CRM Reports: Definition, Examples, and How to Create One to Boost Your Sales

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a powerful tool that centralizes all customer data in one place.

But using CRM solely as a place to collect information will not give you the desired results.

The whole idea of using a CRM is not just collecting relevant information but getting actionable insights from it. And using them to your advantage.

That's where CRM reports come into play. Using a CRM report transforms raw data into a narrative of sales performance.

It's a secret weapon to use up all the opportunities and drive growth.

In this article, you learn about the most important types of CRM reports you should start using right now.

What is a CRM report?

A CRM report is an analytics tool in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that presents data and insights about your customers, sales, marketing activities, and overall business performance.

Many different types of CRM reports exist out there, with each unifying your CRM data in a comprehensive manner.

CRM reports often employ charts, graphs, and digestible visual elements so you get valuable insights into your overall data.

Why do you need CRM reports?

A CRM report sorts your CRM data ways that are relevant to you, enabling you to make data-driven and strategic decisions in your business.

CRM reports help you to:

• Track Performance: Monitor sales metrics like revenue, deals won/lost, and sales cycle length to evaluate effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
• Analyze Trends: Identify patterns in customer behavior, sales cycles, and marketing campaigns to inform decision-making and strategy.
• Measure ROI: Calculate the return on investment for various marketing and sales initiatives.
• Forecast Future Performance: Use historical data to predict future sales, revenue, and customer behavior.
• Improve Customer Service: Analyze customer interactions and feedback to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Optimize Processes: Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in sales and marketing workflows to streamline operations.

CRM reports help you to analyze KPIs and evaluate different stages in your business operations.

They can be used to track progress toward sales goals, deal and overall pipeline statuses, revenue forecasts, marketing campaign performance, sales performance, customer satisfaction, and much more.

CRM reports rely on charts, graphs, and other visual elements that are easy to understand and that can be turned into actionable insights.

Here are the most useful types of CRM reports:

1. Pipeline Analysis (Sales Funnel) report gives you a comprehensive overview of the sales pipeline's health.

The key metrics of pipeline analysis report include number of deals, total revenue in pipeline, deal stages, conversion rates, average deal size, bottlenecks.

CRM report like that can help you to identify deal opportunities and optimize sales process so you can shift your focus on the weakest areas.

2. Sales Conversion (Win-Loss) report helps you to determine why you lost or won the deals.

The key metrics of sales conversion report can include win and loss rates by lead source, industry, company size, competitor, etc.

This kind of CRM report creates multiple benefits to your sales team, such as accurately pinpointing the most potential niches, evaluating competitor performance, and guiding strategy adjustments.

3. Sales Forecast report predicts revenue generation over your chosen time period.

It can give you the probability of conversion for each lead, estimated deal values, and more useful forecasting insights.

This CRM report is great for estimating your goal achievement, targeting sales, and prioritizing high-value leads.

4. Sales Activity report summarizes actions taken by sales team members and their outcomes.

It helps you to monitor team and individual performance, assess which activities were effective and which ones weren't, identify pain points.

Key Metrics of sales activity report includes calls made, emails sent, meetings held, proposals generated, and more.

5. Lead Source report analyzes your new leads and where they're coming from.

This type of CRM report helps you to identify the most effective lead channels and informs you about your resource allocation.

Lead volume, conversion rates, and revenue generated by each source are among the key metrics of such a report.

It's important to note that there are additional valuable CRM reports you can put to use. They include:

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) report: Measures the total value a customer brings over their entire relationship with your company.
• Customer Satisfaction report: Gathers feedback to assess customer happiness and loyalty.
• Sales Rep Performance report: Evaluates individual sales reps' performance based on quotas, deals closed, etc.
• Marketing Campaign ROI report: Calculates the return on investment for different marketing campaigns.

How to create a CRM report?

Yann Guilleux, the head of sales at lemlist, has relied on CRM reporting for his daily tasks. He shared some very useful insights on building your CRM report.

According to Yann G., when you're building a CRM report from zero, you have to follow some essential steps:

1. Define Your Objective.

‍Every CRM report starts from determining the purpose of your report. Think of what questions do you want to answer, what insights do you want to get, and what metrics do you want to track.

2. Define What You Want to Highlight in your CRM report.

It depends on your overall goal. For example, being sure that your team is doing enough effort to generate pipeline, or making sure each individual in your team is putting enough level of effort to reach the goal.

The most widely used CRM report tracks the amount of activities, like input volume of calls, meetings, or demos. Conversion rate reports are also widely used to track things like not-to-be-missed opportunities, discovery demos, negotiations, and so on.

Moreover, performance CRM reports can help you measure sales team and individual performances.

3. Use your CRM report for informed decisions.

How you put the CRM report to use is the most important step. Set up key metrics you want to review on a weekly basis and be sure you're on the track with your goal.

4. Follow-up!

This last step is super important. Follow-up your CRM report progress all the time until it becomes a habit.

As an example, that's how Yann's CRM report (he's using HubSpot) that tracks meeting outcomes looks like:

Yann G. argues that it's important to not fall into the reporting just for the sake of it. "Each company is different but you should not have more than 2 dashboards to manage your business," he concluded.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does CRM report stand for?

A CRM report is a document generated by a Customer Relationship Management system that presents data and insights about your customers, sales, marketing activities, and business performance.

These reports help you track key metrics, analyze trends, and make informed decisions to improve your business strategies and customer relationships.

By using CRM reports, you can identify opportunities for growth, optimize your sales process, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.

2. What is the objective of the CRM report?

The main purpose of a CRM system is to improve the customer experience.

Executing this objective is the most sure-fire way to see positive results across your business.

When you make improved customer satisfaction the main goal for your CRM, all other objectives work to support this goal.

3. What is CRM analysis?

CRM analysis is the process of examining data stored within a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to gain valuable insights.

These insights typically include understanding customer behavior, sales patterns, and marketing effectiveness.

By analyzing CRM data, businesses can make informed decisions to improve customer satisfaction, optimize sales strategies, and ultimately drive revenue growth.