No Good Reporting on Your CRM? Make A Killer Metrics and Analytics Dashboard!

When small businesses look to hire for management level positions they set expectations for the production they will receive. They expect protocol to be put in place as well as metrics and analytics to be created, analyzed and used to create greater efficiencies. During the hiring process of meeting potential members of the management team they discuss providing, within reason, all the tools necessary to accomplish these goals. When new managerial hires come on board the discussion for sophisticated plans and implementation continue.

In the initial phase after the new hire is on-boarded, the executive team commonly asks for a review of current practices as well as day-to-day operations. From there the new hire will commonly provide an analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Ownership is also looking for this person to come up with ideas for improvement across the board. Most of the recommendations made generally require some sort of investment, in many cases software enhancements. When the time comes to discuss those purchases however, the executive management team tends to shy away from spending additional money. This leaves the new member of the management team to fend for themselves to implement their plan without the tools to make this possible in the most optimal way.

How do you create efficient systems under such circumstances?

Before any methodical decisions can be made you must have a performance baseline to evaluate current performance and output. If an analytical metric system has never been in place prior then it should now be priority number one. These days almost all organizations (regardless of size) have some sort of CRM or database system to capture activity, production and sales. However, many of these software packages are cookie cutter tools designed as one size fits all solutions to appeal to the masses. As we all know, every company has different techniques and needs and these solutions do not capture everything that is important to YOU and they do not always integrate well with your other systems. Without the proper tools to capture all the activities and transactions being produced by each member of the team that YOU are looking for, it is a management member’s responsibility to capture this information. As it should always be preached to the individual contributors in your organization, a leader needs to overcome the challenges they face in order to be successful.

Microsoft Excel happens to be a very powerful tool as we all know. It can be used to accomplish the same goals as a software package only with an initial time investment to create it and a little daily maintenance. To best utilize excel in this way, create a spreadsheet where you can enter daily numbers in separate tabs for each performance category, entering all transactions and activities. Then use formulas to consolidate the KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) into a dashboard that sits as the first tab in your spreadsheet.*Feel free to message me if there u would like more detail as to how you can set this up and what it should look like.

This dashboard should be sent daily to each member of the team and include at a minimum the following information:

• Daily sales transactions, sorted by category if necessary.
• Daily email/ phone/meeting activity.
• Progress toward goals
• Progress toward potential incentives.

Each of these categories should have a plus/minus section showing how the team is pacing toward their goal(s) for a specific period of time (ie. month, quarter, etc..), a projected finishing total based on the progress thus far as well as the projected commission/incentive they have earned.

One of the key responsibilities for the leader is to make sure that employees are motivated to reach and exceed goals. While you were hired to focus creating and enhancing efficiencies, you must first have a performance evaluation system in place and then generate goals for each employee before you can begin optimizing processes.

Designing your Excel dashboard to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible will also benefit the acceptance and internalization of your employees. Sending them both team and individual goals as well as their progress towards those goals on a daily basis should keep them vested in being as successful as possible.

Although the company hasn’t invested in the software you recommended, they have invested in you to create this quote-unquote software for them. The more you get used to creating this dashboard the faster it will be compiled. By sending this report to ownership on a regular basis they may begin to fully appreciate the data and progress it shows. Once they see the effect it is having on your team they may then give you the tools necessary to focus on enhancing other areas of the business.