# Sales Pipeline Analysis: Tips and Best Practices | Capterra | Capterra > Are your CRM’s analytics capabilities collecting dust? Learn how to use them to more effectively analyze your sales pipeline in this guide. Source: https://www.capterra.com/resources/sales-pipeline-analysis --- Customer Acquisition and RetentionSales & Business Development # How To Leverage Your CRM for Better Sales Pipeline Analysis By Lauren Spiller Lauren Spiller Lauren Spiller is a senior content writer at Capterra, covering sales and CRM with a focus on retail and customer experience. After receiving an MA in rhetor... [See bio & all articles](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/lspiller/) Published August 17, 2023 7 min read ## Make better use of your CRM's analytics capabilities to analyze your sales pipeline and boost performance. Sales professionals who use a [customer relationship management (CRM)](https://www.capterra.com/customer-relationship-management-software/) tool aren't always aware of the powerful analytics capabilities at their fingertips. What makes us say that? When we asked 84 sales and business development professionals for their CRM’s top benefits in our 2023 Business Structure Survey, only 8% selected access to detailed analytics.[\*](#methodology) What _could_ be the most useful tool in your kit is instead collecting dust, and it’s hurting your sales performance. To get some expert guidance on making better use of your CRM’s analytics capabilities, we spoke with Mike Aldrich, an Orlando-based executive sales professional.[\[1\]](#sources) "If you aren't diligent with \[your CRM\], it becomes this great big paperweight on your desk that doesn't do anything." Mike Aldrich _Sales professional[\[2\]](#sources)_ Aldrich has 30 years of experience in sales leadership roles—including executive sales leader for one of the largest homebuilders in North America and sales vice president for a sales training and coaching firm—and he’s used a CRM each step of the way. To help you make better use of your CRM for sales pipeline management and analysis, here are three tips based on his insights. ## Tip #1: Don’t overcrowd your dashboard Your dashboard is what you see when you log into your CRM. It shows your sales cycle length, recent deals, projected closing dates—anything you want front and center for easy reference. This information is represented by widgets such as the graphs and charts in the image below. _Dashboard view in_ [_Salesforce CRM_](https://www.capterra.com/p/61368/Salesforce/) While having all this data at a glance seems helpful, it can actually result in information overload and keep you from unlocking your CRM’s full potential. “It’s both the advantage and disadvantage of a robust CRM,” says Aldrich. “The amount of data you can pull out is endless.” To help you zero in on the sales pipeline metrics that matter most to your business, Aldrich recommends limiting your dashboard to five custom reports or widgets. “If you create more than that, you can’t focus on them all,” he explains. “At one point, I had 105 reports because I needed to know everything going on with my pipeline. But it’s just not feasible.” ### What should your CRM dashboard include? Your sales manager might tell you which widgets to keep on your dashboard, but here’s a good starting point: - **Key performance indicators (KPIs):** KPIs tell you the current values of statistics that are most important to your sales team, such as win rate, sales pipeline velocity, net promoter score (NPS), and [customer lifetime value (CLV)](https://www.capterra.com/resources/what-are-kpis-in-marketing/#4-customer-lifetime-value-clv). Knowing where you stand for each of these metrics tells you which tasks to prioritize. - **Sales pipeline view:** Sales pipeline visualization is an important part of analyzing your sales pipeline. A sales pipeline widget often appears as a set of horizontal bars showing the value of all deals for each [sales pipeline stage](https://www.capterra.com/resources/sales-pipeline-stages/). - **Urgent tasks:** Your CRM keeps you on track by including a list of tasks to complete and their deadlines. These will typically be a mix of items you’ve entered yourself and tasks your CRM automatically generates, such as scheduling appointments and sending emails. - **Interaction history:** This widget shows what you’ve done and when, such as calls, emails, and presentations. It can also show your communication pattern or outreach cadence with a particular client. We’ll cover more about how interaction tracking can help you analyze your sales pipeline in our next tip. ## Tip #2: Refine your sales strategy through interaction tracking The [interaction tracking](https://www.capterra.com/customer-relationship-management-software/?feature=%5B48824%5D) feature in your CRM lets you add notes and track your history with specific contacts. Aldrich likes the 360-degree view he gets for each of his accounts, which helps him game plan for future sales.  “Your CRM keeps all your communication, documents, quotes, and deals in one place,” explains Aldrich. “So when you start reviewing your history with a particular account, you’re able to define the best use of your time and where you’re getting most of your business.” See below for an example of what interaction tracking can look like in a CRM system. _Interaction tracking feature in CRM platform_ [_Close_](https://www.capterra.com/p/132667/Close-io/) ### How can interaction tracking help with sales pipeline analysis? - **Setting an outreach cadence:** Knowing when and how often you’re reaching out to a potential customer can help you identify the right moment to connect—or know when to rein in. - **Monitoring engagement via open and click rates:** Seeing when a lead opened an email you sent or whether they forwarded it to somebody in their organization provides information about their interest level, which you can use to assess the likelihood of a sale. - **Troubleshooting a lost sale:** “If you wonder why you’re _not_ getting business from a certain client,” says Aldrich, “you can refer to an email you sent a year ago to see if you tried to sell them something they didn’t want, or there could be a different reason.” You can also refer to a client’s closing rate to see if they’re worth pursuing for future sales.  Interested in learning how to reconnect with cold leads? The video below provides tips for unclogging your pipeline where leads may have gotten stuck. ## Tip #3: Predict trends and challenges with sales forecasting Your CRM’s sales forecasting feature can help you make objective and informed decisions about which accounts to pursue by using your past and present numbers as well as patterns in sales activity. But you have to be diligent about entering your sales data. _Sales forecasting feature in_ [_monday CRM_](https://www.capterra.com/p/245800/Monday-CRM/) Maintaining your CRM is what helps it accurately predict the trends and challenges headed your way. Says Aldrich, “Forecasting is about the integrity of your pipeline. Keeping dead deals will give you a false sense of security by inflating your pipeline.” ### How to set up your CRM for accurate sales forecasting - **Track deal progress and activities.** Aldrich says that making sure your sales data is as up to date and accurate as possible is like changing the oil in your car: “If you don’t, it’s going to break. If you change it regularly, it’s going to last a long time and be a valuable asset.” - **Factor in data from other teams, such as marketing and product.** More often than not, other departments’ activities will impact your pipeline, such as marketing campaigns and new product launches. Make sure to include their plans in your sales forecast. - **Account for both internal and external factors that can impact your sales forecast.** Internal factors include organizational shifts such as layoffs and new hires, as well as changes in your territory. External factors that can impact your sales forecast include seasonality as well as changes in your market and in the economy. - **Close out inactive deals.** “Most of the time, you'll find salespeople putting data into their CRM, but very rarely are they closing deals out,” Aldrich explains. “Don’t be afraid to close out deals that didn’t work out. You can’t lose what you don’t have.” ## Maintain your CRM for optimal sales pipeline analysis Maintenance is key to all three of our tips to leverage your CRM software for better sales pipeline analysis: When asked if he had any further advice for sales professionals who want to get the most value out of their CRM, Aldrich says: “You have to put the time in. Start your day by logging in and looking at your dashboard so you know which tasks to prioritize. It’ll show your progress toward your monthly, quarterly, or annual sales goals, and which deals you expect to close soon.”  “End your day by updating your notes with anything that happened: events, presentations, who you spoke to. And close out the deals that aren’t going anywhere. If you aren't diligent with it, it becomes this great big paperweight on your desk that doesn't do anything." If you don't have the right resources or tools to analyze your sales data, or if your sales data is spread across disparate systems and you don't know how to centralize it, seek the assistance of a business intelligence (BI) provider. BI companies help deliver compelling yet simple data analysis reports for faster decision-making. Learn more about them here. **Looking for more resources on implementing CRM software? Check out these related articles:** - [How Can CRM Software Benefit Your Business?](https://www.capterra.com/resources/benefits-of-crm-software/) - [Why CRM Implementation Can Be a Challenge for All Businesses](https://www.capterra.com/resources/crm-implementation-challenge-for-all-businesses/) - [Why CRM Software Integrations Help Your Business](https://www.capterra.com/resources/crm-integrations-help-your-business/) - [How To Choose the Right CRM Software for Your Small Business](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-to-choose-a-crm-for-your-small-business/) _Note: Questions and responses have been edited for brevity and clarity._ * * * **Survey methodology** \*Capterra’s 2023 Business Structure Survey was conducted in April 2023 among 244 U.S. respondents to learn more about sales strategy and framework, and challenges faced by sales leaders. Respondents were screened for a business development or sales role in a business with 1,000 or fewer employees. Sources 1. [Mike Aldrich](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikealdrich/), LinkedIn * * * ### Was this article helpful? * * * ## About the Author [### Lauren Spiller](https://www.capterra.com/resources/author/lspiller/) Lauren Spiller is a senior content writer at Capterra, covering sales and CRM with a focus on retail and customer experience. After receiving an MA in rhetoric and composition from Texas State University, Lauren has pursued a career that allows her to help others through writing. Lauren’s research and writing for Capterra is informed by nearly 300,000 authentic user reviews and more than 15,000 interactions between Capterra software advisors and CRM or sales software buyers. Lauren also... ### RELATED READING - [Why Use Accounting Software? 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