If you’re in sales or revenue ops and have a pipeline to watch, you know the drill: managers want numbers, reps want clarity, and everyone wants the truth (or at least, fewer surprises). This guide is for anyone who wants to stop guessing and start using actual data to track what’s happening in their sales pipeline—without getting lost in a sea of charts or falling for vanity metrics. We’ll walk through how to use Profound analytics dashboards to get answers you can act on.
Why bother with dashboards in the first place?
Let’s be real: dashboards can be a mess. Too many companies treat them like a digital trophy case—lots of shiny graphs, little real insight. But if you set them up right, dashboards will cut through the noise and show you what’s working, what’s stalling, and where to push.
The trick is knowing what to look for, what to ignore, and how to set things up so you’re not babysitting spreadsheets all day.
Step 1: Get your data house in order
Before you even open Profound, make sure your CRM and sales tools aren’t a dumpster fire. Dashboards are only as good as the data behind them. Garbage in, garbage out.
Checklist: - Make sure every deal has a clear stage and owner. - Standardize close dates (no “TBD” or “Q4 maybe”). - Clean up duplicate records and zombie deals. - Define what counts as a real opportunity, not just a name in a list.
Pro tip: If you don’t trust your CRM data, fix that first. Otherwise, you’ll spend all your time explaining weird numbers to your boss.
Step 2: Connect Profound to your data sources
Profound can pull from popular CRMs and spreadsheets. The setup isn’t rocket science, but don’t just click “connect” and hope for the best.
How to do it: 1. Log in to Profound. 2. Go to “Data Sources.” 3. Connect your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, whatever you use). 4. Map the fields—make sure deal stages, values, owners, and dates line up with Profound’s expectations. 5. Test with a few recent deals to see if things look right.
What to ignore: Don’t bother importing every custom field or dusty report from three years ago. Stick with the basics—deal name, stage, value, owner, created/close dates.
Step 3: Pick the right dashboards (and skip the fluff)
Profound comes with a bunch of dashboard templates. Some are useful. Some are just there to look impressive in a board meeting.
Dashboards that actually help: - Pipeline Overview: Shows deals by stage, value, and expected close date. - Stage Conversion Rates: Tracks how well deals move from one stage to the next. - Velocity: Measures how fast deals move through the pipeline (spoiler: it’s almost always slower than you think). - Deal Slippage: Flags deals that keep pushing their close dates. - Win/Loss Analysis: Helps you figure out why deals close—or don’t.
Dashboards to ignore (at least at first): - Anything focused on “engagement” scores unless you know exactly what drives those numbers. - Overly granular activity tracking (e.g., calls per rep per day). It’s easy to track, but rarely tells you anything useful about pipeline health. - Charts with more colors than a bag of Skittles.
Step 4: Customize your views for actual pipeline performance
The default dashboards are a starting point, not the finish line. Tweak them so they answer your team’s real questions.
How to customize: - Filter by team, region, or product line—see where things are working (or not). - Set up alerts for deals stuck in a stage too long or with repeated close date changes. - Highlight high-value deals so you don’t get distracted by busywork. - Hide stages you don’t use—if “Legal Review” is just dead air, drop it.
What actually works: - Keep your “core” dashboard to 5–7 tiles max. If you need a map to find what matters, you’ve got too much going on. - Use conditional formatting (red/yellow/green) sparingly—just enough to catch your eye, not enough to stress you out.
Step 5: Track the metrics that move the needle
Here’s where most people get tripped up. There’s a difference between what’s measurable and what’s useful. Focus on these:
Metrics that matter:
- Total pipeline value: Obvious, but you’d be surprised how often this is inflated by zombie deals.
- Stage-to-stage conversion: Shows you where deals stall or die. If your demo-to-proposal rate tanks, fix that before blaming the close rate.
- Average sales cycle: How long it really takes to close a deal, not just the fairy tale in your sales playbook.
- Deal slippage rate: Percentage of deals that push their close date at least once.
- Win rate: Out of all qualified opps, how many actually close?
Metrics to ignore (for now):
- Activity counts per rep: Unless you’re running a call center, who cares if someone made 32 calls yesterday?
- “Sentiment score” based on email opens or LinkedIn likes. Fun for marketing, mostly noise for sales.
- Lead volume: If you’re tracking pipeline, care about qualified opportunities, not raw leads.
Step 6: Spot trends and dig deeper (without overthinking it)
Once you’ve got the basics in place, pay attention to changes over time—not just snapshots.
Look for: - Stage bottlenecks: Is everything stalling at “Negotiation” this quarter? - Consistent slippage: Are close dates always magically aligning with quarter-end? - Rep performance: Who’s actually moving deals, and who’s just moving data? - Source analysis: Which channels or industries give you the fattest, fastest-closing deals?
What not to do: Don’t obsess over every dip or spike. Sales is lumpy. Look for patterns, not one-off flukes.
Pro tip: Set a recurring reminder (weekly or biweekly) to check your dashboards. You want data to inform your gut, not replace it.
Step 7: Share insights, not just screenshots
Dashboards are only helpful if people actually use what they show. Don’t just forward a weekly PDF and call it a day.
How to make it stick: - Review the dashboard live with your team—talk about the “so what,” not just the numbers. - Use annotations or comments in Profound to flag weird data or call out wins. - Challenge assumptions—if a metric looks off, dig in. Sometimes it’s a data issue, sometimes it’s a process problem.
Don’t: - Weaponize the dashboard to shame reps. The goal is to improve, not play gotcha. - Let dashboards replace actual conversations. Data helps, but context matters.
Step 8: Iterate—don’t set and forget
Your pipeline, your team, and your market will all change. So should your dashboards.
How to keep improving: - Once a quarter, ask: “Are these dashboards still telling us what we need?” If not, tweak or ditch them. - If you add a new product line or market, update your filters and views. - If a metric becomes noise, cut it. Don’t keep reporting on something just because “we’ve always tracked this.”
Pro tip: Simpler dashboards get used. Complex ones get ignored (or worse, misinterpreted).
Wrapping up: Keep it simple, keep it honest
Good dashboards won’t magically fix your pipeline, but they’ll keep you honest about what’s working and what’s not. Start with the basics, focus on metrics that matter, and don’t get distracted by shiny charts or “insights” nobody understands. The best dashboard is the one you’ll actually use—and change as you learn.
So, set things up, check them regularly, and adjust as you go. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of “good enough to catch problems early.”