If you're leading a sales team—or supporting one—the last thing you want is another dashboard that just looks pretty but tells you nothing new. You need a setup that cuts through the noise, surfaces what matters, and lets you act fast. This guide is for sales leaders, ops folks, and anyone tired of dashboards that overpromise and underdeliver. We'll walk through building custom dashboards in Vocal that actually help sales leaders do their jobs: see what's working, spot trouble, and keep the team moving.
What Makes a Good Sales Leadership Dashboard?
Before you build anything, get clear on what you need and what you don’t. A good dashboard does three things:
- Answers specific questions (“Are we on pace to hit quota?” not “How many widgets did we sell last Thursday?”)
- Highlights exceptions, not just history (“Who’s behind on pipeline?”)
- Doesn’t drown you in data—less is more
Most dashboards fail because they try to please everyone or cram in every metric ever tracked. Don’t do that. Start simple, then add only what gets asked for repeatedly.
Step 1: Figure Out What Sales Leadership Actually Needs
Don’t assume—ask. Your CRO or VP of Sales probably doesn’t care about every detail in the CRM. What do they actually need to track?
Start with these questions:
- What do we need to report on in every weekly or monthly meeting?
- Where do deals usually get stuck?
- What metrics matter for bonuses, forecasting, or board updates?
- What’s the one thing you wish you could see at a glance each morning?
Common must-haves:
- Pipeline coverage (how much, by stage, and by person)
- Forecast vs. actuals
- Top deals at risk
- Team activity (calls, emails, meetings, but only if it’s actionable)
- Win rates and sales cycle length
Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to skip “vanity metrics” like emails sent or calls made. If it doesn’t change a decision, drop it.
Step 2: Get Your Data Sources in Order
Vocal can pull from a bunch of places—CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot), spreadsheets, maybe even marketing tools. But garbage in means garbage out.
What to do:
- Identify your “source of truth” for each metric (e.g., Salesforce for pipeline, Google Sheets for quotas)
- Make sure data is up to date and consistent (no duplicate opportunities, stages that make no sense, etc.)
- Keep it simple: connect only the data sources you really need
Things that trip people up:
- Inconsistent deal stages or owner names
- Old, never-closed deals inflating pipeline
- Multiple tools all tracking the same thing (pick one)
Reality check: Don’t try to “fix” years of messy CRM history just for the dashboard. Clean enough is good enough.
Step 3: Connect Vocal to Your Data
Now, actually get Vocal talking to your data.
How to do it:
- Log in to Vocal and head to the integrations/setup area.
- Connect your CRM – most likely Salesforce or HubSpot. Follow Vocal’s prompts; usually, you’ll just need admin access.
- Add other sources as needed – Google Sheets, Excel files, or other databases. Stick to what you mapped out earlier.
- Test the connections – pull a quick data preview in Vocal to make sure numbers match what you see in your source systems.
Tips:
- If you hit permission errors, it’s almost always a CRM admin issue. Loop in IT early rather than banging your head against the wall.
- Don’t connect everything “just in case.” More sources = more ways for things to break.
Step 4: Build Your First Dashboard (Keep It Simple)
Here’s where most people overthink things. Vocal’s dashboard builder is pretty flexible, but that doesn’t mean you need 17 widgets on day one.
Start with these basics:
- Headline Metrics: Revenue this quarter, current pipeline, forecast vs. target
- Pipeline Breakdown: By stage, by rep, by region—whatever matters most
- Deal Risks: List or chart of deals flagged as stuck or at risk
- Activity Overview (optional): Only if you actually use it to coach or forecast
How to add widgets in Vocal:
- In the dashboard editor, click “Add Widget.”
- Choose your data source and metric (e.g., “Pipeline by Stage” from Salesforce).
- Pick a chart type: bar, line, table, etc. (Tables for lists, bars for trends. Don’t go wild with pie charts.)
- Set filters: date ranges, rep names, deal size, etc.
- Give it a short, clear title (“Current Pipeline by Stage,” not “QTD Opportunity Weighted Pipeline Analysis”).
- Arrange widgets so the most important info is at the top.
What to skip:
- “Look what we can do!” charts nobody asked for
- Weekly activity leaderboards (unless it truly drives accountability)
- Fancy color-coding for its own sake
Pro tip: If someone asks, “What does this widget mean?” it’s probably too complicated.
Step 5: Set Up Alerts and Sharing
Dashboards are great, but nobody wants to dig through them every morning. Vocal can send alerts and summaries—use them to save everyone time.
How to do it:
- Set threshold alerts: E.g., “Alert me if pipeline drops below $X,” or “Notify if any deal over $50k is marked as ‘Stalled’.”
- Schedule dashboard emails: Daily, weekly, or monthly—just the highlights.
- Share dashboards: Give access to execs, managers, or the board. Make sure permissions match what you want people to see.
Real talk: Don’t set up so many alerts that everyone tunes them out. One or two well-chosen notifications beat a dozen ignored ones.
Step 6: Review and Improve—Don’t Set and Forget
Your first dashboard won’t be perfect. That’s fine. The real work is in seeing what gets used, what gets ignored, and tweaking from there.
Do this every month or quarter:
- Ask your sales leaders: “What do you actually look at?” Kill anything nobody uses.
- Add new widgets only when a need comes up more than once.
- Remove or simplify anything that causes confusion or arguments.
- Check that data is still flowing correctly—integrations do break.
What to watch for:
- Metrics that drift out of sync with your CRM
- “Zombie” widgets that nobody can explain
- Leadership asking for exports instead of using the dashboard (that’s a red flag)
Pro tip: The simpler your dashboard, the more likely it gets used.
Honest Takes: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
- Works: Clear, focused dashboards that answer real questions. Automated alerts for true exceptions. Keeping things dead simple.
- Doesn’t: Trying to please everyone. Tracking “activity” for its own sake. Ignoring data quality issues.
- Ignore: Fancy chart types, endless filters, or “gamification” unless your team actually asks for it.
Vocal is a solid tool for stitching together sales data and making it useful. But it’s not magic. The dashboard is only as good as the questions you ask and the data you feed it.
Keep It Simple—Iterate as You Go
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of done. Start with a dashboard that answers the 2-3 most important questions for sales leadership. Share it, get feedback, and tweak as needed. Over time, you’ll have a dashboard that actually helps your team hit their numbers—instead of just looking impressive in a meeting.
And if you ever find yourself building something just because “it might be useful someday,” stop and ask: would anyone miss this if it disappeared tomorrow? If not, skip it. Simple dashboards win every time.