So, what is a daily sales report?
Actually the daily sales report, in various guises, has been around for ever in retail organisations. It’s absolutely part of the rhythm of their business. Even hourly reports are common place in that sector.
I would define the DSR as:
A way of pushing your most important sales key performance indicators ( KPI’s), in an understandable way, at every manager, team member and stakeholder in your business.
In its final form it is most likely to be an email containing a simple summary of a KPI spreadsheet, sent to anybody that you think should have an interest, including the boss and the boss`s boss. (No-one ever got fired for sending out well organised and interesting information after all). It should contain the benchmarks for the business, the numbers that operate as the final check on success or failure. And if done properly it should provide a focus, a challenge, an incentive and a way to motivate.
Why is it important?
This is a fundamental basic for doing business, but I have been involved with plenty of businesses that didn’t do this before my time – although they sure as hell do now!
It is my clear experience that companies that do not partake in this are also the ones where the management can’t answer simple questions about the performance of their business. This leads to a complete lack of understanding of sales and marketing ROI, followed by a totally passive approach to affecting the sales result in the month. They sleepwalk into missed targets and as importantly, do not understand what is working so they can do more of it!
So the daily sales report is important because:
- It gives you complete understanding of whether a day has been good, bad or indifferent, because you see the data EVERYDAY and can follow the trends.
- It PUSHES sales data in the faces of management and business teams; it makes EVERYONE better understand the critical sales metrics.
- When people receive this data, they talk about it. This means that they understand better their place in affecting results – and consequently makes them responsible for driving sales KPI’s in the right direction – every day!
- It informs the marketing or lead generation process – this applies equally if you are B2B, B2C, Online, Offline, Start Up or Enterprise – looking at your sales pipeline and having the conversation about leads, conversion and yield will keep everyone focused on what is important and what’s not.
It becomes addictive to try and achieve a target and this is tremendously motivational. In this way the daily sales report, can directly influence the way that people feel about their jobs. It can absolutely changes sales performance and culture for the better.