The dashboard and sales targets

The CRM dashboard answers four questions: what the pipeline is worth, what is about to be signed, who is progressing towards their target, and where deals are being lost. This article describes its filters and indicators, the breakdown of each figure, the PDF export, the “My pipeline” tile on the home page, how to enter sales targets, and the CRM reports in People Analytics. It is intended for sales managers, management and CRM administrators.

Before you start #

• The CRM module must be enabled for your organisation and open to you (see Enabling and administering the CRM module).
• The dashboard, the breakdown of figures and the PDF export require “CRM dashboards and reports — View” (CRM menu of the role matrix, Access level). By default, the Sales manager and Administrator roles hold it; the Sales representative role does not.
• The role’s scope on reports limits the figures: with Mine, you only see your own opportunities; with My team, yours and those of your direct reports; with All, those of the whole organisation (see CRM settings). An opportunity counts for its owner; an activity counts for its assignee, or failing that its author.
• Targets are read with “CRM settings — View”, entered with “CRM settings — Edit” and removed with “CRM settings — Delete”.
• The “My pipeline” tile requires “Opportunities — View” and the tile’s own permission, “Dashboard — Widget « My pipeline » (CRM)”. The Sales representative and Sales manager roles receive it with the module; for another role, display the tile in Settings › Manage Illizeo › Dashboard.

Opening the dashboard #

Open CRM › Dashboard. If your scope is limited to your own opportunities, the screen reminds you: “Your own figures: your scope is limited to your opportunities.”

When your organisation also has follow-up pipelines (support cases), two buttons, Sales and Follow-up, choose the dashboard. The sales dashboard only reads sales pipelines; the follow-up dashboard is described in Follow-up pipelines: support and business set-up files. The rest of this article describes the sales dashboard.

Filters #

• From and to: the period. By default, the current quarter. It can be up to one year long, and must start before it ends.
• Pipeline: the active sales pipelines. If none is chosen, the indicators that follow stages (pipeline by stage, conversion, time spent in each stage) cover the pipeline marked Default in Settings › CRM › Pipelines and stages, and the others cover all sales pipelines. Choosing a pipeline limits every indicator to it.
• Owner: Me, No owner or a person; All owners by default.
• Team: My team, or a manager and their direct reports, like the “My team” scope; All teams by default.
• Tag: opportunities carrying that tag.

With the Mine scope, the Owner and Team filters do not appear. Filters narrow what your scope shows you, they never widen it, and they stay in the page address: you can bookmark or share it. All amounts are converted into the company’s currency: each opportunity is converted, then totals add up those rows. An opportunity whose amount cannot be converted is left out of every total and counted separately.

Headline figures #

• Open pipeline: the amount of the pipeline’s open opportunities, with their weighted amount and their count.
• Won in the period: the amount of opportunities won in the period, against the period’s Target, or “No target in the period”.
• Win rate: among the opportunities created in the period, won ones compared with closed ones.
• No next step: the number of open opportunities with no to-do activity planned for today or later, and their total.
• Average acquisition cost: the pre-sales time and expenses of the deals won in the period, divided by their number. With no time or expenses entered, the tile shows a dash (see The CRM and HR: time, expenses, absences and departures).

Indicators #

• Pipeline by stage: the open opportunities of the chosen pipeline, stage by stage, with their count, amount and weighted amount; committed stages are flagged. An opportunity’s weighted amount is its amount multiplied by its probability, which takes the probability of its stage each time it moves. The period does not apply here: this is today’s position, and the weighted total matches the kanban for the same filters.
• Forecast: open opportunities whose close date falls in the period, with their count, weighted amount and committed amount, meaning the amount of opportunities sitting in a stage ticked Committed in the pipeline settings. The amount won is shown alongside. The Breakdown list switches from By month to By quarter.
• Won against target: for each sales rep, the amount of opportunities won in the period, their target and the achievement rate, then the total. The card says whether it compares monthly, quarterly or annual targets, and its Set the targets link opens the target entry.
• Conversion by stage: opportunities created in the period, followed stage by stage. For each stage: how many Entered it, how many Moved on (a later stage or won), and the Rate. The win rate compares won opportunities with the closed opportunities of that group.
• Durations: the Average cycle of opportunities won in the period, from entering the first stage to closing, then the average time spent in each stage, in days.
• Loss reasons: opportunities lost in the period, grouped by reason, with their count and amount.
• Activities: the period’s activities, by sales rep and by type. A private activity only counts for its author, its assignee and its participants.

Breaking down a figure #

Each figure on the dashboard is a link (“See the detail”): it opens the list of opportunities, or activities, that make it up, with the dashboard filters, and their sum. That sum is calculated like the dashboard: it gives back the original figure. Above 2,000 rows the list stops, but the total still covers every row: “Only the first 2000 rows are listed; the total covers all of them.”

Exporting the dashboard as a PDF #

Click PDF, at the top of the dashboard. The export contains the figures on display, with the same filters and the same scope, in your language: the period, the currency, then one table per indicator. The file is named after the period, and every export is logged. The PDF covers the sales dashboard: the button is not offered on the follow-up dashboard.

“My pipeline” on the home page #

The “My pipeline” tile gives each sales rep the status of their own open opportunities, across all sales pipelines, whatever their scope:

• the number of open opportunities, and their weighted total (Open (weighted));
• To sign this month: what has a close date in the current month;
• Signature date passed: the number of overdue opportunities;
• No next step: the number of opportunities with no upcoming activity.

The My opportunities link opens the list of your opportunities.

Setting sales targets #

Open Settings › CRM › Sales targets, or click Set the targets in the Won against target card. Targets are viewed year by year: the arrows on either side of the year move to the Previous year or the Next year.

1. Under Sales rep, choose the person. They must be able to own opportunities: an active account and the “Opportunities — View” permission.
2. Under Period, choose Month, Quarter or Year, then, for a month or a quarter, which one.
3. Enter the Amount, in the company’s currency, then click Save. The message “Target saved.” confirms it.

• A person has only one target per period: entering a new one for the same period replaces the old one.
• In the year’s list, a row’s pencil takes it back into the entry form; the bin removes it, after confirmation (“Remove this target?”). A removed target disappears from the dashboard.
• Every target saved or deleted is logged.

How a period’s target is calculated #

The dashboard adds up the targets that fall entirely within the chosen period, starting with the finest frequency: monthly targets first, failing that quarterly ones, failing that annual ones. It never adds two frequencies together, and the frequency retained applies to every sales rep on the dashboard: if one has monthly targets in the period, another’s quarterly target is not counted. Over the current quarter, three monthly targets add up; an annual target only appears if the period covers the whole year.

CRM reports in People Analytics #

Accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities and quotes are also report sources:

• in a custom report, choose a CRM source under Report source: it gives one row per record instead of one row per employee; columns, groupings, charts, sharing and export stay those of custom reports (see Creating a custom report);
• five system reports: CRM accounts, CRM contacts, CRM opportunities, CRM activities and CRM quotes.

A source requires “CRM dashboards and reports — View” and the permission to view the object. Its rows are limited by the narrower of the two scopes: a sales rep whose scope is “Mine” only sees their own records. A shared report shows each reader their own records. Amounts appear in the original currency and in the company’s currency.

Good to know #

• The dashboard is recalculated each time it opens: there is nothing to refresh.
• The “No next step” indicator counts, from today, any open opportunity with no activity planned; a note does not count as a next step. The signal sent to the owner’s bell waits for the number of days set in Settings › CRM › Pipelines and stages (see Tracking opportunities in the pipeline).
• A won or lost opportunity counts in the period of its closing date; an open opportunity counts in the forecast for the month of its expected close date.

FAQ #

A sales rep cannot see the dashboard. #

The Sales representative role does not hold “CRM dashboards and reports — View” by default. Grant the permission to their role if you want them to see the dashboard, limited to their own figures with the “Mine” scope. Without it, they keep the “My pipeline” tile on their home page.

A sales rep’s target does not appear. #

Check that the chosen period fully covers the target’s period: an annual target does not appear over a quarter. Enter monthly or quarterly targets to track achievement during the year.

A sales rep does not see the “My pipeline” tile on their home page. #

The Sales representative and Sales manager roles receive it with the module. If the person has another role, or if the tile was removed from their role, display it for that role in Settings › Manage Illizeo › Dashboard, and check that the role holds “Opportunities — View”.