A couple of months ago, a friend (and client) of ours accompanied my boyfriend and me to a local car show. The gentlemen are extreme classic car enthusiasts and attend these outdoor shows with much enthusiasm, vigor, and animation. The joy on their faces as they review all the automobiles, walking up and down the aisles of the parked classic autos, photographing, making comments, and mentally taking notes of the really great paint jobs, the super clean engines, the gleaming exteriors, the fancy, yet antiquated head and tail lights, the whitewall tires, the original rims, and the memories they may have of the vintage of that car are discussed. All the hard work each owner has spent laboring for countless hours to restore these wonderful autos back to their original luster is truly admirable to me. The plaques and trophies they may be awarded at the conclusion of the show really prove that this is reward enough for all of their tough and loving efforts on their restoration projects.
Me, on the other hand, I am absolutely fascinated with the dashboards. I look inside each and every car, popping my head through the open driver’s or passenger side windows and am truly dazzled by the variety of the polished interiors. The diversity and the sheer technological beauty of the dashboards really is the most intriguing to me, as the dashboard always correlates to monitor the complete performance of the automobile.
Afterwards, at dinner, our client and friend Pete, who is the sales manager for a mid-sized manufacturing facility, began to talk about how his business is doing, and of course, the most favorite subject of sales arises. We always have a lively exchange over what is working to drive new business, and what isn’t. Naturally, the discussion starts at leads and where and how they are obtained. Is it the latest on-line advertisement campaign or a trade show event that his sales team was exhibiting at?
We followed the process of generating a lead and once it is qualified, it is then converted into an account. Then the specific details of the contacts and the opportunity are documented into that account and an opportunity is created. Successfully, the opportunity then closes and the revenue is generated. He is a staunch supporter of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and manages his sales processes using this tool. However, Pete knew he needed to maximize the performance of his team and ascertain the analytical results with utmost clarity.
Okay, now let’s multiply this lead process by 4 salespeople on the team, all with dozens of opportunities. How do you keep track of all this activity? He was in a quandary and having some issues trying to keep tabs on all of the sales team’s total activities. I explained to Pete that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM dashboards are vivid and robust tools that can show you for example, the total opportunity revenue generated by leads from a specific marketing campaign. A Microsoft Dynamics CRM dashboard gives you a logical and progressive overview of your team’s performance. These dashboards are updated and can be refreshed, offering updated “real-time” instantaneous graphs, charts and statistics every time.
I explained to Pete that there are many of the standard (without configurable customization) dropdown dashboard lists that are offered complete with colorful graphics that you can view to assist analyzing your statistics:
Record Counts - This is where Pete can view the count of a variety of CRM records such as the last seven days completed phone calls by each sales rep or number of active opportunities per sales rep.
Exception Management – Using this Pete can view overdue sales or service activities per owner. He can monitor outstanding actions and how they are handled.
Sales Goals –For monitoring his team’s sales performance, Pete can define sales quotas per month, quarter, or fiscal year. Then with this drillable dashboard, Pete can look at reps' opportunities and their actual vs. forecasted revenue. He can also easily filter the view by hovering the mouse over the owner and then view the report by opportunities. There is also a view for the individual reps to view their personal performance including the percentage of their quota completed .
Opportunity Pipeline By The Sales Stage –By using pipeline sales stages, Pete can drill into the sales funnel and easily see the owners of opportunities at each sales stage and to look at the opportunities revenue by owners and dollars.
Leads Per Source –This chart allows Pete to analyze lead percentages by source. This can then be used to determine where you are getting the most leads - via referrals, shows, website, or other marketing vehicles.
Revenue Stream –This line graph dashboard allows Pete to view the estimated opportunity revenue by month, and the projected close dates for those opportunities.
Pete is now using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM dashboards to be able to evaluate all of his sales management and sales team processes effectively and is even more efficient. The proficient and numerous dashboards in CRM allow crystal clear evaluation of the performance of his organization, allowing Pete the ability to be more resourceful, too.
Want to start off your 2013 with a clear vision for your company? Your goals are attainable! Please contact The TM Group today at 888.482.2864, email [email protected], or visit our website at .
Submitted By: Jennifer Swiderski - Marketing Manager /The TM Group. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner
