CRM Reporting: An Overview for Small Businesses
Small businesses need CRM metrics, but are unlikely to have a full development department at their disposal. See how much you can accomplish without the resources of a massive corporation.
by Jon Arancio, Vice President
Understanding the types of powerful CRM reports you need
The role of CRM reporting working in small businesses
In the early days of my career in sales, computerized CRM systems were in the fledgling stage of development. The company I worked for required all the salespeople to log call reports on our activity, and without an automated system, we had no choice but to manually compile the reports. This was time-consuming and took me away from my actual outreach to prospects, reducing overall sales.
These reports were produced exclusively for management – no one on my sales team would have generated these for their benefit. Furthermore, it was not easy to combine reports from different salespeople into one coherent view. Overall, this type of log was necessary but difficult to manage.
There are many reasons for companies to invest in CRM applications: better workflow, account history, and accountability all come into play. A customer relationship management solution is an investment in working more efficiently as an individual and as a team.
Implementing essential CRM reporting
Yet the popularity of CRM is largely due to the ability to generate business intelligence and reporting. This means different things to users and managers, depending upon what role is being fulfilled.
Once a CRM is implemented, business intelligence reports can be generated at any time, for any date range, for any user or users. Most importantly, the report is a byproduct of the work, not separate work unto itself. The salesperson or service representative can simply log their calls into the CRM and the data for the activity output is available for a report, notification, or dashboard.
Therefore, the types of reports we run will depend upon what our job looks like, but the specific benefit of having reporting tied into CRM is the effortless flow of data from the users of the system to the viewers of the reporting.
Types of CRM reports for small businesses
Customer Service Reports – A closer look at reporting features for support teams
A customer service organization may seek very different intelligence from the CRM data than a sales or marketing team.
Here are some questions a service manager may ask of their CRM:
- How long do we take to respond to service calls? How long do we take to resolve those calls?
- How many cases are open right now? How many cases are open longer than 7 days?
- What are our most common issues?
- Do we have the resources to improve our time to resolve this?
Below are some examples of how reports representing these inquiries would look. We used Maximizer CRM to generate these reports.
Example 1: The sample image below displays how long each service agent is taking to resolve cases. Jon Arancio takes 10.86 days whereas Jessica Aubrey takes only 2.33 days. If we were looking at this data on the dashboard of the CRM, the wedges on the chart can be clicked to pull up the details of that agent.
Example 2: This next example lists those cases that are taking an extended time to close. If a case persists longer than a week, it will remain on this indicator.
Example 3: This is a view of the same case data broken out by topic of the support issue. This allows managers to understand which issues recur the most.
Example 4: If the CRM can inform you of the nature of the support issues flowing into the queue, it can also help you manage your resources to resolve the issues. Managers will want to understand if they have sufficient staffing to maintain a good level of customer service. Here is an illustration of how you monitor the load on your team.
The following bar chart is showing the load on each service rep across open cases. CRM users can easily select one rep to list their cases. Next, you can easily move cases over to another who is more available. This kind of load balancing is essential to delivering quality service without increasing the cost of delivery.
Sales Performance Reports - Impact of pipeline and sales activity reports
A sales organization is likely to focus on metrics of performance rather than cases. While they may be aware of some of the service reports, this group is incentivized by closing opportunities.
Many organizations maintain their sales pipeline in a spreadsheet. CRM software such as Maximizer is much better than a spreadsheet at maintaining an accurate pipeline with multiple users. The CRM can easily export reports in the spreadsheet format but it has numerous other advantages in terms of visualization of data.
Here are some questions a sales manager may ask of their CRM:
- How are my deals progressing?
- How many wins?
- What do we win with?
- How many losses?
- Why do we lose?
Let’s take the example of a pipeline report, but display the deals in a kanban (visual) view.
Example 1: The kanban board is an excellent way to quickly see how deals progress through your sales process. Within CRM you are able to interact with the opportunity record, drag and drop it into different stages and even edit the details, all on the fly. When deals are at risk due to delays, notification badges pop up to warn the team to take action. This report is crucial for identifying deals that are slipping behind schedule.
The executive team may wish to see less detail, but have the ability to dig into the data as they work. Below are some examples of widgets created in Maximizer CRM that allow for filtering by sales team or product.
Example 2: The following reports show how many wins (closed deals) we have and what we won with.
These widgets are flexible. They present the won revenue and products sold but can be easily updated for variations on sales team/owner, date ranges or products. So, you can look at the won revenue for this year and then compare to last.
Example 3: What about deals that you do not win? What is common to your lost deals that can help you navigate transactions in the future? Here we have a widget that helps analyze our losses.
Again, we can filter by team, rep, category or dates to better understand the reasons behind our lost deals. Both sales and marketing leaders will find this information useful.
Marketing Performance Reports - Lead source analysis and marketing metrics
Marketing is tasked with generating leads for the sales group. They often have to manage large budgets and make decisions on the allocation of budget to different efforts to general inquiries.
The marketing group might be interested in these questions surrounding the campaign performance reports:
- Is our investment in trade shows productive?
- Do we have enough leads at the top of the funnel?
- What is our lead conversion rate?
- Are prospects interacting with our content? What is our campaign performance?
Example 1: The widget below posts a lead source analysis report of leads created at a trade show, what is active and what converts (moves from a lead to a sales opportunity). As an added benefit, you can click through these indicators and view the lead source report, how long it took to mature and other details.
Providing the marketing manager with quick access to the results of their lead flow, gives them a chance to react quickly to what works and what does not work.
Example 2: Other reports show the marketing team how much (or little) the audience is interacting with the content.
Monitoring the campaigns will allow your team to produce better content and greater engagement.
Ideal CRM insights from CRM pipeline report
Earlier we saw our pipeline in a kanban board. That is not the only visual representation of sales pipeline report.
Here is another example of a dashboard that management might use to inspect the same data, but at a higher level.
You can still dig into the data with filters and click-through, but you are less likely to be editing the data from this perspective. From this one view you have summary information, a list and a chart. Ideally, management should be able to view the pipeline at a glance and see where deals are by stage, who is responsible and total values.
Revenue forecast reports explained
Some of the reports present data analytics directly from the database. The report feature above shows widgets from the business intelligence (BI) suite in Maximizer.
In this model, the data is mapped from the database into a data warehouse periodically – every few hours in this particular dashboard. This way the BI tool can look at snapshots of different points in time and compare year over year figures.
The indicators are designed in the BI platform to present a view that can be filtered easily and without time consuming design effort. Separating the report design from the filtering allows sales users to easily view the data from different perspectives without getting bogged down in the technical details of the report.
The value of sales activity reports
If your goal is to grow sales, you first have to generate the activities that lead to sales. Using custom targets assigned to the teams or reps, you can measure the work that leads to the revenue attainment.
Managers want to know (a) that the team is working hard, and (b) what they are working on. Setting targets for activity, in addition to targets for revenue, is the first step towards coaching your team toward success.
In the below example, we set goals for email, meetings, calls, and texts. These activities are logged by the team to retain the contact history with customers. At the same time, the CRM software can measure the overall volume of activity against the assigned target and help direct the sales resources to where they are most required.
Creating effective CRM reports you need today
Selecting the right CRM reporting features
With all of the options available, where do we start? We would like to have as much flexibility as possible. Can we offer easy-to-read summaries as well as in-depth detailed reports? We also want a good balance between customizable displays, and those that are simple to generate.
Our best experience is with small businesses who use Maximizer CRM. A good range of options is presented by Maximizer. We can break them out into a few different types.
Managers often want a quick look at a lot of data in a compact format. Using pre-defined widgets in a business intelligence dashboard, the system can collect data daily and compile it for analysis. The widgets provide a concise graph, numeric indicator or table with the option of filtering team members or dates in and out. Some widgets also allow for either click-through or drill down.
Click-through takes you to the actual records that populated the widget directly in the CRM. The manager can see exactly what drove the numbers and edit it if corrections are needed.
Drill down shows the details of the summarized data but stays within the dashboard. So, drill down is just a more detailed sub-report.
In Maximizer, a key advantage to this report type is the easy access. The reports are ready to go as soon as you put data into your CRM. There is no time spent designing or developing the report. They are built-in and ready to go from day one.
More detail
Sometimes users want to see a bit more detail, particularly around activity. While the manager may be concerned about hitting the target numbers, an end user or coach may dig deeper. Here is an example of an activity report that prompts the user for a date range and some filtering.
It is not hard to run this report, and once it runs you can drag a few fields into the banner to group data. With a bit of filtering and altering the grouping, this one report can make many distinct versions of the activity report without having to program anything.
Managers may be satisfied with the high-level summary shown above. Other users can dig in and show details of each interaction. These are under the collapsed sections of the category and type above.
Fully customized
If you are not satisfied with what you get out-of-the-box, you can go the route of building your own reports or dashboards. Now you can create as much customization as you like. The cost is time and materials to test and develop the presentation you desire.
You can create these types of reports in various external BI tools, reporting tools or simply with custom code. The investment is worthwhile if you have a clear picture of what exactly you need, and you have enough data to thoroughly test your design.
Customized but accessible
Many clients are not ready to build custom reports or dashboards. However, they find there is a need to inspect some niche aspects of their business. Perhaps it relates to a product or process that is not common to other clients and would not normally be a part of the CRM's reporting suite.
CRM solutions that allow you to build lists and reports based on searches can greatly simplify the design effort. There are a few options that rely on searches in Maximizer. You can set up list views that include whatever columns you want to display. When you pair this with a saved search, you have a quick report that can be exported to a spreadsheet with one click.
There are also simple dashboards that are built upon searches that can take the same query and output a numeric indicator, a list or a bar/pie chart. These are easily printed to PDF and can include click-through to get back to the source data. Several of the pie and bar charts above represent this approach.
Aligning reporting features with business reporting needs
Where possible, try to envision the reporting you will need and work backward to collect the data to go into it. Using the CRM system, you should be able to collect that data without occupying your sales team with report writing duties. Ensure that you provide enough training (and support) to have the users appreciate the value of the work to them and the organization.
Any sales rep who has had to produce sales and activity reports for management late on a Friday will appreciate the benefit the CRM brings in terms of automation and data reporting.
Considering your target audience in creating CRM metrics and reporting
When in doubt, simple is better. Try not to provide more than is necessary in your output. Failing to do so can risk confusing, rather than informing, the reader. Senior executives may not be impressed with excessive detail but will find great benefit in a quick view and timely notification of changes.
Line of business staff and middle managers will be more apt to spend time inspecting the detail and using click-through to back to the original data. Separate your indicators with group security so that users see what is relevant to them and do not necessarily get overwhelmed with every dashboard that has been added to the CRM.
Enhancing business with CRM reports
Using CRM reports for better decision making
While measuring revenue numbers is common across many businesses, and most businesses desire revenue growth, this is not the only use case. What are examples of using information to drive decisions?
Service case logs can outline how many and how long issues dwell in the system before resolutions. This can impact staffing levels for support and considerations in service level agreements.
A sales forecast pipeline is important to monitor the sales team's work, but it also helps the organization plan for manufacturing, staffing, and purchasing levels to meet potential demand. This concern is acute for clients who have long sales cycles, and large ticket opportunities.
Sales reports reveal the efficacy of different campaigns and help push spending in the most productive areas. Moving on from a poorly converting campaign can save the company money it can use more effectively elsewhere. These are just a few examples of data driving decisions.
Leveraging best reporting for increased customer engagement
Is your team focused on account management and cultivating existing relationships? Consider using a CRM reporting solution to help balance your resources and make sure none of the key accounts are missed.
Some of our clients are distributors who put representatives in the field that have a route in the territory. They are attempting to meet face to face with all A accounts four times a year, all B accounts twice a year, etc. If you know how many A and B accounts exist in a territory and you know how many workdays exist in a year, you can easily see how many reps are required for that region.
Furthermore, the CRM can keep track of your last touch point and provide indicators of those who were slipping behind your touchpoint standards.
Financial advisors make virtual or in-person meetings with clients on a regular and pre-defined basis. They can use similar tools to map out who gets what meetings in the coming month and who has drifted outside the expected cadence.
While distributors of commercial goods and financial advisors are very different businesses, they can use similar tools to maintain a high level of engagement with their clients.
How CRM reports contribute to consistent performance
Reporting has been long employed by organizations to monitor and improve performance, even when it was based on pen and paper. What CRM brings to reporting is the consistent collection of data, while performing ordinary ongoing work activity.
By making your call and meeting logs in a CRM rather than a paper planner you are building the manager's view of your work without any additional effort, and the CRM provides a reproducible structure so that there is no consolidation and clean up before the boss sees it.
Removing the effort of rehashing and compiling your previous work into something readable for managers is a time saver for everyone involved. If you have ever had to collect spreadsheets from a team of sales representatives and organize it into something sensible, you can see the how much time this can save right away.
Do you need guidance in getting started with CRM reporting?
If you are far enough along on the development of your sales process to know that you require some insight into this data, you may struggle with how to get started. At a very basic level you must:
- Collect data
- Maintain data
- Inspect data
For a sales organization, collecting data means a database to retain your leads, customers, client history, tasks and pipeline. The database is then referenced by reporting tools, dashboards or business intelligence systems to produce visualizations.
Sales data is not static. The team is expected to constantly update the data as part of their workflow, both to help them be more productive and to provide the organization with timely access to information. A CRM is a necessary part of collecting and maintaining sales information.
Everyone wants the best technology they can afford to drive sales. It is imperative to find a CRM solution that is appropriate to your budget, your team’s ability to manage it and your window of time to implement it. Be sure to line up resources internally and externally to ensure that the deployment of the CRM does not consume all your time and effort.
Finally, select an approach to reporting that is equally suited to your resources. There is no point in finding an affordable and easy to set up CRM if the reporting suite costs ten times as much and takes half a year to implement. Your ability to see the data you require has to be as accessible as the CRM technology itself.
Query vendors on setup costs and determine if you will be able to make your own reports or have to bring in outsiders. Try systems that have templates for reports that are up and running quickly and with minimal configuration. Remember, you don’t need to use every aspect of the available reporting tools. Test and identify what you need, and make sure those reports or dashboards as within your ability to operate.
Resources
When you begin to focus on reporting, there are a number of ways to learn and expand your view of what is available. Here are some we can recommend:
- This is an example of reporting with a sales focus within Maximizer. It is in the form of a quick tour - Sales Leader Edition.
- For more details about Maximizer CRM you can refer to an earlier article.
- If you have specific questions or want to see a live demo, please reach out to talk to us directly.
Jon Arancio, Vice President
Jon is the co-founder and Vice-President of Wintec Group Inc., a CRM software reseller and application support specialty firm. He helps clients implement Maximizer CRM, and provides outsourced application knowledge to firms who need the additional skills sets but are not looking to add support staff for this technology.
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