"We're drowning in HubSpot data, but we can't trust the forecast or repeat the results." This is a cry from VPs of Sales across the country. One recently shared, "We had the largest pipeline in company history last quarter, but we still missed our number by 30%. Worst part? We didn't see it until the last 30 days."

This scenario is all too common in today's B2B sales environment. Despite having more sales data than ever before, sales leaders are struggling to turn their CRM data into strategic decisions that drive predictable revenue growth. The gap between data collection and data-driven decision-making is widening, especially as sales cycles become more complex and teams more distributed.

An executive sales performance dashboard is a must-have for upper management, providing at-a-glance views into key sales health indicators and sales team metrics. This dashboard empowers executives to make data-driven decisions by providing easy access to key performance metrics. A dashboard like this is essential for sales managers overseeing their sales teams.

In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk through the must-haves for a sales dashboard that's both easy to use and results-driven. We'll also show you how Forecastio, the best sales performance management platform for HubSpot users, transforms your CRM data into actionable insights.

What is a sales dashboard?

A sales dashboard is a visual, interactive tool that rolls up and displays key sales metrics, providing a snapshot of team performance. It's a central location where sales teams can monitor progress, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. A sales dashboard helps sales teams stay focused on goals by providing clear visibility into key sales metrics.

A sales dashboard typically includes key sales metrics such as:

• Total revenue

• Conversion rates

• Sales pipeline activity

These metrics are displayed using a variety of visual elements, such as charts, graphs, and tables, to help you quickly understand complex data. Whether you're a sales manager tracking team performance or a sales rep focused on your own numbers, a sales manager dashboard is a must-have for any sales team.

Today's sales leadership challenge

A Sales Director from a high-growth SaaS company recently told us during a discovery call: “Our HubSpot dashboard is overwhelming. We're tracking everything – meetings booked, emails sent, opps created – but we're drowning in activity metrics without any clarity into what activities actually drive closed-won deals. My reps and sales managers are spending hours each month creating reports instead of coaching and developing their teams, and we're still missing our number.”

This is a common pain point for sales leaders. In fact, our conversations with heads of sales reveal that while 93% have access to basic sales metrics through their CRM dashboards, only 21% are focused on the right activities to drive predictable revenue growth.

Sales manager dashboards are designed to give sales managers a high-level view into key metrics that matter most for managing their teams. These dashboards provide trends and insights to help sales managers make data-driven decisions about sales strategy.

Sales leaders face three major challenges:

1. Data overload. Today's CRM systems collect reams of data, but without clear organization and presentation, even the most advanced sales teams are drowning in metrics.

2. Visibility gap. A basic sales performance dashboard shows what's happening but doesn't provide insight into why or what to do about it. This leaves sales managers wondering how to allocate their time and resources.

3. Lack of focus. Sales leaders are overwhelmed by options and don't know which activities to prioritize.

Why you need an actionable sales dashboard

In today's fast-paced sales environment, a reliable sales dashboard is table stakes. A sales dashboard provides a quick and easy way to view sales data, spot trends, and identify areas for improvement. A sales growth dashboard is especially important for tracking and analyzing sales performance over time. Here's why every sales leader needs a sales dashboard:

• Monitor progress toward sales goals: A sales dashboard helps you track progress toward sales targets in real time. By keeping a close eye on key metrics, you can ensure your team is on pace to hit (or exceed) their numbers.

• Spot issues before it's too late: A sales dashboard helps you quickly spot issues before they become critical. Whether it's a drop-off in conversion rates or a slowdown in pipeline activity, you can identify problems early and adjust your sales strategy.

• Make data-driven decisions: A sales dashboard provides you with the data you need to make strategic decisions. By analyzing sales metrics, you can develop plans that drive revenue growth and improve performance.

• Improve collaboration and communication: A centralized sales dashboard helps your team collaborate and communicate more effectively. By sharing insights and data, your team can work together to achieve common goals.

• Improve sales forecasting and pipeline management: A sales dashboard helps you manage your sales pipeline more effectively and improve forecasting accuracy. By tracking pipeline activity and health metrics, you can ensure you have enough qualified opportunities to hit your number.

The anatomy of an effective sales dashboard

Before we dive into the specifics, let’s break down what makes a sales dashboard truly effective. A well-designed dashboard should include several key components that work together to give you a comprehensive view of your performance.

Must-have elements of sales performance dashboards

The most effective sales dashboards strike a balance between strategic oversight and actionable insights. Forecastio provides sales leaders using HubSpot with pre-built dashboards designed specifically for sales management. Our dashboards turn your HubSpot data into clear insights about revenue performance, pipeline coverage, and win rate trends.

At a strategic level, Forecastio's sales dashboard provides a clear view of business health using metrics that matter most to sales leaders. Instead of being drowning in data, you'll gain clarity into your sales organization's performance and trajectory.

The sales ops layer of Forecastio's dashboard turns historical data into actionable intelligence. By analyzing trends and patterns in past performance, sales leaders can make data-driven decisions about process improvements and team development needs.

Forecastio's purpose-built sales leadership dashboard

Unlike traditional CRM dashboards that try to be everything to everyone, Forecastio is designed specifically with sales leaders in mind. Our pre-built dashboard is the result of research into what sales managers and executives need to see to drive performance.

Sales Directors and VPs get immediate visibility into business health, strategic planning, and resource allocation. The executive view focuses on trends over time and highlights areas that require strategic attention. This helps leaders identify issues early and make data-driven decisions.

This targeted approach ensures sales leaders get the insights they need without being overwhelmed by data. By providing a purpose-built dashboard for sales management, Forecastio helps your organization make faster, better decisions and drive more predictable revenue growth.

Forecastio's success is due in large part to its targeted focus on sales leadership needs. The platform doesn't try to be everything to everyone - instead, it excels at providing exactly what sales leaders need to improve performance and drive growth.

Must-have metrics for sales KPI dashboard

Now that we've covered the foundation of a great dashboard, let's talk about the metrics that actually impact revenue growth. Sales performance dashboards are critical for tracking and visualizing sales progress. Forecastio helps you track progress in HubSpot, providing deeper insights than you'll get from HubSpot alone.

Pipeline velocity and health metrics

• Pipeline velocity: The rate at which deals move through your sales pipeline.

• Pipeline coverage: Ensuring you have enough qualified opportunities to hit your number.

• Deal slippage: Tracking deals that regress or fall out of the sales cycle.

Forecastio calculates these metrics automatically based on your HubSpot deal stages and provides real-time coverage ratios. We also alert you to deal slippage so you can re-engage before a deal falls out of the sales cycle.

Conversion rates at each funnel stage

Forecastio's pipeline views provide insights based on HubSpot data, helping you spot where deals get stuck in the sales funnel and where you may need to adjust your focus.

Average deal size and win rates

Forecastio provides a trend analysis of key metrics straight from your HubSpot deals. Our AI-powered insights help you identify the root causes of lower win rates so you can adjust sales strategy across your team.

Sales activity metrics and their impact

You can track this information in your HubSpot activity reports:
• Calls made or emails sent by sales reps
• How many meetings were booked from those calls
• How many proposals were sent or deals won from those meetings

This information helps sales managers focus on activities that drive real results.

Customer retention and upsell opportunities

Your existing customers are often your biggest source of revenue growth in B2B sales. Your customer success dashboard should help you track:

• Customer churn rate

• Net revenue retention

• Upsell/cross-sell success rates

By focusing on these must-have metrics, you'll get a complete view into your performance. You'll be better equipped to drive revenue growth and make data-driven decisions that impact your bottom line.

Designing for actionability and team adoption

A sales dashboard is only as good as its adoption rate. If your sales management team isn't using it, even the most advanced data analysis won't drive results. Here's how Forecastio ensures your team gets the most out of your sales dashboards.

Key elements of an actionable and adaptable dashboard:

1. Data visualization psychology
   • Color psychology (e.g., green for good trends, red for issues)
   • Visual hierarchy (larger font for key numbers)
   • Clear graphs and charts for trending

2. User-friendly interface
   • Consistent layout across multiple views
   • Clear labeling and tooltips for complex metrics
   • All dashboards are designed with sales managers in mind

3. Real-time updates
   • Automated alerts for significant changes or thresholds
   • Push notifications for mobile users
   • Live updates during critical periods (e.g., end of quarter)

4. Mobile optimization
   • Responsive design for various screen sizes
   • Touch-friendly interfaces
   • Simplified views prioritizing key information

Forecastio's design philosophy is centered around sales leaders' experience and efficiency.

Advanced features for best sales dashboards

To drive real revenue growth, your sales performance dashboard needs to do more than report on past activity. This is where Forecastio shines, especially if you use HubSpot.

Forecastio's advanced features:

1. Native HubSpot integration
   • Real-time sync with HubSpot CRM
   • Automatic mapping of HubSpot deals data to dashboard metrics
   • Preservation of HubSpot's data structure for familiarity

2. Predictive analytics and AI-driven insights
   • Improved sales forecasting accuracy using HubSpot-specific data points
   • At-risk goal identification based on current and historical trends
   • Real-time insights for sales strategy adjustments

3. Sales management dashboard
   • Monitor team performance and track individual progress toward shared goals
   • Overview of each team member's performance
   • Set benchmarks to optimize overall sales effectiveness

These features help break down silos within your sales organization, promoting transparency and collaborative problem-solving. They empower sales managers to make data-driven decisions and sales reps to focus on activities that drive real results.

Sales dashboard examples and templates

There are many types of sales dashboards, each designed to serve a specific purpose. Here are some sales dashboard template examples to help you get started:

• Sales performance dashboard: This dashboard provides an overview of a sales team's performance, including metrics like revenue, conversion rates, and sales pipeline activity. It helps sales managers track overall performance and identify trends.

• Sales KPI dashboard: This dashboard tracks key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales revenue, customer acquisition costs, and sales cycle length. It's great for tracking metrics that directly impact your bottom line.

• Sales metrics dashboard: This dashboard offers a detailed look at sales metrics, including sales pipeline activity, conversion rates, and sales velocity. It's perfect for sales teams that need in-depth data analysis.

• Sales reporting dashboard: This dashboard provides a comprehensive look at sales data, including sales reports, forecasts, and pipeline analysis. It's great for sales leaders who need to report to stakeholders and make strategic decisions.

• HubSpot sales dashboards: Designed specifically for HubSpot users, these dashboards provide a holistic view of sales data, including sales pipeline activity, conversion rates, and sales revenue.

How to implement your performance dashboard with Forecastio

Now that you know what a sales dashboard should look like, let’s talk about how Forecastio makes implementing your revenue-driving dashboard easy.

Here’s how to create your sales dashboard with Forecastio in 4 easy steps:

1. Connect your HubSpot account with one click.

2. Choose your sales pipeline based on your goals.

3. Set your goals and add any sales data not already in HubSpot.

4. We've got this! Forecastio will calculate all the metrics and insights for you.

How to maintain data hygiene

• Run real-time data quality checks against your HubSpot data.

• Get data standardization suggestions based on HubSpot guidelines.

• Enjoy automated data integrity audits.

What is the ROI of your sales dashboard?

1. Increased win rates vs. HubSpot standard reporting.

2. Time saved analyzing data and generating reports.

3. Improved forecast accuracy with AI-powered predictions.

4. Higher adoption rates of data-driven decision-making among sales reps.

Sales team performance analysis

A sales team performance analysis is a critical component of any sales dashboard. It provides a detailed look at how your sales reps are performing and which strategies are driving results. Key metrics to include in your sales team performance analysis are:

• Sales revenue and growth: Track total sales revenue and growth over time to measure the success of your sales initiatives.

• Conversion rates and sales velocity: Evaluate conversion rates at each stage of your sales funnel and measure how quickly deals are moving through your pipeline.

• Sales pipeline activity and management: Monitor pipeline activity to ensure you have enough qualified opportunities to meet your sales quotas. Pipeline activity is critical to a healthy sales process.

• Customer acquisition costs and lifetime value: Calculate the cost of acquiring new customers and their lifetime value to evaluate the effectiveness of your sales strategies.

• Sales cycle length and process efficiency: Measure the length of your sales cycle and identify any bottlenecks that may be hindering your sales process.

Best practices for sales dashboards

To maximize the revenue-driving potential of your sales dashboard, follow these best practices:

1. Focus on actionable KPIs: Choose metrics that impact revenue and are within your sales team's control to change. A sales leaderboard can help motivate individual reps.

2. Keep it simple: Don't overwhelm your team with too much data. Focus on key metrics relevant to each role.

3. Use visualizations: Add charts, graphs, and other visual elements to make data easy to consume.

4. Create role-specific dashboards: Design dashboards for executives, managers, and sales reps that meet their unique needs.

5. Update in real-time: Make sure your dashboard reflects the latest data to inform real-time decisions.

6. Enable drill-downs: Allow users to access additional data when more context is needed.

7. Add benchmarks and goals: Incorporate targets and industry benchmarks to provide context for your metrics.

8. Review and update regularly: Gather feedback from your team and update your dashboards regularly.

Conclusion

A revenue-driving sales dashboard is both an art and a science. It requires a deep understanding of your sales process, strategic metric selection, thoughtful design, and ongoing iteration. If you use HubSpot, Forecastio makes it easy to check all the boxes.

Key takeaways:

1. Focus on actionable KPIs that impact revenue.

2. Take advantage of Forecastio's native HubSpot integration for seamless data flow.

3. Use AI-powered insights to stay one step ahead of the competition.

4. Iterate based on feedback and results.

5. Equip your entire sales organization with actionable insights.

The future of sales performance management is data-driven decision making at lightning-quick speed. Forecastio's sales dashboard helps you get there by providing a clear view of sales performance and enabling data-driven decision making.

Ready to turn your HubSpot data into a growth engine? Forecastio can help you build, implement, and optimize a sales dashboard that drives real results for your business. Don't let your sales dashboard hold you back. Master your sales dashboard with Forecastio—book a demo today.