Businesses of all sizes and industries regularly produce periodic reports to provide insight into various aspects of their operations, such as finance, marketing, and sales.
BUT… while these reports are all important and have their use cases, sales analysis reports stand out. Why? Because they tell businesses how healthy they really are.
These reports allow sales managers and reps to identify trends, see where to make improvements, and make data-driven decisions that help them hit sales goals.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about sales analysis reports, including what they are, what they include, and why you need them. We’ll also discuss the different types of sales reports, how to analyze sales data, and best practices for using sales analysis reports.
Let’s dive in!
First Off, What’s a Sales Analysis Report?
A sales analysis report is a graphical, written, or video document that provides in-depth information about the performance of the sales team.
Companies typically generate these reports on a regular basis—daily, weekly, or monthly—and they include various data points on the activities and success of the sales team, as well as opportunities for improvement.
This structured sales data analysis helps sales managers and reps understand how the team is performing, identify trends and patterns, and make data-driven decisions to improve results and hit sales goals more efficiently and effectively.
What Does a Sales Analysis Report Include?
Sales analysis reports can include a wide range of data points, depending on the needs of the business and the goals of the report.
For instance, a basic sales analysis report for a real estate software company like Zillow might include the number of leads coming from their website per week, the number of those leads that converted to new customers, and the total revenue generated from those sales.
On the other hand, a company like Amazon could include data points such as the number of purchases per day, average order value, click-through rate from emails or ads, and total sales per product category.
But regardless of the type of business, the common data points you’ll find in many (if not most) sales analysis reports include:
- Sales revenue: The total amount of money the sales team has brought in over a specific period of time
- Number of closed deals: The total number of deals that the sales team has closed over a specific timeframe
- Conversion rate: The percentage of leads that have converted into paying customers
- Average deal size: The average amount of money that the sales team brings in per deal
- Sales by product or service: A breakdown of the number of sales by the specific products or services that the company offers
- Sales by region or location: This is a breakdown of the number of sales by the geographical regions or locations where the company operates
- Sales by salesperson: A breakdown of sales by individual salespeople, allowing managers to see which reps are performing the best and where improvements can be made
Regardless of the metrics included, all sales analysis reports should provide insights into how the team is performing in real-time compared to projections or historical averages.
Examples and Types of Sales Analysis Reports
There are many different types of sales reports that businesses can use to analyze their sales data. Here are a few examples:
1. Sales Trend Analysis Report
This report allows you to track how sales are fluctuating over time. You can identify patterns and make informed decisions about how to adjust your sales strategy.
For example, you might see that sales are consistently higher during the summer months, and consider ramping up your marketing efforts during that time. Or you might notice that sales drop sharply when a competitor launched a new product or feature, and decide to adjust your pricing accordingly.
2. Sales Team Performance Analysis Report
This report allows you to track the performance of an individual or a group of sales reps and identify areas of strength and improvement.
It’s helpful for understanding team dynamics, motivating reps, recognizing any sales stars who might need additional recognition, and supporting any reps who may be struggling and need training or other resources.
For example, you might identify a rep who is logging more outbound calls than others, but closing fewer deals. Maybe that rep needs extra training on cold calls to improve their sales pitch. Or, maybe you see a group of reps that are converting new leads to opportunities at a higher rate. With these sales analytics, you can then work to identify whether the methods they’re using work better, or if the type of leads they deal with tend to close faster. All these insights help you set up clear processes and training to help reps reach their sales targets.
Where can you find a sales team performance report? Good question. If you’re using a sales management tool (like Close, for instance), you’ll get a leaderboard of your team’s performance and can easily track their progress. It looks something like this:
3. Customer Behavior Analysis Report
This report allows you to analyze the behavior of your customers, including factors like how often they make purchases and which products or services they tend to buy.
Or if you’re selling a subscription product or service, you can uncover information about their usage patterns, when/why they churn, and which features they’re using.
For instance, you might find that customers who sign up for a free trial are often more likely to convert into paying customers if they use your product’s collaboration features during their trial.
You can use this information to target customers who’re more likely to bring their teams on board and convert them into paying customers.
That’s one of the many examples of how your customer behavior analysis report helps you better understand customers and tailor your sales and marketing efforts accordingly.
4. Product Performance Analysis Report
This report allows you to analyze your product’s performance in relation to sales and revenue, so this is especially useful if you’re selling a SaaS product.
You can identify which products or features keep customers engaged the most, which ones are driving the most sales and revenue, and which ones need to be improved.
For instance, a business like Shopify might see that its payment processing feature is the most popular and has the highest engagement levels, or that some other features are driving more retention than others.
Or they might see a product or feature gets more negative feedback than others. All this information can inform product decisions and help prioritize feature development. Shopify—following our example above—can use this report to decide which features to focus on first and how to allocate resources to ensure they’re prioritizing what makes their customers happy.
And happy customers stay customers; no wonder 55% of customers say “product” is the reason they remain loyal to a brand.
So when your product or service isn’t giving them a reason to churn, they stay loyal.
5. Sales Funnel Analysis Report
This report allows you to track the progress of leads through the sales funnel. You can see where leads are dropping off and make adjustments to your sales process accordingly.
For instance, you could notice a higher drop-off rate on the signup page than you normally have and investigate why that’s happening. Your investigation could lead you to decide to add more information to the page or tweak its design.
Or it could lead you to realize that many of your customers are dropping off because they don’t understand the pricing plans you offer, so you can update your pricing page to include more explanations and make it easier for customers to understand.
You’ll typically find your sales funnel report in your sales management software. For instance, if you’re using Close, you’ll get a Sales Funnel Reports tool that lets you easily track and analyze your funnels.
You can set up the funnel to match your sales process and use it to see where leads are dropping off, and then optimize your sales and marketing campaigns from there.
6. Sales Forecast Analysis Report
This report allows you to predict future sales based on past data.
For instance, if you’ve been tracking your sales data for the past few months, forecasting analysis can help you determine what your sales might look like over the next 3, 6, or 12 months.
You’ll also be able to tell how much you can improve your sales based on that data. Let’s say you were selling 1000 units a month with 10 people on your sales and marketing teams, forecasting analysis can help you determine how many more units you could sell if you added a few more people to the team.
By analyzing trends and patterns this way, you can make informed decisions about how to adjust your sales strategy and allocate resources.
Psst… Want to get a head start? Use this sales report template to build effective forecasts.
7. Sales Conversion Rate Report
This report allows you to track the percentage of leads that convert into paying customers.
For instance, if you had 20 new leads last week and 8 of them became customers, then your sales conversion rate is 40%. You can use this report to first understand how your team is faring compared to past performance and then use that information to make relevant changes.
Conversion rate reports can also show you how your leads are converting in different stages of the sales cycle. For example, if you had 30 new leads enter your pipeline last week and 15 converted to the next stage (such as qualification), then that stage has a conversion rate of 50%.
To see how you stand up to your competitors, compare your team’s conversion rate against other teams or organizations in the same industry.
8. Sales Pipeline Report
Typically used by B2B and high-ticket sales teams, this report allows you to track the progress of leads through the sales cycle.
For instance, you can use this report to see which leads are stuck in the pipeline and how long they’ve been stuck there. You can also see which ones are about to close, and what kind of action you need to take to close them.
Depending on how you use it, the report can also tell you the leads assigned to each sales rep and how long they’ve had the lead. This allows you to better manage and track the progress of your reps.
If you’re using Close as your CRM tool, it comes with a pipeline view that allows you to get all this information in one simple report.
By analyzing data such as the number of deals in each stage of the pipeline, you can see where improvements can be made and make adjustments to your sales process accordingly.
9. Daily & Weekly Sales Report
This report allows you to track daily and weekly sales data, and it’s especially useful if you’re running a business with high sales quantities per day or week. You’re probably a super popular business and need to track that data to make sure you can keep up with demand.
The report will give you an overview of all the sales that happened in the day/week, including metrics like the items sold, daily/weekly expenses, any discounts or returns that occurred, spikes in sales, and more.
You can also use this report to plan ahead by predicting sales as well as potential dips in sales. This way, you can be more prepared to adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, you might want to increase marketing efforts if you know that a certain product will be selling more during a certain season—so you can capture more sales.
10. Monthly Sales Report
This report allows you to track monthly sales data, and it’s especially useful if you’re running a business with relatively low sales quantities per day that often culminates in a large amount at the end of the month.
This report will give you an overview of all the sales that happened in the month, and—like the daily sales report—the performance metrics it’d include would largely depend on the needs of your business and the goal(s) of the report.
But some common metrics that might be included in a monthly sales report are:
- Number of customers
- Total sales volume
- Average deal size
- Sales by salesperson or team
- Most popular products
You can use this report to identify any divisions or product categories that need more resources, or if there are times of the month when sales tend to peak—so you can take advantage of that data to adjust your strategy accordingly.
5 Reasons You Need Sales Analysis Reports
Sales analysis reports offer numerous benefits for sales managers and reps. Here are a few key reasons why you need them:
1. Identify Trends and See Where to Make Improvements
By analyzing trends and patterns, you can pinpoint precisely where your team is excelling and areas that could be optimized.
2. See the Best and Worst-Performing Products
Sales analysis reports can help you understand which products or services are selling well and which ones are not. This information is often valuable for making informed decisions about which products to focus on and which ones to potentially retire.
3. Improve Team Performance and Accountability
By providing a clear overview of the sales team’s performance, sales analysis reports can help improve both individual and team performance.
This can also increase transparency and accountability in the team, giving reps an incentive to work hard and hit their targets.
4. Better Understand Customer Behavior
Nothing shows you how a customer behaves more than an in-depth sales analysis report. It tells you where, how, and why buyers are spending their money, which areas are most profitable for your company, and even how customers feel about your products or services.
And then you can use this data to make strategic decisions about how to better target and serve customers.
5. Set Realistic Goals
With sales analysis reports, you can set sales goals that are informed by data and reality, rather than guesswork, and get better results.
How to Analyze Sales Data
Analyzing sales data can be a complex process, but with the right tools and techniques, it can be a powerful way to improve the performance of your sales team. Here are a few steps to follow:
1. Collect Sales Data
The first step in analyzing sales data is to collect it. This may involve gathering data from a variety of sources, like a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Close, product analytics software like Mixpanel, Excel spreadsheets, and traffic monitoring software like Google Analytics.
And to ensure the data is accurate, reliable, and represents the true state of sales for your business, make sure to use credible sources and regularly update the data.
2. Identify Key Performance Metrics and Trends
Once you start collecting your sales data, the next step is to identify the key metrics and trends that are most relevant to your business goals.
As we mentioned earlier, you’ll be getting data from a variety of tools, so it’s important to take the time to identify which sales metrics and trends will give you actionable insights.
For instance, if you’re trying to increase sales, you’ll want to focus on metrics like conversion rate, average order value, and customer lifetime value. If you’re looking to improve customer engagement or loyalty, you’ll want to be looking at metrics like customer retention, repeat purchase rate, and average customer engagement.
3. Organize Sales Data And Use Data Visualization Tools to Present Findings
After identifying the key metrics and trends, the next step is to organize the data in a way that makes it easy to analyze. This typically involves creating graphs or charts or using data visualization tools to present the data in an intelligible way.
Most of the tools you’ll be using to collect data will come with their own reporting tools, but you may want to use third-party data visualization tools to help streamline the reporting process and present your findings in a way that is easy to understand.
Tools like Databox, Tableau, and Looker make it easy to create stunning visualizations from your data and help decision-makers/stakeholders quickly see patterns and trends that might not be immediately apparent from looking at raw data.
4. Interpret Results and Make Data-Driven Decisions
Once you have analyzed your sales data and presented your findings, the next step is to interpret the results and make data-driven decisions. And this usually involves adjusting your sales strategy or sales operations based on the trends and patterns you’ve identified.
Best Practices for Using Sales Analysis Reports
To get the most value out of your sales analysis reports, it’s important to follow best practices. Here are a few key tips to keep in mind:
1. Only Track KPIs that Matter to Your Sales Goals
As you go along, you’ll find there are so many metrics and sales KPIs to track. But you want to focus on the ones that are most relevant to your company’s sales goals. The more you focus on these metrics, the easier it will be to improve them and hit your goals.
2. Concentrate on Credible Data Sources
Again, data can come from anywhere. In fact, almost every tool in your stack generates some type of report. But to ensure that your sales analysis reports are accurate and reliable, focus on credible data sources. That is, sources you’ve tested and found to be true.
3. Regularly Track and Update Sales Data
Data often gets stale after some time. For instance, you may have collected data on your existing customers last month, but now it’s been a few months and the data has changed.
Some of them have changed jobs, emails, and last names or moved, gone on vacation, etc. So it’s important to regularly track and update your data so you always have the most up-to-date information.
4. Don’t Just Share Data, Add Interpretations & Recommendations
Simply sharing raw data with your team isn’t enough. To get the most value out of your sales analysis reports, interpret the data and provide recommendations on how to improve your sales team’s performance. This can include specific tactics or strategies the team can use to increase sales, cut costs, increase speed, and so on.
5. See Where a Trend is Forming and Act Fast
Things don’t often wait around for us to catch up—especially where it concerns competitors. So you want to act fast when you see something new springing up in your data.
For instance, let’s say you see an unexpected boost in your weekly sales. Analyzing market trends may show you that a main competitor has just raised their prices, or stopped supporting a feature your customers want. That’s an incredible market opportunity for your brand, and now is the time to step on the gas.
Use Sales Analysis to Get Ahead of the Game
Sales analysis reports are a powerful tool for improving your sales team’s performance. Everything from understanding customer behavior to tracking sales performance, you can use data and reports to make better decisions and get better sales results.
In the future, especially with the technological advancements we’re seeing almost everywhere we look, you can expect the possibilities for sales analysis to expand even further. Salespeople will be able to further use technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze and report data on a deeper level, uncovering new insights and sales opportunities for growth.
So keep your eyes peeled for the newest and most exciting advances in sales analysis, and use them to your benefit. Good luck out there!
