Sales organizations are embracing new technologies, tools and data-driven approaches to selling. Sales reps are increasingly relying on more and better-quality CRM data. Implementing an effective Pipedrive or Hubspot dashboard enables teams to visualize and act on this data in an informed way.

We’ll take a deep dive into recent industry developments which underscore the importance of sales dashboards and show you all of what’s needed to build your own.

Digital-first and Data-driven Sales: New Industry Norms

The B2B sales landscape is changing. Events of the past two years have served as a catalyst for profound industry-wide transformations in how we conduct business. Digital-first approaches to innovation have fundamentally changed business models and remote-first companies have ushered in a new way of work. The digital paradigm shift has left its mark.

Digital selling has taken precedence when it comes to how sales organizations engage and connect with prospective buyers. Sales experts project that 80% of all B2B sales interactions will take place along digital channels by 2025. Decision-makers have become increasingly accustomed to completely digitalized sales processes, particularly in B2B and SaaS sales. According to McKinsey, two-thirds say they prefer the “digital self-serve” model and remote interactions over analog sales processes.

New Tools and Technologies Yield More Data

What does this shift towards remote selling and fully digitalized sales processes mean for sales organizations? In short, more data and a growing need to leverage it effectively. In order to profitably leverage structural changes in B2B sales 4.0, forward-thinking organizations will need to embrace new skills, new tools and technologies, such as sales intelligence.

Innovations in sales tech such as automated CRM data entry, social selling tools and improved account intelligence help locate, monitor and evaluate data on potential and existing customers. This also includes the utilization of artificial intelligence tools outfitted for machine learning. For sales teams, this translates to a greater volume of data as well as better overall quality of the data available to them.

Data Drives Day-to-Day Sales Operations

So, what do sales reps need to do to adapt alongside the new technologies reshaping their industry? The first step is using the data in a meaningful way. With intuitive selling is on its way out, calls made on gut-feeling alone can’t be the answer, even in a pinch. Analytics is the new backdrop for fast-paced, yet informed data-driven decision making. Sales reps must be able to able to quickly and efficiently derive actionable insights from their multitudes sales data stored in their CRMs.

One way to visualize sales data, inform strategic decisions and gauge performance is with a sales dashboard integrated into CRMs such as Hubspot or Pipedrive.

Sales Metrics Dashboards for Hubspot: Monitor Results From a Bird’s-eye View

In a nutshell, a sales dashboard (sometimes metrics or sales KPI dashboard) is a visual representation of your sales data. Users can then frame this data in a variety of ways. Sales report data can be filtered over different time periods or be displayed in real time. In other words, sales dashboards encompass activity and results metrics.

Sales dashboards provide an overview of the most important data to your day-to-day sales operations, in many cases via metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). Common KPIs used in sales dashboards include quota attainment, conversion rate, win rate, average deal size, average deal volume, revenue and sales funnel leakage. These metrics assist sales leaders and team track progress, make strategic decisions and plan for the future - among other organizational objectives. Sales dashboards can also be used to visualize minute-to-minute business conditions as they change by displaying real-time data.

No matter whether your team is utilizing a sales dashboard in Hubspot, Pipedrive or other sales reporting software, everybody’s metrics dashboard will look different. A B2B tech giant’s monthly goals will inherently differ from those of a medium-sized retail distributor. Industry, company size, type of sales and individual sales role all determine how and to what extent teams use sales dashboards.

Pipedrive or Hubspot sales dashboards are integrated into the CRM system. If you aren’t currently utilizing CRM software, there are other third-party software options available to display and track sales data you supply directly.

Pipedrive and Hubspot Sales Dashboards: Determine Metrics to Track

Building a sales dashboard can sometimes be intimidating. There are multitudes of data packed into a CRM, so where do you begin, what do you measure? If you don’t have metrics and optics on what kinds of activities you, your team or company are engaging in, it will be impossible to determine what’s working the way it should and what’s not.

Sales dashboards can help you visualize progress towards big-picture goals, but sales metrics and KPIs will be the ones to tell you how to get there (or which route not to take).

Choosing metrics to track doesn’t require diving headfirst into the numbers. In determining key sales metrics to add to your dashboard, it helps to take a step back. Consider which data points, metrics or KPIs often come up in regular company-wide or sales team meetings, one-on-one performance reviews or in your personal reports. It’s essential to have clearly defined goals before deciding what to track.

Sales Metrics: Prioritize Actionability

Taking a deep dive into the vast world of measurable sales metrics can be overwhelming. There’s no shortage of ways to gauge performance, progress or predict probabilities. While research into various sales metrics and comparing templates can be helpful, keep in mind there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

No matter how you determine which metrics to track on your sales dashboard, these must included actionable metrics. While meaningful data can say a lot about your goals or overall progress, actionable data gives you the insight needed to influence an immediate outcome.

Actionability of your data depends on the quality, how it's presented and your own personal or company goals. We’ll show you some core KPIs you should be showcasing in your Pipedrive or Hubspot dashboard further down below.

Sales Dashboard Layout: Key Info at a Glance

Sales dashboards should consist of actionable metrics. Therefore the layout should reflect these metrics and the important role they play in informing strategic day-to-day decision making. Sales metrics dashboards for Hubspot or Pipedrive need to be easily accessible and understandable at a glance. In addition, the ability to quickly alter which metrics appear front and center is key. Creating transparency and ensuring multi-purpose use in sales dashboard layouts requires planning and knowledge of how to customize data visualization on your sales platform.

The next steps in building informative Pipedrive or Hubspot dashboards involve establishing user-specific aims. Ask yourself the following:

• Who will be using the dashboard?
• How will they be using it? (i.e. checking the sales dashboard on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis?)
• Which data will they want to see and what purpose will it serve? (different users will need to see different data points, metrics or visualizations)

Once you’ve established your visions and needs, it’s on to the data and charts. When designing a Hubspot dashboard, users can generate sales reports based on their data from their customer database. The Hubspot dashboard then lets you pick from a wide variety of charts to use for visualizing data in building reports. These charts should be easy-to-read and understandable for the user. Common chart types used in Hubspot dashboards or others include dials, leader boards, bar graphs, historical trend graphs, pie charts, funnels or plotted points.

Visual Pipeline Analysis With These Key Metrics/KPIs

Dashboard Metric Categories

According to Hubspot, dashboard metrics usually fall into one of the following categories:

• Activity Sales Metrics
• Pipeline Sales Metrics used to monitor Pipeline Health
• Lead Generation Sales Metrics
• Sales Outreach Metrics
• Primary Conversation Sales Metrics
• Channel Sales Metrics
• Sales Productivity Metrics
• Rep Hiring and Onboard Metrics
• Sales Process, Tool and Training Adoption Metrics

Results and Activity Sales Dashboard Metrics

Sales teams and heads of sales get the most from their dashboards when they provide a bird’s-eye view of sales activities and progress as well as an acute attention to detail. Both past sales results-based metrics and current sales activity-based metrics should flow into your dashboard analysis.

According to Pipedrive, dashboard metrics everybody should have on their radar include:

• Deals Closed
• Average Order Value
• Opportunity Win Rate

Common results-based key performance indicators measured by sales managers are:

• Number of Deals in the Pipeline
• Win Rate
• Average Deal Size
• Average Time to Close
• Sales Revenue
• Sales Forecast Accuracy
• Lead Response Time
• Follow-up Rate

Pipedrive or Hubspot dashboards centered around team-based activities include:

• Lead Response Time
• Time Spent Selling
• Win Rate
• Sales Pipeline Coverage
• Leads Generated
• Deals Closed

Sales reps, SDRs or account executives usually use the following to assess their own individual performance and results:

• Sales Target
• Opportunities
• Sales to Date

AI Guided Selling and Data Visualization

Good data management is essential for maintaining full visibility at the customer level at every stage along the customer journey. Even with an effective Pipedrive or Hubspot dashboard, each metric takes time and resources to analyze and track. Surveys also show that the visualization of the enormous amounts of data stored in CRMs overwhelms sales reps on a daily basis. This is why more and more sales organizations are using AI Guided Selling Software to optimize sales. The software helps increase sales reps’ productivity by displaying only the most relevant CRM data and provides optimized recommendations on the next best steps to take in the sales cycle based on its analyses.

If you would like to learn more about the possibilities of AI-optimized B2B sales, our free eBook provides a summary of how your team can remain a decisive step ahead of the competition in the direction of high-tech, “future-proof” data-driven B2B sales. Download the eBook as a PDF.