If you manage a sales team, you know the difference between “numbers that look good” and “numbers that matter.” Sales dashboards promise clarity, but it’s easy to drown in charts and forget what you actually need. This guide is for sales managers and team leads who want to cut through the noise and actually use the Apparound dashboard to track sales performance—without wasting time or falling for dashboard gimmicks.
Let’s get into the practical steps, what actually helps, and what you can safely ignore.
1. Know What You’re Really Trying to Measure
Before you poke around in Apparound’s dashboard, get clear on what you actually want to know. Chasing too many metrics just creates confusion. Focus on:
- Sales outcomes: Deals closed, revenue won, pipeline value. These matter.
- Sales activity: Number of calls, meetings, proposals sent. Useful, but don’t obsess—activity doesn’t always mean progress.
- Conversion rates: How many leads move to each stage? Where are you losing people?
- Sales velocity: How fast do deals close? Stalled deals are energy drains.
Ignore: Vanity stats like “number of dashboard logins” or “quotes generated” unless they directly tie to sales results.
Pro tip: Ask yourself, “If this number goes up, do we actually make more money?” If not, skip it.
2. Set Up Your Apparound Dashboard for Clarity
Apparound gives you lots of widgets and filters. More isn’t better—aim for a dashboard that anyone on your team could glance at and instantly get the story.
Start with a Clean Slate
- Hide or remove default widgets you don’t use.
- Group metrics by outcome (closed deals, revenue), then activity (calls, meetings), then everything else.
Build Your Core Dashboard
Focus on these must-haves: - Current pipeline value - Deals closed this month/quarter - Win rate - Average deal size - Sales cycle length - Top performers
Arrange them in a logical order. Put the most important metrics at the top—don’t bury the lead.
Add Filters, Not Noise
- Use filters for date ranges, individual reps, teams, and product lines.
- Avoid slicing the data into too many micro-categories. If nobody acts on “Deals closed in the Northwest region for Widget B in June,” skip it.
Make It Visual, But Not Distracting
- Use simple bar charts or tables. Pie charts and “gauges” look cool but usually don’t help you make decisions.
3. Track Leading vs. Lagging Indicators
Most sales dashboards focus on lagging indicators—things that already happened, like total revenue. Those are important, but by the time you spot a problem, it’s too late.
Leading indicators (like number of quality meetings scheduled, or early-stage pipeline growth) tell you if you’re on track to hit your goals.
How to Balance the Two
- Lagging: Closed deals, quota attainment, revenue.
- Leading: New opportunities created, meetings booked, proposals sent, pipeline coverage.
Good practice: Set up side-by-side widgets for both. If leading indicators are dropping, you’ll know early and can coach your team before the quarter’s lost.
4. Don’t Just Track—Set Targets and Benchmarks
A dashboard with no context is just a bunch of numbers. Targets make your metrics meaningful.
- Set realistic targets for each metric (pipeline, win rate, etc.), based on past data—not wishful thinking.
- Use benchmarks to compare reps, teams, or time periods. But don’t turn it into a leaderboard that just demotivates half your team.
Pro tip: Review targets every quarter. Adjust for seasonality or major business changes.
5. Use Apparound’s Customization Features (But Don’t Go Overboard)
Apparound lets you customize dashboards, reports, and notifications. This is powerful—if you use it thoughtfully.
What’s Worth Customizing
- Custom fields: Track what matters to your business (e.g., industry, deal source).
- Automated alerts: Set alerts for stalled deals or when a rep’s pipeline drops below a threshold.
- Saved views: Make different dashboards for managers and reps. Reps need to see their pipeline; managers need the team view.
What to Avoid
- Endless custom reports: If you’re the only one who looks at a report, or it takes an hour to build, it’s probably not worth it.
- Over-notifying: Ping people for things they can act on. Ignore the rest.
6. Make It Part of the Sales Rhythm, Not a Sideshow
A dashboard doesn’t help if it’s ignored until the end of the month. Make checking the dashboard a habit:
- Review key metrics in weekly team meetings.
- Use dashboard data in 1-on-1 coaching sessions.
- Encourage reps to check their own numbers—and act on them.
Tip: Don’t use the dashboard as a “gotcha” tool. It’s there to help everyone improve, not catch people out.
7. Dig Into the Data—But Don’t Get Lost in It
Dashboards are for spotting trends, not for doing forensic analysis. If you see something weird (like a sudden drop in pipeline), use the dashboard to flag it, then go deeper if needed.
- Drill into outliers or big changes. One slow week isn’t a crisis; a trend over a month might be.
- Ask reps for context before jumping to conclusions. Numbers rarely tell the whole story.
What to skip: Spending hours explaining every blip. Focus on patterns, not anomalies.
8. Keep It Updated and Clean
An out-of-date dashboard is worse than useless—it’s misleading.
- Make sure your data is synced (Apparound integrates with several CRMs, but check your connections).
- Regularly clean up old or dead opportunities.
- Audit your dashboard setup every quarter. Are you tracking what you still care about?
9. Watch Out for Common Pitfalls
Here’s what trips up most sales teams:
- Tracking too much: More data isn’t better. It just creates noise.
- Chasing “perfect” data: Good enough is fine. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of useful.
- Ignoring qualitative feedback: Not everything can be measured. Pair dashboard data with what you hear from the team.
10. Iterate—Don’t “Set and Forget”
Your sales process will change. So should your dashboard.
- Every few months, ask: “Is this helping us hit our goals?” If not, tweak it.
- Remove metrics that nobody uses. Add new ones if your business shifts.
- Get feedback from the team—if they never look at the dashboard, find out why.
Wrapping Up
Tracking sales team performance with Apparound can be powerful—if you keep it simple, focus on the numbers that matter, and actually use it day-to-day. Don’t fall for dashboard overload or shiny features you don’t need. Start small, get the basics right, and tweak as you go. That’s how you turn a dashboard into a real advantage for your team.