CRM, lead flow and sales techniques · Sales reporting and dashboards
Build the dashboard around one question and draw the charts honestly.
A sales dashboard is one screen that answers a single question for one audience at a glance. This page covers choosing that question, laying out the reports in order of importance and picking chart types that do not mislead, and it ends with a layout checked by three other people.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A sales dashboard is one screen that answers a single question for one audience at a glance. This page covers choosing that question, laying out the reports in order of importance and picking chart types that do not mislead, and it ends with a layout checked by three other people.
A garment exporter in Tiruppur runs its MIS in a shared Excel file with eleven sheets. The owner wants a quick read on orders against target and gets a monthly bar chart whose axis starts at ninety lakh, so a small dip looks like a collapse. Everyone has learned to ignore the chart.
Start with one sentence: this dashboard is for the owner, and it answers whether we will hit the quarter's order target. Everything on the screen either answers that or supports the answer, and a report that does neither goes to a second tab or is dropped. The sales head or administrator builds it, and the owner is the audience who judges it.
This replaces the all-in-one MIS sheet. It sits after the choice of questions and the audience map, and before the governance rules that keep the screen from growing. A shared sheet is a fine home for it if the layout rules are kept.
Where this sits
Topic 9 of 13 in crm, lead flow and sales techniques: sales reporting and dashboards. Reports and dashboards that lead to action.
- The topic before
- CRM setup and data
- The topic after
- Frictionless selling
If you want this done for you
See enquiries and orders on one screen instead of opening five different logins.
The work
What this is actually like.
“The top left is the answer”
People read a screen from the top left across and down. Put the report that answers the key question there, and the two or three that support it in the first two rows. A detailed table at the top buries the answer under the working.
“Axis games are the commonest lie”
A bar chart that starts above zero exaggerates change, and the owner makes decisions on the exaggeration. Bars start at zero. A line chart for trend can start higher, if it says so on the axis.
“Pies need parts of one whole”
A pie is only honest when the slices add to a total and there are few of them. Revenue split across fifteen cities is a sorted bar chart. A number tile is better than any chart when the reader needs the exact figure.
“Titles should carry the context”
Orders by month tells nobody anything. Orders this quarter against target, in lakh, tells the reader what is being compared. Add the comparison line or the target mark to the chart itself.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
Purpose statement
Two lines: who the dashboard is for and the one question it answers.
Result: Finished when the owner reads it aloud and says yes, that is what I want to know.
Layout table
A list of all the reports, each given a row on the page and a job: the main answer, supporting evidence or fine detail. The main answer sits top left and the first two rows hold the most important reports.
Result: Finished when no report sits in the first two rows that does not help answer the question.
Chart review sheet
For each chart: its purpose, whether the type fits, whether the axis starts at zero where it must, how many slices, and whether the title carries the comparison.
Result: Finished when every chart passes or has been redrawn.
Blink-test notes
Show the dashboard to three people for five seconds and ask them to say the main takeaway. Write down what each said.
Result: Finished when two of the three state the right takeaway without help.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Is a shared Excel sheet good enough for a dashboard?
How many reports belong on one dashboard?
Do we need a designer?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of sales reporting and dashboards
Or read all of crm, lead flow and sales techniques.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.