In my last article, Davis was having a hard time telling the right story with his Sales Metrics. Davis understands his business needs but has come to the realization that he is not strong in the field of data visualization. As a rational person (most of the time), he has decided to hire a software developer with a data visualization background to help him create his Executive Sales Dashboard; Sivad has come on board to help Davis in taking the metrics that he needs to monitor and create a dashboard.
Davis defines the following metrics* he would like to see:
- Daily Sales Revenue
- Performance of Reps
- Revenue by US State
Sivad starts off by asking to have a meeting with Davis to talk about the dashboard, as a whole. They sit down together to start discussing what this dashboard needs to do. Davis starts off with a rant.
Davis: “I’m so glad you’re here, Sivad. It’s just a mess right now. I have to wait a week for my executive assistant, Edgar, to gather all the necessary data to come up with a report with these business metrics. He has to go bother the database team – blah, blah.”
Let’s not listen to Davis’s frustration with the current situation, and summarize his main points, which are common.
- The necessary data is scattered across many data marts, so there is a wait time for consolidating the data.
- Edgar has to take these tabular reports and turn them into graphical representations
- Daily reports become lagged reports; in this case, a week behind.
- The reports are not interactive; e.g. Davis can’t choose a time range he’d like to see for the Daily Sales Revenue Trend.
Davis: “So you see why I need a dashboard!”
Sivad: ”Absolutely Davis. Before I start getting into it, I really want to try to understand what your business does.”
Davis: ”We sell custom doors online. The customer comes to our website and customizes a door with an online form; for example, they’d specify the type of wood, the length and height, etc. They pay by credit card and our system processes the transaction. The sales representative’s major goal is building awareness of our services throughout the US. The rep provides a repcode for the customer to enter that will allow them to get a discount; we give the customer an incentive to allow us to track the rep’s performance. We also take direct telephone orders, as well. Unfortunately, the online system is disconnected from our telephone ordering system. I need to monitor the metrics I talked about so I can make sure our sales stay strong and identify weak areas; I want to make sure we stay a multi-million dollar company. Who knew selling doors could be so profitable?”
Sivad: “The next step would be to understand where your data is located, and how to consolidate it for you.”
This is a great next step and a great place to continue in the next article.
Story Recap:
To begin creating a dashboard from a software developer’s point of view it’s important to understand the company’s business and to identify the current business process. Using this information establishes a foundation for creating the right dashboard for the end user; in this case, a Sales Executive in the custom door service industry is looking for a high level picture of how well his sales are doing relative to the region and his representatives. In addition, this article covers why a custom dashboard solution is necessary.
*Author’s Note: I do not claim to be a Business Analyst. These metrics may not be the most relevant and may not encompass all the metrics necessary for a Sales Executive, but I hope they help keep things simple.