Table of Contents
14+ Sales Report Templates
The market place is one mean storm that sweeps the non-vigilant at their most unexpected moment. In trying to keep up with its fickleness, sales reports come in to act like a businessman’s compass, providing navigation to their marketing decisions and keeping track of the product’s performance in the market.
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A sales report is a comprehensive analysis of a company’s marketing efforts. It gives an overview of the state of their sales, the trends in the market, and the future steps that could be taken to improve or maintain profit. Sales manager also use these reports to gauge the performance of the people in their team. If you are one of these people tasked to prepare a sales report, then this article provides the basic aspects you need to know as well as sample templates you could use.
Elements of a Good Sales Report
- Executive Summary: Like in business reports, the executive summary of your sales report encapsulates all the major insights and important details of your sales for a specific time period. This includes a list of accomplishments, your suggestion for improvements, notes about successes, and a general quantified sales list.
- Operation Overview: The operation overview expounds on the marketing strategies and methods that you employed to attract sales which can be email marketing, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), or paid search. This part discusses on the areas and aspects that are unique in every marketing strategy, like the follows and shares you get from your social media marketing or your search rankings and reach when using SEO.
- Sales Figures: What’s a sales report without numbers? This is the in-depth quantified data based from your marketing output. However, plainly laying out the numbers alone is not enough, an interpretation of the figures and its impact to the company must also be presented. Trends and data comparisons are also included in this part.
- Time Period: This is the frequency of the sales report and depends on the length of time that the report covers. There are sales reports that are done daily, weekly, monthly, annually, and so on.
- Visuals: A sales report must always have visuals so the reader can easily grasp the data. Visuals include charts, graphs, dashboard, and any other visual representations of your sales.
10+ Sales Report Templates
Sales Report Template
Daily Sales Report Sample
Sales Call Report Format
Sales Management Report Example
Daily Sales Activity Report Template
Monthly Sales Activity Report Sample
Sales Activity Report Sample
Weekly Sales Activity Report Template
Annual Expense Report Template
Sales Report Plan Example
Performance Sales Report Sample
Individual Sales Report Sample
Mid Year Sales Report Sample
Monthly Sales Report Template
HubSpot Sales Report Sample
Steps to Make a Great Sales Report
- Define your target audience: Different departments might need different angles of data. Before you start with your report, have a meeting with representatives from the departments and ask what data they need from your report so you can tailor it for them at the most efficient way possible.
- Start with your operations overview: Writing your operations overview first will let you recount all the important events regarding your sales within your time period. Pore over your figures and determine the significant changes that led to your success and the strategic pitfalls that led to your loss. Connect all these events with an expansive description of your sales strategy and be sure to specify the length of time that is covered with your report.
- Compile data: After the overview, you can proceed in gathering all the data from your marketing output for your sales figures section. Your data can be the number of deals closed, the success rate of your sales activity, the value of your deals, or any kind of metrics you use to measure and quantify your marketing success. The metrics used depend on your business, but be sure to employ a consistent metrics. Don’t forget to employ the use of visuals to make it easier for you to present your sales and for the readers to understand your report.
- Tell the story behind the numbers: Provide background to every chart, graph, and tabulations. The quality of your sales report heavily depends on your interpretation and insights. Be intuitive with the movement of your sales and do comparisons from your previous reportss to present a wider perspective.
- Group all the highlights in the executive summary: Like a regular business report, the executive summary contains all the highlights of the other arts of the report. Remember that the upper management don’t always have the time to read through your report extensively, so make sure to list all the important parts of your report as if the only thing they will read is this part. Although this is the last thing you write, this is the first thing that goes in your sales report.
Tips for a Great Sales Report
- Establish reliable time tables: Try to commit to filing sales reports at a regular interval. Aside from the fact that writing a sales report regularly will enhance your ability to gain stronger insight as a salesperson, it will also take away the burdening feeling of making one as it gets easier with more frequency. Having a frequent sales report will also keep you up to date with the latest changes of your product or service in the market. It will help your company create wiser decisions when it comes to setting sale quotas, establishing pricing, and formulating forecasts.
- Cut out the excess bulk: Some figures and data you compiled in your report can actually mean no value to your readers. This is why it is important to determine the specific metrics that the people who will receive your report need and trim down your report accordingly. It will make your report direct, concise, and easier to take in.
- Present a case study or two: As the sales representative, you are the most immersed in your work. Your sales managers may not have known the things you have known during your field work. This is the importance of including a case study in your sales report. A case study provides an informative narrative about a specific happening during the time period that can provide your managers more insight regarding your sales.
Types of Sales Reports
Sales managers keep track of their sales through the different methods they sell it. The following are the most common types of sales reports:
- Productivity Report: It is the report that keeps tabs on the performance of the different sales representatives of the company. It presents and rates their productivity based on the deals closed. Productivity reports are helpful in determining the top and under-performers among the sales employees.
- Promotional Sales report: It is the type of sales report that gauges the efficiency of promotional efforts of the company to rake in sales. Promotional sales report presents a comprehensive data trend to help the company decide which promotional marketing is wise to implement. Promotional efforts include discount cards and special coupons.
- Monthly Sales Report: It is the type of report that shows the performance of sales representatives within the month as well as the sales trend for the past months. The monthly sales activity report helps the company devise and revise sales strategies to promote their product or service in the market.
- Annual Sales Report: This shows the number of sales made in the whole year. It tracks the sales representatives’ annual performance and observe trends over the years. It also determines what marketing strategy the company will follow for the next year based on the data from this report. Compared to the monthly sales report, an annual sales report is more expansive.
Sales Report Template Sizes
Sales reports are printed on standard US sizes and A4 size documents. Standard US sizes are 8.5 in. by 11 in. (letter) and 8.5 in. by 14 in. On the other hand, A4 size comes at 8.27 in. x 11.69 in.
Sales Report FAQs
What is the typical length of sales reports?
Sales reports are typically short, especially if it is a periodic report like a monthly report. Depending on the type, sales report range from 10 to 50 pages. It should always remain concise and direct to the point.
What does KPI mean in sales terminologies?
KPI stands for key performance indicator. In business terminologies, it is the value that determines the efficiency of the company to accomplish their core goals. Businesses use KPI to evaluate if their current marketing strategies and methodologies can still withstand the current market and helps them reach their success threshold.
Sales reports may seem like a big burden to carry, especially that it demands to be done more often than any other business reports. However, looking at it like a glass half full will improve your attitude in being faithful of writing your report. A sales report puts a spotlight to your efforts as a sales representative, it provides a regular insight to your performance, and it benefits your company as a whole by providing the right navigation through the ebbs and flows of the fickle business market.