The 12 Days of Salesforce for 2024 (Day Three: Analytics)
TL;DR: Here is my list of things you should be considering as you reboot your business for 2024, focusing on Salesforce generally and specifically Analytics.
Here’s the first post in this series, which includes background and how you can save $150k/year: https://medium.com/@kmcafeesf/the-12-days-of-salesforce-for-2024-day-one-dd8051e0adee
Day Three (of Twelve): Custom Report and Dashboard Optimization
What you should consider: Fine-tune existing reports and dashboards for better insights, reducing the time spent on data analysis and improving decision-making.
What you should evaluate: Assess the time saved through improved reporting efficiency. Consider the impact on decision-making and potential revenue gains.
Annualized cost savings (est. based on 30 users): $12,000.
How I would approach Day Three and Reporting:
First off is skill set. Do you have anyone dedicated to delivering reporting for your organization? If not, are there distributed folks in various business- or operating units? My feeling is this is a must-have.
The opposing viewpoint is to have an external entity (read: consultant) that can act on your needs, but the true understanding of the business needs should come from your business, most likely.
Second, I would ensure that your organization is asking the right questions, without specifying the answers. A talented analytics professional can give you precise answers to business questions, but if you force them to do it in the way you specify, you won’t get optimal results.
Third, focus on metrics. What are the real driving metrics of the organization? Are you able to get those metrics in live formats (meaning changing daily, as the data changes)? Is there a mad scramble every time you have a QBR? If so, I’d submit you’re not optimized.
Fourth, ensure the departments have what they need to run their businesses. Does Sales know how long deals take to close? How many new leads were generated by the various activities? Or how many leads we converted? Does Marketing know which of their efforts have created the biggest bottom-line impact? Mind you, none of these reports are simple to create and maintain, but taking the time to build them can pay some serious dividends.
And lastly, determine if your teams are using live Salesforce reports and dashboards in meetings. If the leaders are using live analytics, holy cow that’s awesome. But I bet they’re not (and they may be reluctant to for a variety of reasons). Try to work out how to make that possible, depending on your situation. Your leaders (and all of those monkeys who build the decks for them) will thank you.
This is a part of the 12 Days of Salesforce for 2024 series. Here are links to the other initiatives you should consider, and as always, please reach out to me if you’d like some counsel or my approach via my team at Rule Six Consulting LLC.
Day One: Automation of Repetitive Tasks
Day Two: Data Cleanup & Deduplication
Day Three: Analytics & Reporting
Day Six: User Training & Adoption
Day Seven: Mobile Optimization
Day Eight: Artifical Intelligence
Day Nine: Communities and Portals
Day Eleven: Security & Compliance
Day Twelve (Hooray!): Improvement Cycles & Feedback
I appreciate you spending some time thinking about these topics with me, and I welcome feedback and additions.
