“I have the data, but I don't know what to look at.” “My manager compiles reports by hand in Excel every morning.” “I look at graphs in meetings but I can't figure out what to do next.” These are all problems that result from a lack of purpose in the analysis design. HubSpot has powerful reporting and dashboard features, butIf you don't first decide what you want to know and then design indicators, you'll drown in a sea of data.is. In this chapter, we will explain practical analysis techniques that are really necessary for sales organizations, including the system of metrics, report design, dashboard configuration, deal velocity analysis, and win/loss analysis.
Organizations that manage sales indicators based only on the number of orders and sales only notice problems after they occur. It takes time for results to appear, and if you only look at the results, you won't understand why things happened.Activities (leading indicators) → Pipeline (intermediate indicators) → Results (lagging indicators)By designing indicators with three layers, it becomes possible to discover problems early and correct them.
``The person in charge who makes the most calls'' and the ``person in charge who receives the highest amount of orders'' are not necessarily the same. The leading indicator (activity amount) is only a candidate for the cause of the lagging indicator (orders received).If there is a sufficient amount of activity but no orders are received, it is a conversion rate problem.If the conversion rate is high but the pipeline is small, the problem is the amount of activity, and accurate improvement measures can be found by diagnosing each layer separately. The first step to becoming a data-driven organization is not trying to solve every problem by "trying harder."
HubSpot's custom report builder lets you create reports based on any data in your CRM. From "Sales → Report → Create Report", use three types: single object, cross-object, and funnel. Here we will explain 8 essential reports that we recommend setting up in Sales Hub.
Dashboards are not about cramming all metrics onto one screen.Decide first who will look at it, for what decision-making purpose, and how often, and then design.That's important. The information required by sales representatives, managers, and VPs is completely different.
Deal Velocityis a composite indicator that shows the expected revenue generated by the pipeline per day. Unlike the simple order amount,Combining four elements: number of deals, ACV, winning rate, and sales cycle.By doing so, you can identify which levers for sales growth are most effective to pull.
| improvement lever | Before improvement | After improvement (+10%) | Deal Velocity Change | Recommended measures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase number of deals | 47 items | 52 items | ¥504K → ¥554K (+10%) | Strengthen prospecting, expand ABM, improve sequence |
| Increase average ACV | ¥1.8M | ¥1.98M | ¥504K → ¥554K (+10%) | Increase the ratio of large projects through upsell proposals and ABM, and thoroughly manage discounts |
| increase winning rate | 28% | 30.8% | ¥504K → ¥554K (+10%) | Thorough MEDDIC / Improving demo quality / Strengthening competitive measures / Coaching |
| Shorten the sales cycle | 47 days | 42.7 days | ¥504K → ¥554K (+10%) | Utilize MAP, contact decision makers early, speed up estimates with CPQ |
| 5% improvement on 4 levers at the same time | Improve everything little by little | ¥504K → ¥613K (+22%) | Combined improvements have the greatest effect. Raise the whole in a well-balanced manner without relying on any one thing | |
than the absolute value of Deal Velocity.Quarterly trends (Is it improving/deteriorating?)is important. By using HubSpot's custom report to display monthly line graphs of the average ACV, winning rate, and Sales Cycle of orders won, you can visualize which levers are improving or worsening. In particular, if your winning rate is decreasing while your ACV is increasing, it is likely to be a signal that you are aiming too hard at large deals and are not getting them.
By analyzing the difference between successful deals and lost deals, you can clarify the conditions under which your company can win and the patterns under which it loses.Win-Loss Analysis Many organizations do this intuitively, but by quantifying it using HubSpot's data, you can lead to reproducible improvement measures.
| Collection method | Content | Utilization destination |
|---|---|---|
| Reason for loss property (required) | Set the "Reason for Lost Order" dropdown as a required input when Closed Lost. Narrow down your choices to 10 items or less and put “Other (free description)” at the end. | Report on reasons for order loss, feedback on products, planning of competitive measures |
| Order reason property (optional input) | At the time of Closed Won, record the ``decisive factor'' in text. Make it ``optional/recommended'' rather than making it mandatory to increase the recording rate | Analysis of winning patterns, horizontal deployment of success stories, and improvement of pitches to hiring candidates |
| Buyer interview (qualitative) | Conduct interviews with customers and potential customers after receiving or losing an order. Qualitatively digging into “why I chose it/why I didn’t choose it” | Gathering real opinions that cannot be seen with quantitative data alone and input for product improvement |
| Competitive information properties | Set a property to record the names of competing products compared during an opportunity. Record the "main competitive product" and "reason for comparison" in the opportunity record | Analysis of winning rates by competition, update of competitive battle cards, and review of pricing strategies |
The greatest value of Win-Loss analysis lies in ``communicating the true feelings of customers, which only salespeople know, to the entire organization.'' By creating a system to share the top 3 reasons for lost orders with Product, Marketing, and CS every month,Product roadmap, marketing messages, and competitive measures are improved based on the actual situation in the field.It will be done. Keeping this information only within the sales department is a huge opportunity loss for the organization.
If you only look at results (number of orders), you will only notice a problem once it occurs. By managing at three layers: leading indicators (activity amount), intermediate indicators (pipeline), and lagging indicators (orders), problems can be discovered early and accurate improvement measures can be taken for each layer.
First, prepare eight reports: funnel, activity amount, order record, pipeline generation, reason for lost orders, sales cycle, sequence, and forecast accuracy. Don't aim for perfection and only maintain the reports that are being viewed.
Proper distribution of information can be achieved by providing different dashboards for each person: those in charge for self-checks every morning, managers for understanding the situation before weekly reviews, and VP/RevOps for monthly/quarterly strategic decisions.
We break down the four factors of number of deals, ACV, winning rate, and sales cycle, and calculate which lever to pull is most effective. Compound improvements that improve four levers little by little will have the greatest impact than a single lever.
Collect win/loss data with a three-piece set: mandatory input of order loss reason property, recording of competitive information, and buyer interviews. Sharing the analysis results monthly with Product, Marketing, and CS, rather than keeping them within sales, will lead to improvements throughout the organization.
Use the dashboard not to look at it, but to decide your next move. The habit of always ending weekly reviews by deciding who will do what and by when in response to the problems indicated by this data is the foundation of a data-driven culture.