Tiếng Việt
日本語Building 20 reports that nobody opens is the same as building none. If you are new to CRM and unsure which CRM reports to look at first, the short answer is: start with these 3.
CRM reports, put simply, are tables and charts built from the sales data your team already enters. The first three worth having are pipeline by stage, deals that have gone quiet for too long, and the lead sources that actually perform. They answer the three questions CEOs and CMOs ask most often: how much work is in progress, what is stuck, and where customers come from.
Important note: the office equipment distributor and the numbers in this article are illustrative assumptions, not a real customer case. Report names, field names and filters may differ depending on how your Salesforce org is configured, so treat this as a starting point rather than a fixed template.
The first three CRM reports: pipeline by stage, stalled deals and best-performing lead sources.CRM reports: why start with just 3
New CRM users often fall into the same trap: the system can build many kinds of reports, so the team builds plenty. A few weeks later the report list is long, nobody knows which one to open first, and most are forgotten.
A report is only useful when it is tied to a specific decision. The three reports below follow the journey of a sales opportunity: see the whole picture, find where things are stuck, then trace back to where the customers came from. Each answers a real management question.
| Report | The question it answers | When to look |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pipeline by stage | How many deals sit at each step, and what is their total value? | Weekly |
| 2. Deals gone quiet | Which deals have had no activity for too long? | Weekly, before the sales meeting |
| 3. Lead source performance | How many leads does each source bring, and how many become deals? | Monthly |
Report 1: pipeline by stage
This is the foundation report. It answers: “How many deals are at each step, and what is their total value?” If you can only build one report, build this one.
How to build it
- Choose the Opportunity report type
- Group by Stage and show the number of deals and the total amount
- Filter to open deals only, leaving out won and lost ones
How to read it
- A column that is unusually large: deals may be piling up at one step
- A thin final stage: the pipeline lacks deals close to closing
- A thin first stage: work will run short in a few months
Illustrative example: an office equipment distributor sees many deals at the quotation step but very few moving on to negotiation. The manager’s next question is no longer about the total, but “after we send a quote, do customers go silent, or are we not following up closely enough?”
If you do not have stages and sample data yet, Salesforce Sales Cloud Setup Guide in 10 Minutes walks you from creating stages to running the opportunities-by-stage report.
Report 2: deals that have gone quiet
This report asks: “Which deals have had no activity for more than X days?” Forgotten deals rarely announce themselves; they sit quietly until the customer chooses someone else.
How to build it
- Reuse the Opportunity report type and filter to open deals
- Add a condition on last activity date: more than X days ago
- Sort by amount, largest first, so big deals appear at the top
How to use it
- Open it before the weekly sales meeting
- Ask each deal owner: what is the next step, and when?
- Close deals that are truly dead so the pipeline stays clean
The value of X is up to your team, because sales cycles differ from one business to another. An office equipment distributor with small orders might pick a short number, while large project deals usually need a longer threshold. Choose a threshold that keeps the list short enough to review in a few minutes; if the list is too long, nobody will act on it.
Once you are comfortable with this manual report, you can explore how AI can help flag deals. Einstein AI in Salesforce: What Can AI Actually Do for Your Sales & Marketing Team? explains features such as opportunity insights; which ones you can use depends on your edition.
Report 3: the best-performing lead sources
The question: “How many leads does each source bring, and how many of them become deals?” This is the report CMOs need most, because it shows which channel deserves more effort.
How to build it
- Choose the Lead report type and group by Lead Source
- Show the number of leads and the number of converted leads
- Fix a time window, for example by month or by quarter
How to read it
- Do not look only at the source with the most leads
- Compare the lead-to-deal rate across sources
- A source with fewer leads but a high conversion rate often deserves more investment
Illustrative example: the website brings plenty of leads but few become deals, while referrals bring fewer yet convert well. The CMO now has a basis to review the website’s content, rather than automatically raising the budget for the channel with the most leads.
One caution: if the sample is still small (a few dozen leads), do not jump to conclusions. Let the data build up for a few months before comparing.
Making sure the 3 reports actually get read
A report is only as accurate as the data behind it. If people leave the stage, activity date or lead source blank, the three reports will paint a distorted picture. Before building reports, agree with your team which fields are mandatory and when they must be filled in.
So that viewers do not have to hunt for each report, you can combine all three into a single dashboard for the CEO or CMO. Each report should have an owner who looks at it and a clear rhythm (weekly or monthly). A report with no viewer will soon be abandoned.
Add a fourth report only when a real question comes up that the three above cannot answer. This keeps the system lean and keeps the team motivated to open the reports every week.
Checklist: your first 3 CRM reports
Before building any more reports, run through this short list to make sure the three foundation reports are ready.
☐ Pipeline stages chosen and their meaning agreed with the whole team
☐ Pipeline-by-stage report built (number of deals and total value)
☐ Threshold X chosen for the stalled-deals report
☐ Lead source made mandatory for every new lead
☐ Lead source report built, with lead-to-deal rate
☐ The three reports combined into one dashboard, with an owner and a rhythm
Which report do you look at every week? Leave a comment below, the Sonix team would love to hear how you work.
Salesforce CRM
Data Analytics
Business Intelligence
Business
How-to
Book a consultation with Sonix to choose the few reports you really need and build them on Salesforce for your business.
Sonix: Your success is our happiness.
Leave us your comment