If you’re struggling with adoption pains regarding business intelligence tools, you’re not alone. Many businesses struggle to wean their employees off familiar platforms like Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. Switching between applications wastes man-hours and impacts downstream processes.

It affects sales dashboards too, slowing down analysis, decisions and strategy-building. This article discusses the barriers to software adoption for dashboard users and suggests possible solutions.

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What This Article Covers:

• What Is a Sales Dashboard?
• Emerging Trends
• Dashboard Examples
• Challenges
• Solutions
• Next Steps

The surge in BI and dashboard software would make you believe that adoption is at an all-time high. It is — at a procurement level. The truth is enterprises struggle with dashboard adoption, faced with skill, time and technological challenges.

Nowhere is this more evident than in sales dashboard usage. Sales is the endgame — it’s where the energy of the whole enterprise is focused. The entire company roadmap is about selling better, and sales dashboards tell businesses how they’re doing.

What Is a Sales Dashboard?

A sales dashboard visually represents sales data for tracking performance using numbers, charts and graphs. Revenue, sales volume, customer acquisition and lead conversion are common sales metrics.

Dashboard systems are software programs that give businesses the tools to build data visualizations and combine them on a single interface. Sales dashboards aren’t the only thing dashboard platforms offer — users can design HR, marketing, inventory and IT dashboards, among others.

Dashboard solutions are great at business intelligence and conversely, many BI tools have dashboarding functionality. There’s another category — data visualization software — that provides similar functionality.

Like other data analysis tools, sales dashboards provide present and future insights. Forecasting sales trends is a reality, thanks to predictive analytics with machine learning at the backend. Knowing what to expect helps in hiring, budgeting and project management.

Sales dashboards don’t only inform about how many units the business sold. They support the entire sales cycle by tracking other metrics like sales rep activity and performance.

The activity management dashboard in Salesforce Sales Cloud. Source

Self-Service BI bucked the trend of waiting on data experts for analysis. In-the-moment data exploration and discovery became possible, providing answers without seeking help. It spawned a new breed of data users, though with limited technical skills — the C-suite, managers, customer service executives and junior staff.

But, the pace of software development didn’t stop at user autonomy. It never does, does it? Data engineering and software constantly evolve to provide better business solutions.

Independent data analysis brought Excel and its limitations into focus, and suddenly, it wasn’t enough. Rows and columns of tables aren’t as easy to understand as pictorial data representations. And for time-critical tasks, Excel doesn’t quite measure up.

Additionally, the state of flux continues with technological innovations that challenge software vendors to do better.

Let’s look at some market disruptors in sales that directly impact sales dashboards.

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Emerging Trends

Your dashboard is only as good as the data it displays, which depends on the information it pulls in. The onus is on big data integration to make accurate insights available on demand, which is a tall order considering the variety of data available today.

Big data coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic spawned the sales trends of hybrid sales and omnichannel marketing.

• Hybrid sales combine in-person meetings with audio and video calls, email campaigns and Slack huddles. And it’s worked out well enough that a McKinsey report predicts hybrid selling will likely be the most prominent sales strategy by 2024.

  According to the same report, remote-first sales earned companies up to 50% more revenue by boosting customer engagement in a socially distanced world.

• Omnichannel analytics is a big contributor to remote hybrid sales, with consumers using as many as ten channels to engage with products they find promising (Source). By offering online and in-store options, companies can cater to the customer’s preferences and increase the chances of making a sale.

  A customer may start their shopping journey online, then choose to make their purchase in-store, or vice-versa. Plus, advertising on social media gets the business eyeballs and allows tapping into buyer sentiment — it’s a win-win.

  Online searches, social media links, AI chatbots and email campaigns capture vital lead metrics to drive the sales cycle. CRM tools and marketing automation platforms feed sales dashboards and marketing campaigns.

• Self-service eCommerce was another game-changer in the B2C segment, especially with subscription models with easy sign-ups. There was initial skepticism in sales circles it wouldn’t catch on — buyers wouldn’t be comfortable spending money online, but that changed and how.

So online selling crossed that bridge, and hybrid is the name of the game now. For sales dashboards, it means linking to more sources for an accurate business picture.

Dashboard Examples

Based on their purpose and the people who view them, we assign sales dashboards to four categories.

Strategic Dashboard

The C-suite — CEOs, CFOs and CTOs — build and monitor long-term strategies using strategic data views. The annual revenue dashboard in Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM below shows a high-level overview of the won revenue, top accounts and average deal size.

It compares won revenue against estimated revenue, using historical data to show how the business is doing. These dashboards can help senior management plan how to achieve KPI (key performance indicators) goals and manage operational costs.

An annual dashboard showing top accounts, deal size and revenue.

Operational Dashboard

Junior executives use operational dashboards to monitor operations in the short term, which is why operational dashboards are the most common in all departments. The Creatio sales dashboard below shows the new opportunities by category and pending monthly payments, which may need immediate attention.

Mostly based on real-time data, they are more detailed than strategic dashboards.

A monthly sales dashboard shows opportunities and pending payments.

Analytical Dashboards

These dashboards are the mainstay for middle management, usually department managers. They have a level of detail somewhere between strategic and operational dashboards. Managers either need adequate data skills or rely on data analysts to build and read them.

An analytical dashboard showing revenue and sales forecast. Source

Tactical Dashboards

Like analytical dashboards, they’re middle management tools and help them monitor KPIs daily, weekly or biweekly. Managers use them to keep an eye on task progress and issues that might impact the sales pipeline. The Salesforce Pipe Gen dashboard below helps managers stay proactive by identifying slow pipelines and blockers before they impact revenue.

The Pipe Gen dashboard in Salesforce supports sales management. Source

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Challenges

Missing functionality, usability issues, and lack of permissions and skills can slow down dashboard software adoption.

Understanding these challenges requires knowing that dashboard users fall into two categories — end users and data analysts.

While managers, executives and CEOs have limited analytics skills, they have excellent domain knowledge. They lack the time to engage deeply with data, which is why they seek high-level views in dashboards.

Data analysts have the technical skills to work closely with data, which is the main focus of their role. They’re facilitators and problem solvers for dashboard consumers, and they’re aware of the problems ordinary users face when working with dashboard software.

Thanks to self-service data exploration, the tasks of dashboard users and professional analysts overlap to some extent. Both need to build dashboards and share them with others as part of their roles. Additionally, they need to have meaningful conversations around them by manipulating datasets as desired.

But the skills gap shows, especially when they’re pressed for time and don’t have help at hand. In such moments of desperation, it’s easy to fall back on tried and tested tools like spreadsheets and workarounds. But, these alternatives are time-consuming, messy and involve an ill-fitting suite of tools.

Here’s what’s happening.

• Gaps in Data Conversations: Creating and sharing sales dashboards is one thing; having useful conversations around them is another. Sophisticated dashboard wizards can seem daunting when pressed for time. Relying on data analysts to create dashboards doesn’t prepare one for ad hoc discussions and data deep-dives.
• Lack of Customization: Many users fall back on spreadsheets to shape and enrich datasets when they can’t figure out slice-and-dice and what-if operations in the dashboard software. Rigid template design and lack of customization can hurt adoption, especially if the company has unique needs.
• Insufficient Functionality: Without intuitive data modeling, users are likely to seek external workarounds, like falling back on tried-and-tested Excel formulas. But predictions can be clunky in Excel for large datasets, which means it’s back to the dashboard platform again! Switching between applications is messy and time-consuming.
• Lack of Oversight: Employees might hesitate to use the dashboard software, being unskilled or short on time. It’s easy to become complacent and stick to the platform they’ve always used rather than learn a new one.
• Data Dumping: Often, sales dashboards end up as data dumps while users pull data into spreadsheets for shaping and enriching the information. It gives them the best of both worlds — the quality control of your dashboard tool with the flexibility of spreadsheets.
• Non-Technical Workarounds: Many non-skilled data users make do by cobbling together dashboard screenshots and text summaries for presentations. It gets the job done, but these visualizations aren’t interactive and are of little help when faced with ad hoc queries.

Solutions

For many businesses, moving their employees away from spreadsheets is a niggling issue they can’t seem to solve. Looking at the above gaps in data usage, we can narrow down the solutions to two.

Improve Software Functionality

This one’s on software vendors.

Feature-heavy dashboards don’t cut it for most users. Simple, uncluttered dashboards with the flexibility of spreadsheets can help keep them within the application.

Simple, clutter-free dashboards convey clear, concise metrics. Source

Customization should be adequate with modifiable templates to suit varying business needs. Tailor-made dashboard solutions can be the answer, though they can cost a tidy sum.

There’s a lot of hype around data storytelling. However, not many non-technical employees can weave stories around data by merging visuals with text summaries and animations. But they can be with the right sales dashboard software that serves their skill level.

Sales dashboards:

• Should be easy to use.
• Should be integrated for seamless data movement across systems, including communication channels.
• Should support in-the-moment data discovery with slice-and-dice user actions, natural language processing and machine learning.

Champion Data Culture

This one’s on businesses.

Many challenges to software adoption stem from organizational inertia and resistance to innovation. Company culture must be open to change and data-driven. Teams need to move away from traditional tools and the idea that it’s the way we’ve always done it.

Users must scale to learn about the underlying data structure and which business requirements a particular dashboard can serve. It helps in understanding the scope of the dashboards and which questions they can help answer.

Success hinges on constant and consistent stress upon best practices for software adoption. It requires active data champions and evangelists within the organization. Training people and making time for the learning curve to flatten out can pay off in the long run.

Ready to get started with software search? Evaluate the top sales dashboard products with our comparison report.

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Next Steps

When it comes to selecting the right software, it’s important to have a clear and well-thought-out plan. Simply relying on online reviews or word of mouth from colleagues can be risky and potentially costly.

To simplify the process, SelectHub has developed a nine-step methodology called Lean Selection. Here are the steps involved:

1. Establish: Identify why you need new software and what’s currently lacking in your existing practices.
2. Collaborate: Create a software selection committee consisting of key stakeholders, department leaders, project managers and end-users to provide valuable insights and diverse perspectives.
3. Define: Develop a comprehensive requirements wishlist with your team to ensure you include all vital features.
4. Distribute: Evaluate software vendors based on how well they meet your requirements. Shortlist the ones with high requirements scores for further consideration.
5. Justify: Determine if you need a completely new program or add-on modules, or if you can adapt the current system to meet your needs.
6. Prove: Request demos, use cases or proofs-of-concept (POCs) from vendors to see how well they satisfy your requirements.
7. Rank: After the demo phase, rank the top two or three systems based on requirements, demo points, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
8. Negotiate: Meet with the top vendor on your list to discuss conditions and negotiate terms. Seek legal advice if necessary.
9. Sign: Once you’ve found an appropriate vendor and contract, sign the agreement and develop an implementation plan.

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Wrapping Up

Discerning buyers can drive products that address the gaps between data users and sales dashboard design. Still, there will always be a slip between the cup and the lip when it comes to balancing a rich feature set against product cost. It’s especially true for vendors aiming for the SME segment.

Ask the right questions to procure a good fit for your sales dashboard needs.

How was your experience with sales dashboards? Which software do you use for your sales strategy? Let us know in the comments.