So you want to figure out what’s actually happening with your sales team—beyond end-of-month dashboards and wishful thinking. You’re not here for motivational posters; you want to see who’s closing, what’s working, and where things are getting stuck. This guide is for sales managers, ops folks, or anyone who wants to use Salesscreen’s advanced reporting without wasting hours (or kidding themselves).
Here’s how to cut through the noise and use the platform’s tools to get real insight—and sidestep the usual traps.
1. Set Up Your Data for Honest Reporting
Before you even open a report, make sure your data’s not garbage. Salesscreen (details here) is only as good as what you put in. If people aren’t logging activities consistently, your trends will be fiction.
Checklist:
- Align your data sources: Double-check that your CRM and Salesscreen are syncing properly. If you’re importing from spreadsheets, watch for errors and duplicates.
- Standardize activity types: Make sure everyone’s logging the same things the same way—calls, emails, demos, deals. If “demo” means something different to each rep, your numbers will never add up.
- Set expectations: Tell your team why accurate, timely data matters. If they see how reporting helps them (not just you), they’re more likely to buy in.
Pro tip: Garbage in, garbage out. Always start by cleaning up what goes in.
2. Understand the Key Reporting Features
Salesscreen has a lot of bells and whistles, but not all of them are worth your time. Focus on the ones that actually help you spot trends and make decisions.
Features to focus on: - Custom Dashboards: Build views for what you actually care about—don’t just use the defaults. - Advanced Filters: Slice data by time period, rep, team, product, or activity. The more specific, the better. - Trend Lines & Comparisons: Look at numbers over weeks, months, or quarters—not just totals. - Goal Tracking: See how close you are to targets, and who’s above/below pace. - Drill-Downs: Click into charts to see what’s driving the numbers.
What to skip:
Don’t get lost in gamification widgets, leaderboards, or confetti animations if your goal is honest analysis. They’re fun, but they won’t tell you why you’re missing quota.
3. Build Custom Dashboards That Cut to the Chase
Don’t settle for the default “everyone’s a winner” dashboard. Custom dashboards let you focus on the metrics that matter to your team.
How to set one up: 1. Choose your KPIs: Pick 3–5 things that matter most (e.g., new deals, revenue, meetings booked, pipeline coverage, win rate). 2. Decide the view: Do you want to see by individual, team, region, or product? Pick what matches how you coach and manage. 3. Add widgets and filters: Use Salesscreen’s drag-and-drop widgets to build your board. Filter by date ranges, lead sources, or deal stages. 4. Save and share: Make sure your dashboard is visible to the right people—managers, reps, or execs.
What works:
- Less is more. A cluttered dashboard is worse than none.
- Update your dashboard as your priorities change. Don’t let it get stale.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t include “vanity metrics” just to make the numbers look good. If it doesn’t help you make a decision, ditch it.
4. Spot Trends, Not Just Spikes
A flashy week doesn’t mean much. You want to know if your team is improving, stagnating, or slipping—consistently.
How to actually spot a trend: - Use time-based views: Look at week-over-week, month-over-month, or quarter-over-quarter changes. - Compare against targets: Are you on pace, or are you always playing catch-up at the end of the month? - Watch for seasonality: Is that dip in August normal, or a sign of trouble? Compare to last year, not just last week. - Drill down to causes: If you see a spike or drop, click in to see which activities or reps are driving it.
What to ignore:
- One-off big deals that skew the numbers.
- Short-term “contest” bumps that don’t last.
Pro tip: Trends matter more than snapshots. Don’t get fooled by a single great (or terrible) day.
5. Use Advanced Filters to Answer Real Questions
Pre-built reports are fine for basic stuff, but advanced filters are where you actually get answers.
Questions you can answer with filters: - Which reps are consistently hitting their targets, and which are just having occasional lucky months? - Are certain products or territories underperforming? - Does activity (calls, demos) actually correlate with closed deals, or are people just staying busy?
How to do it: - Filter by rep: See individual performance over time, not just totals. - Filter by product or region: Spot weak spots or hidden strengths. - Filter by deal type or size: Are you closing lots of small deals, but missing big ones?
What works:
- Use filters to dig into anomalies—don’t just look at the surface.
- Combine filters (e.g., “Deals closed by new reps in Q2”) for deeper insight.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t trust a single filtered view as gospel. Always look for context and double-check with other data sources if something looks off.
6. Set Up Alerts and Scheduled Reports to Save Time
You don’t want to spend every morning pulling the same numbers. Salesscreen lets you automate a lot of the grunt work.
How to use automation wisely: - Schedule reports: Set up daily, weekly, or monthly email reports for yourself and your team. Focus on actionable metrics. - Set up alerts: Get notified if someone’s falling behind, or if you hit a milestone. But don’t overdo it—alert fatigue is real.
What works:
- Use scheduled reports as a “morning briefing” so you can spot issues before they become problems.
- Only set alerts for things that actually require action.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t set up a dozen notifications for every tiny movement. You’ll start ignoring them all.
7. Avoid Common Pitfalls
Let’s be honest: most reporting fails because people make the same mistakes over and over.
Watch out for: - Cherry-picking data: Don’t just highlight the numbers that look good. If something’s ugly, dig into why. - Analysis paralysis: Don’t spend hours slicing and dicing every metric—focus on what moves the needle. - Overcomplicating things: The more buttons and filters you use, the easier it is to lose the plot. Keep it simple.
Pro tip: If you can’t explain your trend in one sentence, you probably don’t really understand it.
8. Turn Reporting Into Action
All the graphs in the world won’t help if you don’t actually do something with what you see.
How to make reporting useful: - Share findings with your team—transparency builds trust. - Use trends to coach reps, not just score them. - Adjust goals and tactics based on what the data actually says, not what you wish it said.
What works:
- Use numbers as a starting point for conversations, not as the end of the story.
- Celebrate real improvements, not just hitting targets by moving the goalposts.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, and Trust Your Eyes
Don’t get dazzled by fancy charts or buried in data for data’s sake. The real value in Salesscreen’s advanced reporting is helping you spot real trends, fix problems early, and make decisions that matter. Start simple, make changes based on what you see, and remember—no tool can replace your own common sense.
The best sales leaders use reporting as a flashlight, not a crystal ball. Keep it honest, keep it actionable, and don’t be afraid to adjust as you go.