If you manage sales, run a team, or just want to know if your outreach is actually working, you need more than gut feelings. You need real data—but not endless dashboards that nobody looks at. This guide is for people who use Close and want to actually track and analyze their sales activities, without spinning their wheels or burning hours on reports that don’t move the needle.
Let’s cut through the noise and get straight to what matters: seeing what your team does, spotting what works, and fixing what doesn’t.
1. Understand What "Sales Activities" Really Mean in Close
Before you run a single report, get clear on what counts as a “sales activity” in Close:
- Calls: Outbound, inbound, missed—every dial gets logged.
- Emails: Sent, received, opened, replied to.
- SMS: Text messages, if you use them.
- Tasks/Reminders: Anything your team schedules to follow up.
- Meetings: If you sync calendars, these can show up too.
- Notes & Updates: Manual entries on leads or opportunities.
You don’t need to track every possible activity. Focus on the ones that actually move deals forward. For most teams, that’s calls, emails, and meaningful follow-ups.
Pro Tip: Ignore vanity metrics like “number of notes added” unless you’ve got a good reason. It’s easy to track everything, but that just means more noise.
2. Get Your Data Clean Before You Start
No reporting tool can fix bad input. Garbage in, garbage out.
- Standardize activity logging: Make sure everyone’s actually using Close the same way. If half your team logs calls manually and the other half lets Close auto-log them, your numbers won’t mean much.
- Check integrations: If you pull in data from other tools (like email or calendar), make sure it’s working. Broken syncs = broken reports.
- Set up pipelines & stages: If you haven’t already, define your sales stages clearly. Reporting gets messy if “Prospect” means something different to each rep.
What to skip: Don’t waste time building custom fields or tagging systems you’ll never use. Start simple. You can always add complexity later.
3. Dive Into Close’s Built-In Reporting Tools
Forget exporting to Excel unless you have to. Close’s native reports are good enough for most sales teams if you know where to look.
Activity Overview
- What it shows: Calls, emails, SMS, tasks, meetings—broken down by user or team.
- Why it matters: Great for seeing who’s actually working the phones (or inbox).
- How to use it: Filter by date, user, or team. Look for outliers—who’s crushing activity, and who’s lagging?
Leaderboard
- What it shows: Stack-ranks reps by activity type or deals won.
- Why it matters: Good for friendly competition, but don’t shame low performers based on activity alone.
- How to use it: Use as a motivator, not a bludgeon. Focus on improvement.
Pipeline & Opportunity Reporting
- What it shows: Deals by stage, value, win/loss rates, time in stage.
- Why it matters: Tells you if your team’s activity is actually leading to closed deals, or just busywork.
- How to use it: Compare activity data to pipeline movement. Lots of calls but zero new deals? Time to dig deeper.
Custom Activity Reports
- What it shows: Filter and segment by almost anything—activity type, date ranges, user, custom fields.
- Why it matters: This is where you answer specific questions, like “Which activities actually lead to demos booked?”
- How to use it: Start simple. Build more advanced filters once you know what you’re looking for.
Pro Tip: Most teams overcomplicate this. Pick 2–3 metrics that matter for now. Add more only when you have a real business reason.
4. Set Up Dashboards That Don’t Suck
Close lets you build dashboards, but they’re only useful if people actually look at them and act on what they see.
- Keep it simple: One page, 3–5 widgets max. Too much info = nobody uses it.
- Make it visible: Set dashboards as homepages or share them in team meetings.
- Tie to real goals: Don’t just show “calls made”—show “calls that led to next steps.”
- Review regularly: Update dashboards if your process changes or if people start to tune them out.
What to ignore: Don’t build dashboards just because you can. If nobody asks for a number, you probably don’t need it front and center.
5. Actually Analyze the Data (Don’t Just Look at It)
Running reports is useless unless you ask real questions about the numbers:
- Are high-activity reps closing more deals, or just burning dials?
- Which activities actually move deals from stage to stage?
- Are there bottlenecks? (E.g., lots of calls but no follow-up emails.)
- Do certain reps excel at specific stages or activities?
Look for patterns, not just averages. Outliers are usually more interesting than the middle of the pack.
Pro Tip: Set aside 30 minutes every couple of weeks to review activity vs. outcomes. Don’t wait for end-of-quarter postmortems.
6. Use Filters and Segmentation to Find Real Insights
Close’s filters are powerful—if a bit overwhelming at first.
- By rep or team: See who’s doing what, and where coaching is needed.
- By activity type: Are emails outperforming calls? Are SMS replies actually leading to demos?
- By lead source or segment: Does activity look different for inbound vs. outbound leads?
- By deal stage: Where do activities drop off? Are deals stalling at a certain point?
Don’t get lost in the weeds. Start with broad filters, then drill down only if you spot something weird.
7. Turn Insights Into Action
Data’s only useful if you change something. Common fixes:
- Coaching: If you spot a rep who makes lots of calls but never books meetings, listen to their calls and give feedback.
- Process changes: Too many activities at the wrong stage? Change your playbook.
- Resource allocation: If certain activities (like personalized emails) convert better, spend more time there.
Don’t wait for perfection. Make one change, see what happens, and repeat.
8. Avoid Common Pitfalls
Let’s be honest: most sales reporting efforts fail because people try to do too much, too soon.
- Don’t track everything: Focus on activities that lead to revenue.
- Don’t micromanage: Trust your team—reports are for coaching, not surveillance.
- Don’t obsess over daily numbers: Look for trends over weeks or months.
- Don’t automate yourself into a corner: Manual review has value, especially when you’re starting out.
Pro Tip: If a report never changes what you do, stop running it.
9. When to Go Beyond Close’s Native Reporting
Close covers 80% of what most teams need, but there are some cases where you should look elsewhere:
- Advanced analytics: If you want forecasting, cohort analysis, or machine learning, you’ll need to export data to a BI tool like Looker or Tableau.
- Custom integrations: If you need to blend sales data with marketing or product data, Close’s API is solid. Just know you’ll need some technical muscle.
- Compliance or audit trails: Native reports are fine for day-to-day, but formal audits may need more detailed exports.
Don’t bolt on a bunch of tools unless you have a clear pain point.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple. Iterate.
Sales reporting is supposed to help you make better decisions—not drown you in spreadsheets. Start with what matters, ignore the fluff, and review regularly. As your team grows or your process changes, tweak your reports. No system is perfect, and that’s fine.
Pick one or two metrics that actually help you sell better. Trust your eyes, not just the numbers. And whatever you do, don’t waste your time building dashboards nobody reads. Iterate, improve, and keep moving forward.