3 essential CRM reports every business needs to drive growth

Fun fact: CRMs can do more than keeping your contacts organized. 

They can optimize your workflow and drive growth by turning your data into actionable reports, offering valuable insights to enhance your sales process. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore three key types of CRM reports and their essential metrics to help you maximize your sales potential.

3 essential CRM reports every business needs to drive growth

From general sales performance reports to a better understanding of your lead tracking and conversion, there’s a lot of data insights your CRM can spotlight to fuel your growth.

Why they’re important: These reports help identify top-performing sales representatives, optimize strategies, and set realistic sales goals to drive business growth.

1. Sales performance reports

Sales performance reports offer a detailed view of your team’s sales activities, conversions, and revenue generation.

Key metrics for sales performance reports include:

Generated revenue

Generated Revenue helps you track your sales team's total financial performance. You can measure any custom field added to your group, such as Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) or deal value. To gain deeper insights, you can apply filters to view Generated Revenue by assigned teammate, industry, or any custom tag.

Conversion rate (number of deals closed)

Calculate the number of leads or accounts your team has closed over time.

You can measure the "Status" field added to your group using the value "Closed" or "Won" and selecting the right formula (Count or Ratio). You can add filters to see the number of deals closed by an assigned teammate, industry, or any custom tag.

Average deal value

Get an insight into the average deal value your team closes over time. You can calculate this metric by dividing the total value of closed deals by the number of deals closed within a specific period. You can then add filters to analyze average deal value by product category, region, or any custom field relevant to your business.

2. Lead tracking and conversion reports 

Lead tracking and conversion reports provide insights into the journey of leads from initial contact to successful conversion, highlighting key metrics and bottlenecks.

Why they’re important: These metrics are crucial for understanding lead generation trends, optimizing resource allocation, and refining strategies to maintain a consistent and effective sales pipeline.

Key metrics for lead tracking and conversion reports include:

Leads by creation date 

Tracking leads by creation date helps businesses monitor the effectiveness of their lead generation efforts over time. This metric provides insights into the volume of new leads entering the sales pipeline during specific periods, allowing teams to identify trends, seasonality, or the impact of marketing campaigns. By understanding when leads are generated, businesses can better allocate resources, schedule outreach efforts, and evaluate the performance of marketing channels to ensure consistent lead flow.

Leads, revenue and average deal value by closing date

Monitoring leads, revenue, and average deal value by closing date is essential for understanding sales performance over time. This metric highlights when deals are finalized, offering insights into sales cycles, peak revenue periods, and trends in deal sizes. By analyzing these data points, businesses can optimize forecasting, identify high-performing sales periods, and refine strategies to close more deals effectively. It also provides a clear picture of how different leads contribute to overall revenue, guiding prioritization efforts.

Leads by status

Leads by status provides a snapshot of where prospects stand in the sales pipeline, such as new, qualified, in negotiation, or closed. This metric helps businesses assess pipeline health and identify bottlenecks or areas for improvement. For instance, an excess of leads stuck in the qualification stage may signal issues with initial outreach or criteria alignment. Tracking this data enables sales teams to focus on moving leads through the pipeline efficiently, ensuring no opportunities are overlooked.

Leads by industry 

Categorizing leads by industry helps businesses tailor their approach based on the unique needs and preferences of different sectors. This metric is particularly useful for identifying which industries generate the most leads or yield the highest conversion rates. Understanding industry-specific trends allows teams to refine their messaging, customize product offerings, and allocate resources to high-potential markets. It also supports strategic planning for diversifying or deepening market penetration.

Leads by lost reason 

Tracking leads by lost reason provides invaluable insights into why prospects didn’t convert. Whether due to pricing, competition, timing, or lack of need, understanding these reasons helps businesses identify areas for improvement in their offerings, messaging, or sales processes. This metric allows teams to adjust strategies, address common objections, and reduce lost opportunities in the future. Over time, analyzing lost reasons can lead to a more refined approach and higher conversion rates.

3. Sales team performance over time

Sales team performance reports analyze individual and team contributions, tracking progress and effectiveness over specific periods.

Why they’re important: These metrics are essential for evaluating individual and team performance, identifying top contributors, and optimizing strategies to improve lead generation, deal closure, and revenue outcomes.

Key metrics for sales team performance reports include:

Leads by creation date, by assignee 

Tracking leads by creation date, categorized by assignee, offers insights into how effectively team members are generating new leads. This metric highlights the productivity of individual team members in sourcing potential opportunities, helping managers identify top performers and areas where additional support or training may be needed. It also reveals trends in lead generation activities, providing a foundation for resource allocation.

Leads by closing date, by assignee

This metric evaluates the success of team members in closing deals within specific timeframes. By associating closing dates with individual assignees, businesses can measure each team member ability to guide leads through the sales funnel and achieve results. The data helps identify consistent performers, recognize patterns in sales cycles, and address any delays in the closing process. It also provides a basis for refining sales strategies and distributing leads effectively.

Revenue by closing date, by assignee

Tracking revenue by closing date and assignee allows businesses to assess the financial impact of individual team members on overall sales performance. This metric highlights which team members are generating the most revenue, offering opportunities to reward high performers and replicate successful strategies. It also helps businesses pinpoint disparities in revenue generation and implement targeted interventions to support underperforming team members.

A closer look at folk’s reporting capabilities

Folk’s brand new dashboard and reporting features provide businesses with an intuitive and powerful way to extract actionable insights from their data. Without compromising on complexity.

With its user-friendly interface, folk enables users to easily create and customize dashboards without requiring technical expertise.

Key features:

• Understand your sales funnel at a glance: Folk’s dashboards allow you to visualize sales pipeline metrics, offering clarity on how leads move through your funnel.
• Track pipeline performance over time: Identify trends in lead creation, conversion, and sales velocity to optimize your sales strategy.
• Analyze lead profiles: Use folk’s tools to categorize and understand your best-performing leads for improved targeting.
• Break down team efforts: Assess individual and team contributions by tracking metrics like leads assigned, deals closed, and revenue generated.
• Compare segment performance: Segment your leads by industry, geography, or other custom filters to identify high-performing categories and allocate resources effectively.

Conclusion 

Incorporating these three types of CRM reports into your business strategy can provide the data you need to empower your team with better decision-making and improved efficiency. Folk’s reporting capabilities make it a standout option, offering customizable, easy-to-use tools that adapt to your unique needs. Explore folk today to take your CRM reporting to the next level.

More resources

• The modern sales stack for SMBs
• Sales is a multiplayer game
• 16 sales metrics founders/agency owners should track

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