Complete Guide to Sales Tracking

Sales Tracking is one of the complex components of Sales Management. Sales tracking includes tracking Sales Team, Sales Process, and Sales Funnel. A suitable Tracking mechanism for Sales will result in better Sales Results.

Technically Tracking Sales means keeping record and track of all the Sales related data of Activities, Customers, leads etc, using CRM Tools. But in practical terms, the term is used to denote the activity of keeping track on the Sales Activities.

What is Sales Tracking?

It consists of keeping all the records of all the customer interactions so that the entire Sales process becomes clearly visible to all the concerned. It involves tracking of Sales Team, Sales Process, Sales Funnel, Sales Activities etc.

Sales Tracking will enable Sales Managers to:

1. Figure out Who is doing what? Whether Sales Team is doing their Sales activities properly and enough or not?
2. What actions or inactions are causing a delay in closing the sales.
3. Differentiate between the pretenders and performers.
4. Determine Whether the sales team is going to meet the targets or not.

What is Sales Tracking App?

A System which is GPS enabled Mobile Application, which can track calls, SMS, emails, meetings, visits and tasks is called Sales Tracking app. This app can keep a track record of all the activities of the sales team and sales process. E.g., Calls, SMS,

The App is generally an online application available on PC as well as Mobile. However, it is mostly used on the mobile platform only for day to day tracking and status updates. The details captured by the App can be analysed in details on the Web App using detailed reports and charts.

Why is it essential to Track Sales?

No business can survive without Sales for a long time. This is the biggest reason to track sales. However, The main reasons can be listed as follows.

1. Protect Marketing Efforts and Budget:
   1. Make sure that the leads captured accurately, from all the resources. Analysis of leads generated source-wise, can help us understand the issues and benefits of the Marketing team. Result of Leads generated. Source wise result tells us the effectiveness of the source. Planning for marketing activities and budget is always done after analysing the leads source-wise and their outcome.
2. Ensure Proper follow-up of Leads
   1. The Fortune is in the followup. Even after generating leads, if the team is not following up properly, there is no result. Sales executives and Sales Managers need to track leads closely.
3. Analyse Sales process, Sales Pipeline and Sales Funnel
   1. Is the team following proper sales process as laid down or are things going out of the process? Also, the health of Sales Funnel at various stages determines a steady flow of Sales figures. Achieving Sales Targets is very difficult in the absence of a proper Sales process.
4. Track Performers v/s Pretenders
   1. The Sales Team members are primarily mobile and on the field. In the absence of a state of the art Sales Tracking App, The Sales manager will never come to know who is performing and who is pretending. In today’s world, the use of Notebook, WhatsApp or spreadsheet does not help.
5. Analyse Close Deals
   1. Without tracking activities of Individual Sales Rep, it would be difficult to close more deals. Lost Deals analysis also gives a lot of insights into the market scenario and Sales Team functioning.
6. Sales Forecasting
   1. Sales Forecasts, Sales Targets and Sales Estimates are different things. In the absence of a proper Tracking mechanism, Sales Forecasts are never accurate.
7. Understand Customer Buying Journey
   1. Why they are buying Challenges that our solution solvesCustomer’s Decision-making process.
8. Cost of Sales
   1. CRM provides time and Cost analysis of all the efforts done by the Sales Team.
   2. Cost analysis of Sales Team gives the cost of Sales.
   3. Sometimes, the size of the opportunity does not justify the efforts.
   4. Determine whether the qualification process is properly executed or not.
9. Competition Analysis
   1. Real-time and ground level competition is always faced by the Sales Team.
   2. Capturing competition information in CRM and then analysing it is always more effective than a Market Research.

What does it actually cover?

It’s a broad Term, it covers everything in Sales Management. However, the functions of Tracking can be summarised into three categories.

Sales Rep Tracking

1. Daily, weekly, monthly Meetings, visits, demos etc.
2. Are they doing enough calling to the Potential Customers?
3. Missed Follow-ups.
4. Gaps in Sales process

Leads Tracking

1. Source of Lead.
2. Quality of leads.
3. Industry and Geography wise leads and their results.
4. Sales Perso wise leads and their performance.

Sales Funnel & Sales Pipeline Tracking

1. CRM gives Sales Forecast.
2. Stage-wise Sales analysis gives authenticity to the Forecast.
3. The Health of Sales Pipeline.
4. Tracking helps to know Whether the Sales Process is in accordance with Customer’s Buying Journey or not.

Mobile Sales Reporting App & Tracking Sales

Mobile CRM helps a lot to Manage Track Sales, by providing Real-time information regarding the activities of Sales Team and Sales Pipeline.

In absence of Mobile App, Spreadsheets, Notebooks or WhatsApp will never be able to provide an effective way of tracking the Sales.

Important features of Sales Tracking System

Here are some of the must-have features of an effective Customer Relationship Management Software or Sales Tracking Software

1. GPS enabled
2. Call, SMS, Email Tracking.
3. Logging of meetings, visits and tasks.
4. Show dashboard with OPRA Concept (Open, Periodic, Results)
5. Dashboards for Managers and Executives.
6. Daily tasks pending, overdue.
7. Team-wise analysis
8. Track Sales pipeline
9. Escalations & Notifications.
10. Email/SMS/WhatsApp templates to standardise and speed up the communication.
11. Real-time
12. Secure

Sales Tracking and Sales Dashboard

It wont be wise for Sales Managers to analyse tons of reports in order to Track Sales. Tracking Sales is something which needs to be done in Real time.

Sales CRM Applications always have Sales Dashboard helps Managers to understand and analyse Sales Executives effectively in real time

Best Practices for Tracking Sales

1. Email/SMS Notifications are out. Many old fashioned managers and executives want to rely on email and SMS notifications for tracking things. This is OK for a very small business, where the number of persons and number of records is less.
2. Analyse Dashboard twice a day. CRM Dashboards are very powerful. It is strongly recommended that Sales Executives and Sales Managers both should study and analyse their dashboard twice a day. Once before starting the day and second time just after lunchtime.
3. Customise and Configure Dashboard for KPI. Spend some time to understand how the dashboard works for your CRM. Write down what information you want to analyse regularly and then configure or customise your dashboard accordingly.
4. Take Action. Inaction by Boss is the biggest challenge found in Indian Small Business; Boss is expecting the CRM software to take action against the people who are not following the process correctly. Instead of an automated Message regarding missed follow-up, what if Boss calls and talks for 2 minutes?

We want to thank all the Partners of Enjay, who gave inputs for this article. Their Names are listed below.

1. Bhavesh Lodaya
2. Suhas Marathe
3. Uday Gondkar
4. Uday Musale
5. Amir Virani
6. Yogesh Purohit
7. Rajesh Agarwal
8. Iqbal Ahmed
9. Sales Team of Enjay.