in KPI percentage from the prior reporting period

 You’ll note that this list of data is relatively small, although you may have a few KPIs to include in your report. That’s because remaining succinct is essential; you want to keep the individuals reading your report manageable.

Figures alone, however, do not constitute a sales report. You must also explain what these data indicate and how they should drive the corporation to take action. An accounting software like myBillBook can help you manage your sales reports more accessible than ever.

How Should a Sales Report Be Written?

To build a sales report, follow these steps:

1. Plan the layout of your sales report.

A sales report should also be visually appealing and easy to read without becoming overwhelming. To do this, you may utilise a sales report template or your customer relationship management (CRM) software to create a variety of report kinds easily.

2. Consider your target audience.

If you’re a senior sales team member, you should include a lot of KPIs. Executives may wish for a concise overview. Your CRM software should assist you in reformatting your sales data.

3. Include the necessary details.

You may choose whether to include or exclude data sets once you know your audience and the level of reporting needed. The data sets include:

• Sales income and costs.
• Sales by product or service.
• Progress toward sales targets.
• Period-to-period KPI change.
• Sales projections.
• Future sales plans.

4. Identify your present and prior periods.

Given the frequency mentioned above requirements, you should decide if the information you wish to transmit is in a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily view. You should then compare your data for this time to data from a previous era. 

5. Compile your information.

Once you determine your information requirements and data period, it’s time to start collecting data. The collection usually entails going into your CRM software and retrieving data, downloading it for use in another application or generating reports directly from your CRM dashboard. In any case, sales reporting continues after gathering your data in one location.

6. Suitably present your information.

Sales reports should be more than just numbers or a sales report in excel. You should use a lot of graphs and other pictures to help your audience understand these facts. Of course, you must use the appropriate graph type and require it in an annual report to demonstrate income month over month. 

7. Recheck your data and details.

After you’ve gathered your data and developed charts and graphs, return to steps one and two to evaluate your audience and include relevant information. You may only realise you’ve included too much or too little material for your initial draught report. 

Be bold and open to copying material, redrawing graphs, and seeking assistance from a colleague. In addition, it is critical to balance understanding and abundance before entering your meeting.

8. Describe your data.

Data description is the most critical stage. But, again, showing data is only half the battle; you must put words into your information for it to be meaningful.