Do bad sales months often take you by surprise? If so, don’t forget the power of a flash report — that is, a snapshot of critical data for quick, timely viewing every day or week.
One specific way to use flash reports is to track bookings vs. shippings. Doing so can help you determine what percentage of volume for certain months should be booked by specific dates. These reports are particularly useful if more than 30 days elapse between these activities.
Get Super Specific
Here’s how your flash report might work:
- Every workday, record the new orders taken (bookings) and the orders filled (shippings).
- Sort the flash report by order date and subtotal the sales amounts at various points in time before the last day of the month.
- Look at how many of the month’s shipped orders are booked 60, 45, 30 and 15 days before the end of the month. If you don’t have this historical data, start recording it for at least three months to establish meaningful trends.
- Once you know the timeframes of your bookings and shippings, share this activity with your sales staff. Display the totals of bookings and shippings by salesperson on the flash report. Use the percentage of business that ideally should be booked at certain time intervals. This can help establish individual sales goals and compare your progress with these goals.
See the Future
Don’t wait until month’s end to discover that your sales weren’t up to your desired results. With flash reports, you can tell in advance that sales performance is lagging and have enough time to take corrective action. What’s more, today’s business dashboard software can enable you to generate this data more quickly than ever. For more information about flash reports and help developing your own reports specific to your company’s needs, please contact us.
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