If you’re responsible for B2B sales and want to know what’s actually working—not just what your CRM dashboard says is working—analytics matter. But with all the noise out there, it’s easy to get lost in vanity metrics and “insights” that don’t help you close deals. This guide is for anyone who wants to use Reachout analytics to genuinely track and improve B2B sales performance, without wasting time on fluff.
Let’s get practical. Here’s how to use Reachout to figure out what’s moving the needle, what isn’t, and how to avoid common traps.
1. Get Clear on What You’re Tracking (and Why)
Before you even open up Reachout, get specific about the sales goals you actually care about. Not all metrics are created equal. Here’s what’s usually worth tracking in a B2B context:
- Lead generation: Are you getting enough qualified leads in the door?
- Pipeline velocity: How fast are deals moving from one stage to the next?
- Conversion rates: Are your calls, emails, or demos actually resulting in opportunities and closed deals?
- Sales cycle length: How long does it really take to close a deal?
- Rep performance: Who’s consistently delivering, and who’s stuck?
Skip: Open rates, click rates, and activity logs unless you already know they correlate with outcomes. Don’t fall for the “but look at our engagement!” trap.
Pro tip: If your KPIs are “number of calls” or “emails sent,” you’re probably measuring effort, not results. Focus on what leads to revenue.
2. Set Up Your Reachout Account for Reliable Data
Garbage in, garbage out. If your data is a mess, your analytics will be worse. Here’s how to make sure you’re getting clean, useful numbers out of Reachout:
- Integrate your CRM: Connect Reachout to your main CRM (like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive). This reduces manual entry and helps keep your sales funnel data consistent.
- Standardize stages: Make sure your deal stages in Reachout match those in your CRM. Rename or merge stages as needed. If half your team uses “Demo Scheduled” and the other half uses “Product Walkthrough,” you’ll never get clear analytics.
- Define lead sources: Tag or categorize your leads by source (e.g., inbound, outbound, referral) so you can see what’s actually paying off.
- Clean up old data: Archive or close dead deals, duplicate contacts, and anything else clogging up your pipeline. Old, rotting data throws off your averages.
What doesn’t matter: Don’t obsess over tracking every micro-interaction. Focus on the data that ties back to actual deals.
3. Use Reachout Dashboards to See the Big Picture
The Reachout dashboard is your command center, but only if you set it up right. Here’s how to get the most out of it:
Main Dashboards Worth Your Time
- Pipeline Overview: Shows deal volume and value by stage. Useful for spotting bottlenecks.
- Activity to Outcome Tracking: Maps team activity (calls, emails, meetings) against conversions and closed deals. Helps you see if effort is translating to results.
- Rep Performance: Breaks down results by individual rep—handy for one-on-ones and coaching.
- Lead Source Performance: Tells you where your best opportunities are coming from.
Ignore the Noise
- Email open rates: Not a good proxy for interest in B2B. Spam filters and auto-opens make this unreliable.
- “Engagement scores”: Unless you know exactly how it’s calculated, take this with a grain of salt.
- Leaderboard gamification: It’s tempting to focus on who made the most calls. But unless those calls lead to revenue, who cares?
4. Dig Into Conversion Rates and Sales Cycle Length
If your pipeline seems healthy but deals aren’t closing, your conversion rates or sales cycle might be the problem.
How to do this in Reachout
- Look at conversion by stage: Use Reachout’s funnel analytics to see where leads drop off. Are you losing people after the demo? At proposal? That’s where to dig deeper.
- Analyze sales cycle length: Check the average number of days deals spend in each stage. If deals are dying in “Legal/Procurement,” maybe it’s time to simplify your contracts.
- Segment by deal size: Big deals usually take longer, but if your small deals are dragging, something’s off.
Pro tip: Don’t just look at averages. One massive outlier can skew everything. Look at medians or filter out deals that went way off the rails.
5. Track Rep Performance—Without Turning It Into a Blame Game
Reachout lets you break down analytics by individual rep. This is useful, but don’t let it devolve into “who made the most calls” contests.
- Focus on outcomes: Who’s closing deals, and at what average value?
- Identify coaching opportunities: If someone’s losing deals at a particular stage, dig in. Is it a skills gap, or are they getting the worst leads?
- Spot best practices: If someone’s consistently moving deals forward, figure out what they’re doing differently and share it.
Avoid: Shaming reps for “low activity.” Activity doesn’t always = results, especially in B2B.
6. Use Custom Reports to Answer Real Business Questions
The default dashboards are fine, but the real power is in custom reports. Here’s how to get answers to the questions you actually care about:
- Which lead sources close fastest? Build a report that compares sales cycle length by source.
- What’s our true win rate by industry or company size? Filter your data to see where you’re winning most often.
- Which sales activities actually drive conversions? Map activities (calls, demos, proposals) to closed-won deals. You might find that demos do nothing, but follow-up emails close the deal.
- Are we improving over time? Track conversion rates month over month. Don’t obsess over week-to-week swings—B2B is lumpy.
How to do it: Use Reachout’s report builder to set filters, group by what matters, and export data if you need to get nerdy in Excel.
Skip: Overcomplicated multi-tab dashboards no one looks at. If a report doesn’t help you make a decision, kill it.
7. Set Up Alerts for What Actually Matters
Don’t drown in notifications. Set up Reachout alerts for things you genuinely need to know:
- Stalled deals: Get notified when deals sit in a stage for too long.
- New qualified leads: Surface hot prospects so you can jump on them.
- Big wins (or losses): Celebrate or investigate major deals as they happen.
Avoid: Alerts for every minor activity—nothing trains you to ignore notifications faster than a flood of low-value pings.
8. Regularly Review—and Ruthlessly Simplify
Analytics are only useful if you actually look at them. Set a recurring time (monthly or biweekly) to review the key dashboards and reports. Kill anything that isn’t helping you make decisions.
- Ask, “What did we learn?” If you can’t answer this, you’re tracking too much or the wrong stuff.
- Update your metrics: As your team or sales process changes, update what you track. Don’t stick with old KPIs out of inertia.
Real talk: Most sales teams look at analytics way less often than they claim. Schedule it, keep it short, and move on.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
B2B sales analytics don’t have to be a black hole. Focus on metrics that tie to real outcomes, ignore the vanity stuff, and use Reachout to shine a light on what’s working. If you’re not sure whether a metric matters, ask yourself: “Will this help me or my team close more deals?” If not, skip it.
Start simple, review regularly, and tweak as you go. You’ll get better insights—and maybe even enjoy the process.