If you’re reading this, you probably care about understanding why your deals close—and not just celebrating the win. Maybe you’re running sales ops, managing a team, or you’re a founder who wants to actually know what’s working. This guide is for anyone who wants to cut through vanity metrics and use Mote’s reporting features to really analyze closed won deals.
We’ll skip the fluff, show you what matters, and point out a few potholes to avoid along the way.
1. Get to Know What Mote Can Actually Do
First things first: Mote is a sales reporting platform that promises to make your closed won analysis easier. That’s the pitch. In reality, Mote gives you a mix of standard dashboards, customizable reports, and some (sometimes useful) visualizations.
What it does well: - Pulls together your CRM deal data quickly. - Lets you filter down to “Closed Won” without fiddling with a million settings. - Offers export options—handy if you like to slice data in Excel or Google Sheets.
What to ignore: - Overly flashy graphs with little substance. - “AI-powered insights” that just restate the obvious. - Pre-baked templates that might not fit your sales process.
Pro Tip: Spend ten minutes clicking around before you try to build a report. The interface is simple, but not always labeled clearly.
2. Step-by-Step: Analyzing Closed Won Deals in Mote
Here’s how to actually use Mote’s reporting features to analyze your closed won deals, with a focus on getting real answers—not just pretty charts.
Step 1: Set Up Your Data Filters
- Go to your main Mote dashboard.
- Find the “Deals” or “Opportunities” section.
- Filter for Stage = Closed Won.
- Double-check that you’re pulling from the right date range (last quarter, YTD, etc.).
- Make sure the filter isn’t including “Closed Lost”—Mote sometimes lumps “Closed” stages together by default.
Honest Take: Filtering is the most important step. Get this wrong, and your whole analysis is garbage. Don’t trust the defaults—always check what’s included.
Step 2: Choose the Right Metrics
Mote offers a ton of metrics, but not all of them matter. Here’s what’s actually useful:
- Deal Size (Amount): What’s your average and median closed won value?
- Sales Cycle Length: How long does it actually take to move deals from open to closed won?
- Source/Channel: Where did these deals come from? (Referrals, outbound, inbound, etc.)
- Product/Service Type: Are certain products or packages closing more often?
- Owner/Rep: Who’s consistently winning, and who might need help?
What to skip: “Engagement scores” and other vague metrics. If you can’t explain what a number means in plain English, it’s probably not helpful.
Step 3: Build Custom Reports (Don’t Rely on Templates)
- Click “Create Report” or similar.
- Pick a couple of key fields: e.g., Stage, Amount, Source, Owner, Closed Date.
- Use groupings—like deals grouped by month or by rep—to spot trends.
- Add filters for things like deal size (“Show me only deals over $50k”) or product line.
Pro Tip: Start simple. A table of deals, grouped by owner, with deal size and close date, usually tells you more than a busy dashboard.
Step 4: Visualization—Use Sparingly
Mote loves charts. A pie chart here, a bar graph there. But don’t get distracted.
- Bar charts: Good for showing deals by rep or by month.
- Line graphs: Fine for spotting trends over time.
- Pie charts: Only use if you have a few categories (e.g., product type). Otherwise, it’s just noise.
What to ignore: Rainbow-colored dashboards with 8+ widgets. You’ll just end up squinting at them and not learning much.
Step 5: Export Data for Deeper Analysis (If You Need It)
Sometimes you need to go beyond what Mote can show you.
- Use the export to CSV or Excel feature.
- Pull the data into your own tool for pivot tables, formulas, or custom charts.
- This is especially useful for slicing data in ways Mote doesn’t offer (like combining custom fields or running regression analysis).
Honest Take: Mote’s exports are usually clean, but double-check for weird field names or missing columns. It happens.
Step 6: Look for Patterns, Not Just Numbers
Now you’re looking at real data. Here’s what to keep an eye out for:
- Shorter sales cycles: Are deals closing faster with certain products or reps?
- High-value deals: Do bigger deals come from certain sources or regions?
- Consistent winners: Is one rep closing most of your wins? Why?
- Seasonality: Do closed won deals spike at certain times of year?
- Deal slippage: Are some deals marked “closed won” months after they actually wrapped up? (Common CRM cleanup issue.)
Pro Tip: Ask “why?” every time you spot a pattern. The numbers are just the start of the story.
3. What Actually Matters (and What Doesn’t)
Let’s get real. Not every report or metric is worth your time.
Focus on: - Trends over time, not one-off wins. - Patterns by source, product, or rep. - Outliers (huge deals, super-fast closes, sudden dry spells).
Skip: - Vanity metrics (“We closed 35% more deals this month!”—without context, this is useless). - “Engagement” or “AI insight” popups that tell you nothing new. - Reports that nobody reads or acts on.
4. Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Confusing “Closed” with “Closed Won”: Always use the right stage. “Closed Lost” sneaking into your data will skew everything.
- Relying only on averages: Medians are more honest. A couple of massive deals will make your “average deal size” look inflated.
- Ignoring data hygiene: Garbage in, garbage out. If your CRM data is messy, your Mote reports will be too.
- Over-customizing: It’s tempting to build the “perfect” dashboard. Don’t. Start with one or two useful reports and add as you go.
5. Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Analyzing closed won deals in Mote isn’t rocket science, but it does require a clear head and a skeptical eye. Focus on the basics: filter carefully, pick meaningful metrics, and look for real patterns. Don’t get dazzled by charts or “insights” that don’t actually help you sell more or understand your process.
Start small. Use what you learn to tweak your sales process. If a report’s not useful, kill it. If something looks off, dig deeper. The goal isn’t to create the fanciest dashboard—it’s to actually know what’s working so you can do more of it.
And remember: your best reporting tool is still your own judgment. Mote just helps you get there faster—if you use it well.