How To Choose the Best Sales Tracking Software for Business

By Dhwani Madan | Sales

Modern business is dominated by data. That makes sense. Without adequate knowledge of statistics, KPIs, and other analyzes, it is difficult to make accurate decisions and improve business performance. 

If you do not know where your best customers come from; the best times to contact them by phone, text message, or email; and where there are leaks from your sales funnel, you will have trouble regularly reaching your sales quotas. Fortunately, there are sales tracking software so you can get the data you need! You need to know which software is best for you.

There are many sales tracking tools on the market. Some are designed for business, others for individual sales operations. In addition, internal and external marketing teams have different needs, as do their management professional.

Suffice it to say that there are many variables in the game and it can be difficult to choose a solution that meets everyone’s needs and ensures wide acceptance by society. To choose the right tracking solution, you need to know exactly what you are looking for.

Here we’ll look at what sales tracking software is and the 12 questions you need to ask yourself to choose the right tool for your team.

A brief overview about sales tracking software

Sales tracking software is a tool that helps merchants track their sales (such as reports). If you see the data generated by your marketing efforts, you can analyze the numbers and optimize your sales processes.

Sales tracking software helps teams:

  • Organize your data and review key metrics
  • Present relevant data to key stakeholders – representatives, managers, and administrators
  • Identify bottlenecks throughout the sales line
  • Explain how specific sales activities drive sales goals
  • Achieve sales quotas more consistently
  • Manage team goals and individual contribution
  • Ensure accurate sales forecasts

While a sales tracking tool will undoubtedly benefit your organization, it is difficult to choose the right platform for the unique needs of your business. In order for retailers to make the right decision, they need to ask the right questions. Let’s have a look at them.

1. Inside or Outside Sales tracking

The first thing you need to ask while choosing a sales tracking tool is who is this particular application for?

Internal and external sales teams require different levels of understanding to meet their sales quotas. What team are you on? If you are involved in field marketing, you will probably want to track activities and achievements at the territory level.

By answering this question first, you will almost immediately remove many bad solutions from your list. Your company can use the tool to integrate field sales and tracking capabilities with your existing CRM. This will allow you to get the data you need while still using the tools you already know and love to use.

2. Type of Sales Data Do You Need to Report On

Next, ask yourself what sales data you should report. Not all solutions give you access to the same data points, so the most important thing is to know what you need.

Field teams often have to analyze and break down revenue data by territory. But does your team also need access to an activity-level and team-level representative? And what about management? Do they need a specific type of report to properly evaluate performance and measure progress toward sales goals?

Make a list of all the data points you need in your sales tracking software to create and maintain a document that is useful in researching the various solutions.

3. Track Multi-Channel Sales Activity

The sales tracking software you choose should be able to track all the channels you use – online and offline.

Before you decide on a specific solution, make sure that the tool can quickly retrieve and enter your data. Otherwise, the reports you generate will be inaccurate and will result in your marketing processes.

The sales tracking tool you choose must have a user-friendly interface that will allow you to create reports easily and quickly. It should also be able to integrate with other business tools such as Google Analytics and Salesforce so that all the data is collected in one place for easy access when needed.

4. Easy To Build Reports

When it comes to sales reports, you want something that makes generating them easy. You should be able to segment and visualize your data in different ways so managers can get an accurate view of daily activities as well as how they affect both revenue streams for their company or department.

Managers want to see what’s happening across the organization, and they want information that tells them how their team is doing relative to the other teams within their division or department. To help managers see the big picture, you need a tool that allows you to generate customer-focused reports for each division, department, and field rep. managers can see where lines of business are trending and where there may be opportunities for more efficient use of resources.

A good sales tracking tool gives you the ability to generate visual representations of your data. In addition to tables, charts and graphs can provide a quick look at key performance indicators (KPIs) such as average order size or average time between transactions. With all of the sales data at your fingertips, you can generate rich business intelligence reports to help you make more informed decisions about how to optimize your sales processes and close more deals.

5. Level of Customization

Every business is different and your sales team has a specific way of doing things. If your chosen sales tracking tool doesn’t allow custom reports, you’ll have trouble presenting data in a meaningful way to stakeholders.

Choose a sales tracking tool that is flexible to your team’s needs – both the data points you can track and the ways you can visualize that data.

Don’t ignore this idea and choose a solution for every possible bell and whistle. Customization is nice, but so is simplicity. Try to find a tool that is just as flexible and does not require rocket science education to function properly.

For example, the tool should give users access to their statuses, allowing you to participate in the tool’s unique sales processes.

6. Activity-Level tracking

Annual goals can be achieved through daily activities. If your sales compilation tool doesn’t allow you to track daily activity, you may know later that you’re in the wrong process.

Make sure the tracking solution you use shows how you can turn your day-to-day efforts into leads, leads, and clients on a weekly and monthly basis – or not. This way you can get this information and you can adjust your sales strategy and also duplicate winning tactics.

For example, you might want to track the number of emails sent, conversations made, social media conversations booked appointments, and so on.

7. Automated Notifications

Quickness is important when selling. The faster you make deals, the less time you give your potential customers to cool down and enter your competition and set up sales.

Therefore, we recommend that you choose revenue tracking software with automatic email notifications that can be triggered by specific events. Wouldn’t it be great to know, for example, when a potential customer downloads a white paper from your site? You can easily use this information to measure future interest and progress in your pipeline. Your tracking tool should give you access to important data points and allow you to move faster than ever before.

8. Integrate with Other Data Sources

The thing is: almost every company uses multiple pieces of software to perform operations. No application can do everything a modern company needs. This fact makes integration opportunities a real problem.

Find out if or not your existing technology stack will connect with the sales tracking tools you are considering – and whether the integration is endless or not.

9. Data security

Data security has always been a major issue. Many major brands have been hit by hot water by not protecting their customers’ private data. You don’t like these companies! Find a sales tracking tool dedicated to data security.

While this is not the most interesting part you should look for, it is very important and will ensure the security of your customer and business data.

10) Pricing Scale

Budget is an ever-present concern for most businesses. You need to make sure that you can afford the sales tracking tool you’re interested in. But you also need to check to see how pricing scales for the solution, too.

The last thing you want to do is onboard a new tracking solution, only to realize that prices skyrocket as your team and/or sales activity increases. 

Take the time to understand how pricing will change as your team and operations scale. Cost is often the deciding factor between similar solutions and can make choosing between two options much easier.

11. Customer Reviews

At this point, you may have narrowed your search to just a few sales tracking software options. Now you need to see what past and current users have said about this tool.

This is so important! A specific solution can have any component you need and is within budget. But if much of its user base says the device is unusable or buggy, you should seriously consider investing in something else.

So read as many reviews as possible on sites like Cloudfindr. Even better, if you can, talk to current users about their experiences.

12)  Customer Support

Lastly, consider customer support when deciding which sales tracking tool to use for your business. It is not good to work with rough help.

How do you know which solutions offer quality support? You should get a good idea by reading product reviews, your interactions with the tool sales team, and the quality of help you receive during the free trial.

Best Sales Tracking Software for Business

PipedriveInsightly
HubSpot CRMAgile CRM
Bitrix24Close CRM
SugarCRMSalesforce CRM
Vtiger Sales CRMZoho CRM
CydecDaylite
PodiumOctopus CRM
Freshworks CRMAllClients
1CRM3dcart

Conclusion

One of the most difficult tasks in sales management is keeping a team focused on their goals and generating revenue. The ability to provide direction for sales reps can be challenging, especially if it’s done manually.

Sales managers often find themselves juggling multiple priorities at any given time. It’s not uncommon for them to spend hours daily trying to keep track of every single activity happening in their teams while also dealing with their own responsibilities – all while trying to grow their business!

With the right sales tracking software, they’ll be able to provide direction for their team and increase productivity. Start by identifying what benefits are needed from a tool of choice (such as increased collaboration or customer contact), then review their features so they can meet those requirements effectively with pricing determined accordingly!