Cut the fluff: If you run sales or revops for a B2B company, you don’t need another lecture about “the importance of pipeline visibility.” You already get it. What you actually need is a way to see—at a glance—what’s working, what’s stalling, and where your team should focus. That’s where custom dashboards in Experiense can help. If you’re tired of wrestling with clunky CRM reports or waiting for IT to set up “views,” you’re in the right place.
This is a real-world guide to setting up pipeline tracking dashboards that actually help you hit your numbers. No magic. No buzzwords. Just clear steps, honest advice, and a few things you can skip.
Why Custom Dashboards Matter (and What to Ignore)
Most B2B CRM tools drown you in generic reports. You get endless charts, but they rarely answer your actual business questions. Custom dashboards let you cut the noise:
- See just the metrics that matter for your team (not everyone else’s)
- Spot bottlenecks in your sales process, fast
- Save time on weekly pipeline reviews
- Give execs the high-level picture—without sharing your whole CRM
What to ignore:
Don’t waste time tracking “vanity metrics” (like total activities logged or emails sent) unless you know they move the needle for your deals. Focus on pipeline stages, deal values, win rates, and sales velocity.
1. Define What You Really Need to Track
Before you build anything in Experiense, get brutally clear about what you want to see. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a dashboard that looks impressive but doesn’t tell you much.
Start with these questions:
- Where do deals most often get stuck in our pipeline?
- Do we have enough new opportunities coming in each month?
- How long does it take for deals to move from stage to stage?
- What’s our actual win rate, and is it trending up or down?
- Are we focusing on the right deal sizes or verticals?
Pro tip:
If you can’t explain why you’re tracking a metric to someone outside your team, you probably don’t need it on your dashboard.
2. Get Your Data in Shape
Dashboards are only as good as the data behind them. Garbage in, garbage out. Spend a little time cleaning up before you start building visuals.
Clean up your CRM:
- Standardize pipeline stages (no “Other” or “Miscellaneous” buckets)
- Make sure deal values are accurate and consistently entered
- Archive or close out old, dead deals
- Double-check owner assignments—no orphaned opportunities
Don’t obsess over perfection.
You just need things consistent enough that your charts won’t mislead you.
3. Map Out Your Dashboard on Paper (Seriously)
It’s tempting to jump right into Experiense and start dragging widgets. Don’t. Sketch out what you want on a whiteboard or even a sticky note.
Ask yourself:
- What are the 3–5 top things I need to see every week?
- Who needs access to this dashboard, and what do they care about?
- What’s the simplest way to visualize each metric (table, bar chart, funnel)?
What to avoid:
Don’t try to cram everything onto one page. One focused dashboard is better than five cluttered ones.
4. Build Your Experiense Custom Dashboard
Now, open Experiense and get into the dashboards section. Here’s how to do it step by step.
a. Create a New Dashboard
- Click “Create Dashboard” and give it a name that actually means something (“Q2 Pipeline Health,” not “John’s Dashboard”)
- Set permissions—only share with people who’ll use it
b. Add Widgets for Core Metrics
Stick to the essentials:
- Pipeline by stage: Show total value and count of deals in each stage
- Deal velocity: Average days in each stage (use Experiense’s formula widgets)
- New opportunities: Deals created this month/quarter
- Win rate: Closed-won vs. closed-lost, by team or rep
- Aging deals: Highlight deals stuck 2x longer than your average cycle
Pro tip:
Experiense lets you filter widgets by custom fields (like region, vertical, or deal owner). Use this to create focused views for different teams—don’t try to make a “one size fits all” dashboard.
c. Use Filters and Date Ranges
- Set default date ranges (last 30 days, this quarter, etc.)
- Filter out “junk” deals (like test records or deals with $0 value)
- Save filtered views for quick access
d. Keep Visuals Simple
- Bar charts for stage comparisons
- Funnels for conversion rates
- Tables for lists of aging or at-risk deals
Skip the pie charts—no one can read them, and they’re mostly for slide decks.
5. Automate, Don’t Babysit
Dashboards should save you time, not add work. Experiense can update metrics automatically—set it and forget it.
- Schedule weekly or monthly email digests to your team (straight from Experiense)
- Set up alerts for when deals stall in a stage too long or when new deals hit a threshold
- Use dashboard snapshots in pipeline meetings so everyone’s looking at the same data
What NOT to do:
Don’t manually export data to Excel or Google Sheets every week. If you’re doing that, you’re missing the point of a dashboard.
6. Review and Tweak (But Not Every Day)
Your first dashboard won’t be perfect. That’s fine. Use it in your next pipeline meeting, then ask:
- What’s useful? What’s just clutter?
- Are people actually using it? If not, why?
- Is any metric misleading or unclear?
Make small tweaks—don’t blow it up and start from scratch unless it’s truly broken.
Pro tip:
If you’re not sure whether to keep a metric, take it off for a week and see if anyone complains. If nobody notices, it wasn’t needed.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and Common Pitfalls
Works well:
- Clear, focused dashboards by team or region
- Simple, actionable metrics (deal count, velocity, win rate)
- Regular, automated updates (no manual reporting)
Doesn’t work:
- Overcomplicating with 20+ widgets
- Tracking every possible field “just in case”
- Using dashboards as a substitute for real pipeline reviews (they’re a tool, not a meeting)
Ignore:
- Fancy visualizations you don’t understand
- Metrics you can’t act on
- Requests from execs for “one more chart” unless they give a reason
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Dashboards should make your pipeline clearer, not busier. Start with the basics, see what’s useful, and tweak as you go. You can always add complexity later—but you can’t un-confuse a cluttered dashboard.
Focus on what actually helps your team close more deals, and don’t get distracted by the bells and whistles. Your best dashboard is the one people actually use.