If you’re in sales or sales ops, you already know: tracking deals is a mess. Spreadsheets get stale. CRM dashboards are either too simple or total overkill. If you want to actually understand your deal progress—and not just fill out another report—this guide is for you. We’ll walk through how to use the reporting features in Buyerassist to cut through the noise, spot risks early, and actually help your team close more, faster.
1. Set up your reporting basics
Before you start slicing and dicing, make sure Buyerassist is set up to track what actually matters for your deals.
- Define your sales stages. Don’t just copy your CRM. Use stages that match the real steps your buyers take, not your internal process. If your “Proposal Sent” stage is just a checkbox, skip it.
- Standardize deal fields. Make sure every deal has the essentials: owner, stage, expected close date, value, and key contacts. Otherwise, your reports will be riddled with “N/A”—and you’ll be flying blind.
- Clean up old deals. Garbage in, garbage out. Archive or close anything that’s stale, or you’ll be analyzing dead weight.
Pro tip: If you’re inheriting a messy Buyerassist setup, take an hour to audit your deal fields and stages. You’ll save days of headaches later.
2. Get familiar with Buyerassist’s core reporting features
Buyerassist gives you a handful of reporting tools. Here’s the honest rundown:
- Deal Pipeline View: Shows all deals by stage, value, and owner. It’s good for spotting logjams, but don’t get obsessed with pretty pipeline charts.
- Stage Duration Reports: Tells you how long deals sit in each stage. This is where you’ll spot deals that are stuck or at risk.
- Activity Tracking: See emails, meetings, and tasks linked to each deal. Useful for seeing who’s actually working their deals—if your team logs activity reliably.
- Custom Filters & Export: Slice by rep, region, product, etc. If you need something Buyerassist won’t show, export to Excel and build it yourself.
What works: Stage duration and custom filters are genuinely useful.
What doesn’t: Deal “health scores” (if you have them) are usually just a buzzword. They’re often black boxes—ignore them unless you know exactly how they’re calculated.
3. Analyze your pipeline (without getting lost in the weeds)
Let’s get practical. Here’s how to really use Buyerassist reports to analyze your deal progress.
3.1. Start with the big picture
- Open the Deal Pipeline View.
- Look for bottlenecks. Are a ton of deals bunched up in one stage?
- Sort by expected close date. Anything overdue by weeks? Mark it as at-risk or close it out.
Don’t: Get hypnotized by pipeline value totals. They’re usually inflated by wishful thinking.
3.2. Dig into stage duration
- Run a Stage Duration Report.
- Spot deals that have been stuck longer than your average sales cycle. (If your average is 30 days and some deals are at 90, dig in.)
- Ask: Are these big deals that need more time, or are they just stale?
Pro tip: Set up alerts for deals that linger in one stage for too long. If Buyerassist doesn’t do this natively, set a weekly calendar reminder to check manually.
3.3. Track recent activity
- Check the Activity Tracking for each deal.
- No recent emails or meetings? That’s a red flag—reach out or move the deal to “stalled.”
- High activity but no stage movement? Something’s off. Maybe you’re chasing the wrong contact, or the deal isn’t real.
What to ignore: Vanity metrics like “total activities logged.” Quality (the right activities with decision-makers) beats quantity.
3.4. Use filters to zero in on what matters
- Filter pipeline by:
- Rep: Who’s lagging? Who’s on fire?
- Region/Product: Are certain segments slower? Why?
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Deal size: Are big deals getting stuck?
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Export filtered lists if you want to build your own charts or share with leadership.
Pro tip: Don’t build reports just because someone asks for them. Start with a real question (“Why did Q2 slow down?”) and work backwards.
4. Spotting risk and forecasting realistically
You want to know which deals will close, which are at risk, and what’s pure fantasy.
4.1. Warning signs of at-risk deals
- Long stage duration: If a deal’s been in “Negotiation” for 60 days, it’s probably dead.
- No recent activity: If nobody’s talked to the buyer in weeks, it’s not a deal.
- Repeated pushbacks: If expected close keeps moving, call it out.
4.2. Build a simple risk report
- Filter for deals:
- Over X days in current stage
- No activity in 14+ days
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Close date pushed more than twice
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Tag these as “At Risk.” Don’t sugarcoat it. It’s better to face reality than get blindsided at month-end.
4.3. Forecasting: Don’t trust the system blindly
- Buyerassist’s forecast is only as good as your inputs. If reps sandbag or roll deals endlessly, the forecast is useless.
- Gut-check big deals. Look at activity, stage duration, and buyer engagement.
- Use your own judgment—not just the numbers.
What works: Combining reports with rep 1:1s. The numbers tell you where to dig; the conversation tells you what’s really going on.
5. Share insights, not just data
Nobody cares about a 10-page report. Make your analysis actionable.
- Highlight stuck deals and why.
- Call out which stages are bottlenecks.
- Suggest next steps: Close deals that are dead, focus on those with real activity, coach reps on moving deals forward.
Pro tip: If your report or dashboard isn’t changing behavior, it’s not worth your time.
6. Common mistakes to avoid
- Overcomplicating your reports. Fancy dashboards look good, but if nobody uses them, they’re a waste.
- Trusting “deal health” scores blindly. Unless you know exactly what’s behind the score, ignore it.
- Reporting for reporting’s sake. Always tie reports back to real decisions: Where are we stuck? What should we do next?
- Ignoring old/stale data. Regularly clean out old deals, or your insights will be skewed.
7. Keep it simple—and iterate
The best sales reporting isn’t about pretty charts or AI-powered predictions. It’s about getting a clear, honest view of your deals so you can take action. Start with Buyerassist’s core features, keep your reports focused, and don’t be afraid to tweak your process as you learn what actually helps your team move the needle.
Cut the noise. Focus on what’s stuck, what’s at risk, and what you can do about it. Analyze, act, repeat. That’s how real sales teams win.