Boost Your Sales with Embedded Analytics
Introduction
Even though many businesses and industries work to achieve high-selling scale from their products and services, they end up disappointed. As a result, huge resources invested in those products and services are wasted, causing stunted growth. Lack of a proper understanding of sales patterns in a department, no matter the quality of the products and services, is not beneficial. A good business manager should know existing sales patterns, their customers’ buying trends, market fluctuations, and the types of services and products that satisfy their customers. With this knowledge, one can easily offer the best services and products to customers, properly price products, and predict future product sells based on current market trends. This improves the productivity and performance of a business.
By embedding sales solutions in your department, you will be able to track important metrics and KPIs that give you an overview of your product and services’ sales performance, identify existing market trends, know areas in your department that need improvement, and more. Embedded analytics also helps you make well-informed decisions that improve your business performance by using insights gained from analyzed data in your department. In this blog post, I am going to give you an overview of embedded analytics and how Bold BI can help the sales industry according to the following topics:
- What is embedded analytics?
- Benefits of embedded analytics in the sales industry.
- How to embed analytical tools into sales-domain apps.
- Bold BI’s Sales Solution dashboard example.
What is embedded analytics?
Embedded analytics is the process of integrating analytical solutions and data visualization capabilities in any software application that is used to improve data usability. Bold BI helps you easily embed an analytics solution into your everyday work applications using a JavaScript SDK and server application. It also enables nontechnical people in sales departments to monitor data sets with attractive dashboards and glean all the insights they need to improve organizational and workforce outcomes.
Benefits of embedded analytics in the sales Industry
Improving customer satisfaction
Improving customer satisfaction is one of the most important objectives of the sales industry. When customers are satisfied with products and services, there will be a decrease in customer churn, an increase in sales revenue, and a decrease in marketing expenses. As a result, sales team members always put effort into producing quality products and services to make customers more enthusiastic for a company’s brand.
Embedded analytics on the other hand helps team leaders track and monitor these important metrics:
- Orders by country
- Product order summaries
- Goal completion rates
- Net promoter scores
- Customer satisfaction
- Goal completion rates
- Order comparisons for various products
- Total order metrics
This makes a team leader’s work easier by enabling them to quickly identify customer feedback and the type of products and services individuals, companies, and countries have ordered from their company. Knowing these metrics allows leaders to work on negative feedback by solving issues and delivering the right products to respective clients on time, reducing negative press as well as increasing sales.
Enhancing monitoring and decision making
As an example, let’s look at how embedded analytics could be employed in the movie theatre business.
Embedded analytics enables you to track important movie ticket metrics such as available tickets, ticket summaries, sales amount, tickets sold by movie and date, and show and ticket details from analyzed data in a department. By examining these metrics, product owners will be able to compare their production cost and the total amount earned from sales in each event. Using this information, they will be able to predict the future amount the company will receive from the sale of available tickets and make proper decisions that will increase profit and lower production cost while capturing new customers and opportunities.
Increases productivity
Embedded analytics helps to monitor sales KPIs, such as sales target vs actual sales, activities, completed activity by type, number of products sold according to customer type, closed opportunities, and sales by continent. This allows you to have a better picture of your business productivity level. By using this information, team managers will be able to know how their employees were able to achieve their goals — usually closing a given number of sales opportunities with utilized resources available despite the different challenges they encountered.
With these insights, sales managers will be able to establish a consistent workflow to increase sales in a department and help identify problems in the sales cycle that might lower productivity of the business. Also, through examining metrics such as completed activity by type, pipeline stage, and closed opportunities, managers can offer training to their sales representatives to enable them to develop and use the best techniques and strategies that will help them increase sales productivity, as they will easily identify areas they need to improve on to win deals and complete activities within a given time line.
Increasing revenue with proper financial management
Embedding analytics in your application helps you gain knowledge concerning business revenue performance, which enables you to make proper financial reports by analyzing key indicators such as revenue trend, revenue by lead source, total leads, and product-wise revenue. Results from these metrics help you find the difference between total expenses used in producing different types of leads and products with the total amount received from the sales of those products. This helps you invest more in products that generate high income to maximize profits and lower costs. This leads to increased revenue and enables you to control financial activities properly in your department.
How to embed analytical tools into sales domain apps
Bold BI can embed your dashboards in more than 18 web platforms, including React with ASP.NET Core, React with Go, WinForms, Node.js, Vue with Go, and Vue with ASP.NET Core. I am going to provide a walk-through specifically on embedding dashboards in ASP.NET MVC applications.
Suppose your sales industry has a website like the one shown in the following image.
You can embed dashboards easily using Bold BI and avoid building an analytics or BI solution yourself. Follow these steps to embed your dashboard successfully.
Prerequisites
Download and install the Bold BI server on your local machine and create an enterprise-grade dashboard. You can find the installation and deployment instructions in our documentation.
Step 1: To successfully embed a dashboard in your application, first you need to create an ASP.NET MVC application. Open Microsoft Visual Studio and click New Project. Then choose ASP.NET MVC Web Application, enter the project name, and click OK.
Step 2: Configure embed properties
After the ASP.NET MVC web application is created, you need to create a model class called EmbedProperties under Models and provide the dashboard RootURL, SiteIdentifier, Environment, UserEmail, and EmbedSecret.
RootUrl : Bold BI dashboard server URL. For example: http://localhost:5000/bi.SiteIdentifier : For Bold BI, it should be something like “site/site1”. For the Bold BI Cloud Analytics Server, it should be an empty string.Environment : Your Bold BI application environment. If using Bold BI Cloud Analytics Server, you should use “cloud.” If using Bold BI, you should use “enterprise.”UserEmail : The Bold BI server will use an email address to authorize the authorization server.
Step 3: Generate embed secret
First, you have to set EmbedSecret for authentication. You can get the embed secret from the Bold BI server. Then, navigate to the Settings icon in the left navigation bar and click the Embed tab.
Click Enable embed authentication and then click the Generate Secret button to generate the embed secret. On clicking the button, a secret key will be generated, and you can paste it into the application. To learn how to do this in more detail, you can refer to our documentation.
Note: Save the secret key, as it cannot be retrieved again. If you do not save it, you will have to generate a new one using the Reset Secret option.
Step 4: Create authorization server
You need to implement an authorization server in the ASP.NET MVC application to be authenticated before embedding the dashboard from the Bold BI server. You can also configure the single sign-on (SSO)-based authorization server, which is an authentication endpoint that enables users to securely authenticate multiple applications using unique embed secrets. This prevents the need for the user to log into different applications separately.
Step 5: Create Bold BI instance
Finally, create a Bold BI instance to load the dashboard using a JavaScript file. Reference required script files and CSS files in the HTML pages.
Step 6: Run the application to embed the dashboard
After successfully creating the ASP.NET MVC application, you need to run it. It will be launched successfully with the dashboard details. Finally, you will see the dashboard created in the Bold BI server embedded in your web application.
To learn more about embedding dashboards into your applications, please refer to the blog “Integrating Dashboards into Applications with the Embed SDK.” You can also download the sample code mentioned in all these steps from our documentation. Let’s see the Bold BI dashboard examples in detail.
Bold BI in Sales Solution Dashboard examples
Sales performance dashboard
The Sales Performance Dashboard example helps sales department managers monitor the analysis of their sales details with important metrics such as inventory turnover, total sales, product revenue, and more.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Orders comparison-various products: Shows the orders placed in different modes.
Product-wise revenue: Shows revenue value with respect to products.
Inventory turnover ratio: Shows an overview of total production and sales through online and retail channels, and KPIs like days inventory outstanding. It also shows the revenue details of each product and yearly sales distribution.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales Performance dashboard demo.
Northwind product and suppliers dashboard
The Northwind Product and Suppliers dashboard example enables managers track important metrics such as product order summary, categories with fewer sales, product category, and more. These metrics help managers analyze the sales performance of different products and ensure that they have sufficient inventory to meet customer demand.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Product category: Provides deep insights into customer experiences and emerging market trends in the information about competitors and their marketing activities.
Product order summary: Shows all product order details in a single consolidated view.
Orders by country: Shows sales orders by country.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to the Northwind Products Suppliers and dashboard example.
Sales analysis dashboard
The Sales Analysis Dashboard helps sales department managers track important metrics — such as total sales, total orders, sales by country, and more — that provide a detailed breakdown of a company’s sales.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Total sales: Shows total sales in a given time.
Total orders: Shows overall sales orders in a given time.
Sales by country: Shows sales with respect to country.
Product Summary: Shows product details like quantity, unit price, and units in stock.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales Analysis dashboard demo.
Ticket sales analysis dashboard
The Ticket Sales Analysis Dashboard helps track key metrics such as best-selling shows, ticket sales, and more, which helps leaders analyze the detailed aspects of their ticket sales process.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Show and ticket details: Shows the details of all movies and tickets, like number of tickets sold with respect to show data.
Ticket sold by movie and date: Shows movie tickets sold based on date.
Box office tickets sold: Shows the details of box office tickets sold within a given period.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to the Ticket Sales Analysis dashboard example.
Financial analysis dashboard
By embedding the Financial Analysis Dashboard, you are able to track metrics such as revenue, expenses, sales sources, AR data, and more, which helps managers ensure that their employees are working toward their financial goals.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Company purchases: Online vs. store sales: Shows the proportion of online and store sales to total sales.
Accounts receivable age: Showcases the number of accounts credited in a timely manner.
Net-profit margin: Shows how much profit the company makes on each sale.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Financial Analysis dashboard demo.
Revenue analysis dashboard
The Revenue Analysis Dashboard example enables managers to track periodic information metrics — like contacts, orders, subscriptions, and more — that show revenue details for the current month and the past month, enabling sales department managers to ensure that they work toward tracking big sales trends to meet their monthly goals.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Orders: Shows total orders for the past six months.
Subscription revenue: Shows total number of subscriptions and revenue for the past six months.
Transaction-paid status: Shows the transaction-paid status over the past six months.
Highest revenue days: Shows the highest revenue days for the past six months.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to Revenue Analysis dashboard example.
Sales KPI dashboard
The Sales KPI Dashboard examples help you track key metrics — such as overall deal status, forecast revenue by month, amount of deals won by month, and more — that help managers monitor sales deals over a specific period.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Amount of deals won by month: Shows the amount of deals won by month over the last six months.
Overall deal status: Shows overall deal status: won, lost, or open.
Forecast revenue by month: Shows forecasting statistics for the next three months of deals based on the previous months’ revenue.
Deals summary: Summarizes deals by showing ID, customer and organization name, deal-created date, deal status, deal amount, and started/closed status.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales KPI dashboard demo.
Salesforce opportunity dashboard
The Salesforce Opportunity Dashboard example helps managers track closed opportunities by stage, revenue from active opportunities by stage, open opportunities by lead source, and more. This keeps managers on top of every opportunity, allowing them to close more business on time.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Closed opportunity by stage: Shows closed opportunity percentage by stage.
Open opportunities by lead source: Shows total opportunities created through a lead source.
Active opportunities revenue by stage: Shows revenue through opportunities by stage.
Top 10 open opportunities: The top 10 open opportunities sorted by revenue.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to the Salesforce Opportunity dashboard example.
Sales activity tracker dashboard
The Sales Activity Tracker Dashboard example helps track key metrics such as ticket summary, tickets sold by date, users by category, and more. This enables managers to examine the total number of events and total number of tickets sold within a given time.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Available tickets: Shows currently available tickets.
Sales amount: Shows the total amount earned by a business from the sale of tickets.
Users by category: Shows the percentage of users for each category type.
Ticket summary: Shows ticket transaction information, including start time, category, event, venue, tickets sold, price per ticket, and price paid.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales Activity Tracker dashboard demo.
Sales manager summary dashboard
The Sales Manager Summary Dashboard example helps improve a company’s revenue by tracking important metrics, such as:
- Sales pipeline
- Revenue by country
- Revenue by company
- Top 10 revenue won by sales leaders
- Revenue trends
- Revenue by lead source
- Opportunity details
- Total leads
Key metrics and KPIs:
Total leads: Shows total leads.
Revenue trend: Helps track total revenue for the last six months.
Revenue by lead source: Showcases revenue by lead source.
Opportunity details: Shows opportunity details such as name, status, estimated closed date, and estimated revenue.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to the Sales Manager Summary Dashboard example.
Sales leads tracking dashboard
The Sales Leads Tracking Dashboard example provides insight into a company’s leads and accounts by providing details about leads by campaign, leads by retail, lead generation rate, total leads, top 10 accounts by revenue, leads by source, and more.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Leads by campaign: Showcases the total leads gained through a campaign.
Lead by rating: Shows the percentage of leads by rating: cold, hot, or warm.
Accounts by industry: Tracks accounts by industry.
Leads summary: Shows a summary of leads, including lead name, account, created date, status, state, and whether a lead was merged.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales Leads Tracking dashboard demo.
Sales opportunities dashboard
By embedding the Sales Opportunities Dashboard example, managers can identify top performing agents by monitoring key metrics, such as opportunity state by owner, opportunity by rating, sales progress by country, top five campaigns by opportunity, and more.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Opportunity state by owner: This metric showcases the open, won, and lost opportunities of each owner.
Opportunity by rating: Shows the percentage of opportunities by rating: warm, cold, or hot.
Sales progress by country: Measures sales progress in terms of revenue by country.
Opportunity by campaign type: Shows how many opportunities have been generated from each campaign type.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard demo, refer to the Sales Opportunity dashboard example.
Sales activities dashboard
The Sales Activities Dashboard example helps managers know about sales activities over a specific period of time by tracking important metrics like number of products sold according to customer type, completed activities by type, average deal size, and more.
Key metrics and KPIs:
Number of products sold by customers: Shows the total number of products sold to specific customers.
Completed activity by type: Shows the overall activities completed by sales representatives and what percentage of working hours each took: calls, meetings, lunches, deadlines, emails, and tasks.
Pipeline stage: Shows the pipeline stages to be processed to win a deal by displaying what percent of total deals have passed to the next stage in the last six months.
Activity Summary: Shows a summary of the activities completed by sales representatives.
To learn more about the metrics and KPIs used in this dashboard example, refer to the Sales Activities dashboard demo.
Conclusion
Bold BI helps you integrate dashboards in your applications written in ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET, and Ruby on Rails. It will save you time by preventing you from doing unnecessary work. Check out our website to explore its features. To learn more about embedding dashboards into your application, refer to “Integrating Dashboards into Applications with the Embed SDK” and our help documentation.
Now that you have a better understanding of Bold BI and how it can help sales succeed, we hope you’ll create a dashboard the way you like with Bold BI’s 35+ widgets and 130+ data sources.
Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 15-day trial and create interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can contact the Bold BI team by submitting questions through the Bold BI website or log in to your Bold BI account.
Originally published at https://www.boldbi.com on May 5, 2022.
