Successforce Blog
Service and Support Dashboard on the AppExchange
I noticed
that there was a pretty good Service and Support dashboard posted on the
AppExchange. It tracks things like service quality, customers and channels, and
agent productivity. It’s a great starting point for building your own
dashboards. You can download it for free from the AppExchange and the whole
installation process takes less than two minutes. Once you have it set up in
your org, you can drill down into the reports, see how they were set up, and
tweak them to fit the needs of your business.
I’d love to see more of these dashboards for things like Sales, Marketing, and Competitive Intelligence. Does anyone have a good dashboard they’d like to share? Publish it on the AppExchange and we'll write it up.
Service and Support Dashboard on the AppExchange
I noticed
that there was a pretty good Service and Support dashboard posted on the
AppExchange. It tracks things like service quality, customers and channels, and
agent productivity. It’s a great starting point for building your own
dashboards. You can download it for free from the AppExchange and the whole
installation process takes less than two minutes. Once you have it set up in
your org, you can drill down into the reports, see how they were set up, and
tweak them to fit the needs of your business.
I’d love to see more of these dashboards for things like Sales, Marketing, and Competitive Intelligence. Does anyone have a good dashboard they’d like to share? Publish it on the AppExchange and we'll write it up.
Quick Win to Reduce Channel Conflict
Deal registration is a PRM (partner relationship management) strategy used to reward partners for early registration of approved deals. There are many ways to make this a reality using Salesforce.com. One cost effective way is to use web 2 lead. This feature offers an extensible way to capture partner deal registrations and extend your enterprise to your partners.
Here is a link to a customer that is benefiting from a salesforce driven deal registration program: Click here for F5 Networks Web 2 Lead Deal Registration Form. You can see the types of questions this company requires its partners to answer in order to have 
their deal registrations approved. Using custom fields, page layouts, record types, web 2 lead, workflow, assignment rules, and reports/dashboards, this company is able to reduce channel conflict, increase channel revenues, and improve partner loyalty. Here is a sample dashboard showing the result of partner deal registrations. This dashboard demonstrates the benefits of having an integrated SFA and PRM system. If you're interested in some guidance or support to set up your own deal registration program feel free to contact product management at Salesforce.
Quick Win to Reduce Channel Conflict
Deal registration is a PRM (partner relationship management) strategy used to reward partners for early registration of approved deals. There are many ways to make this a reality using Salesforce.com. One cost effective way is to use web 2 lead. This feature offers an extensible way to capture partner deal registrations and extend your enterprise to your partners.
Here is a link to a customer that is benefiting from a salesforce driven deal registration program: Click here for F5 Networks Web 2 Lead Deal Registration Form. You can see the types of questions this company requires its partners to answer in order to have their deal registrations approved. Using custom fields, page layouts, record types, web 2 lead, workflow, assignment rules, and reports/dashboards, this company is able to reduce channel conflict, increase channel revenues, and improve partner loyalty. Here is a sample dashboard showing the result of partner deal registrations. This dashboard demonstrates the benefits of having an integrated SFA and PRM system. If you're interested in some guidance or support to set up your own deal registration program feel free to contact product management at Salesforce.
Partner Visibility App Launched by Sigmatrak
Point of Sale (POS) data is the holy grail of channel management. Sigmatrak has successfully solved this age old mystery with their B2B messaging appliance. Their equipment improves the accuracy and consistency of data that is passed between trading partners. Now, the data that is processed, is inte
grated with Salesforce and is mapped to partner and customer accounts. Using Sigmatrak and Salesforce.com together, empowers sales and channel executives to know exactly what their partners are selling and who they are selling to. Channel sales activity is analyzed, inventory levels are tracked, and rebate claims are reconciled. Click here to take a test drive or install this AppExchange application. I really like the service monitor feature which demonstrates, on a Google Map, the locations of the messaging appliance within a partner community. It really brings the idea of a channel coverage map to life. Imagine having this powerful data and appliance inside your Salesforce.com system?
Partner Visibility App Launched by Sigmatrak
Point of Sale (POS) data is the holy grail of channel management. Sigmatrak has successfully solved this age old mystery with their B2B messaging appliance. Their equipment improves the accuracy and consistency of data that is passed between trading partners. Now, the data that is processed, is integrated with Salesforce and is mapped to partner and customer accounts. Using Sigmatrak and Salesforce.com together, empowers sales and channel executives to know exactly what their partners are selling and who they are selling to. Channel sales activity is analyzed, inventory levels are tracked, and rebate claims are reconciled. Click here to take a test drive or install this AppExchange application. I really like the service monitor feature which demonstrates, on a Google Map, the locations of the messaging appliance within a partner community. It really brings the idea of a channel coverage map to life. Imagine having this powerful data and appliance inside your Salesforce.com system?
Reporting Success Benchmark
In October we introduced a new success benchmark around custom reports. To get the most out of salesforce.com it’s vital that your reps have the confidence to build their own reports and tweak them over time.
To train your reps we recommend that you require them to start with three simple reports.
- Build a list of contacts and accounts using salesforce.com
- Set up a report to display your tasks and completed activities
- Create a customized report listing the opportunities in your pipeline
As a manager or salesforce.com administrator it’s worth taking 20 minutes out of your team meeting to go through this exercise step-by-step and answer any questions they might have. Once they’ve set up a report, have them click “save as.” Explain that they can save reports to public folders which everyone can see or private folders which only they have access to. For the purposes of this exercise have them add it to “My Personal Custom Reports Folder.”
Reporting Success Benchmark
In October we introduced a new success benchmark around custom reports. To get the most out of salesforce.com it’s vital that your reps have the confidence to build their own reports and tweak them over time.
To train your reps we recommend that you require them to start with three simple reports.
- Build a list of contacts and accounts using salesforce.com
- Set up a report to display your tasks and completed activities
- Create a customized report listing the opportunities in your pipeline
As a manager or salesforce.com administrator it’s worth taking 20 minutes out of your team meeting to go through this exercise step-by-step and answer any questions they might have. Once they’ve set up a report, have them click “save as.” Explain that they can save reports to public folders which everyone can see or private folders which only they have access to. For the purposes of this exercise have them add it to “My Personal Custom Reports Folder.”
Create Groupings Using Custom Formula Fields
The
Summer ’05 release has already started to change the way I analyze data in
salesforce.com, bringing forward trends that were once hard to distinguish.
The first
formula I’ve started using is a simple average calculation. For example, you
might want to divide the number of employees by the number of users to
calculate your penetration in an account.
{!Number_Users}
/ {!Number_Employees}
Note that that you'll have to substitute your custom fields when building this formula but it shows you the basic design pattern.
This
calculation is very similar to the way analysts do a Price/Earnings ratio so
that they can get an apples to apples comparison.
I’ve also
found that I’m using custom formula fields helps with categorization. For example,
on the account record you might have the number of employees but for reporting purposes you want to create buckets. To do so you can create a nested if
statement that looks something like this.
IF({!Employees}
= 0, "",
IF({!Employees} <50, "Tier 1",
IF({!Employees} <= 200, "Tier 2",
IF({!Employees} <=500, "Tier 3",
IF( {!Employees} <= 1,000, "Tier 4",
With these two data points you can create a report to measure penetration at different tiers. I’ve left the stage, summary fields, and tier
thresholds blank but it should be enough to spark some ideas for your
organization.
To learn more about how custom formula fields work, I highly recommend Getting Started with Custom Formula Fields presentation and the Custom Formula Field Blog.
Create Groupings Using Custom Formula Fields
The
Summer ’05 release has already started to change the way I analyze data in
salesforce.com, bringing forward trends that were once hard to distinguish.
The first
formula I’ve started using is a simple average calculation. For example, you
might want to divide the number of employees by the number of users to
calculate your penetration in an account.
{!Number_Users}
/ {!Number_Employees}
Note that that you'll have to substitute your custom fields when building this formula but it shows you the basic design pattern.
This
calculation is very similar to the way analysts do a Price/Earnings ratio so
that they can get an apples to apples comparison.
I’ve also
found that I’m using custom formula fields helps with categorization. For example,
on the account record you might have the number of employees but for reporting purposes you want to create buckets. To do so you can create a nested if
statement that looks something like this.
IF({!Employees}
= 0, "",
IF({!Employees} <50, "Tier 1",
IF({!Employees} <= 200, "Tier 2",
IF({!Employees} <=500, "Tier 3",
IF( {!Employees} <= 1,000, "Tier 4",
With these two data points you can create a report to measure penetration at different tiers. I’ve left the stage, summary fields, and tier
thresholds blank but it should be enough to spark some ideas for your
organization.
To learn more about how custom formula fields work, I highly recommend Getting Started with Custom Formula Fields presentation and the Custom Formula Field Blog.
Numbering Picklist Values
This might be stating the obvious, but a good best
practice is to number status values so that they are easier to scan and appear
in order on your reports.
For example, the lead status field might read;
- Open
- Working
- Qualified
- Archived
You can apply the same logic to campaigns,
opportunities, and other entities.
Numbering Picklist Values
This might be stating the obvious, but a good best
practice is to number status values so that they are easier to scan and appear
in order on your reports.
For example, the lead status field might read;
- Open
- Working
- Qualified
- Archived
You can apply the same logic to campaigns,
opportunities, and other entities.
Trending Reports
Here is a great way to chart performance month over
month. This is ideal for tracking closed business throughout the month
and comparing your progress against previous months. The chart
will plot cumulative totals each day as the month progresses and show you some
very insightful trends. Give it a try.
At the select grouping step, follow these
instructions.
Close Date, Ascending, Day in Month
and then by
Close
Month, Ascending, Month
Do not specify any column headings.
Proceed to Select Criteria and set the appropriate
time (FQ, Month, etc) and opportunity parameters (any, closed won etc).
Trending Reports
Here is a great way to chart performance month over
month. This is ideal for tracking closed business throughout the month
and comparing your progress against previous months. The chart
will plot cumulative totals each day as the month progresses and show you some
very insightful trends. Give it a try.
At the select grouping step, follow these
instructions.
Close Date, Ascending, Day in Month
and then by
Close
Month, Ascending, Month
Do not specify any column headings.
Proceed to Select Criteria and set the appropriate
time (FQ, Month, etc) and opportunity parameters (any, closed won etc).
Competitive Intelligence Dashboard
In the attached screenshot you’ll see an example of how you might use salesforce.com to track your competitors.
The first column in our sample dashboard displays wins and losses by competitor. Obviously the goal is to have greater weighting in blue than red across your primary competitors. Not pictured here, but other good dashboard might be a cumulative line graph showing losses or wins over the past 12 months against each of your competitors. While these numbers can often be skewed by a big deal, they can sometimes show who’s gaining on who.
The table below displays the top competitive wins / losses by competitor. If you want to take this step further you might want to create another chart to display reason for loss.
The next two columns in the dashboard are used to view pipeline participation by each of the competitor as well as the pipeline value in which you are ahead, behind, and even with your competition. Once again, you might also add the top deals where you are ahead or behind a specific competitor.
Competitive Intelligence Dashboard
In the attached screenshot you’ll see an example of how you might use salesforce.com to track your competitors.
The first column in our sample dashboard displays wins and losses by competitor. Obviously the goal is to have greater weighting in blue than red across your primary competitors. Not pictured here, but other good dashboard might be a cumulative line graph showing losses or wins over the past 12 months against each of your competitors. While these numbers can often be skewed by a big deal, they can sometimes show who’s gaining on who.
The table below displays the top competitive wins / losses by competitor. If you want to take this step further you might want to create another chart to display reason for loss.
The next two columns in the dashboard are used to view pipeline participation by each of the competitor as well as the pipeline value in which you are ahead, behind, and even with your competition. Once again, you might also add the top deals where you are ahead or behind a specific competitor.
Customer Dashboard Gallery
Here is a
link to the customer dashboard gallery we did last May. There are some great
dashboard ideas you might revisit.
Customer
Dashboard Gallery
Customer Dashboard Gallery
Here is a
link to the customer dashboard gallery we did last May. There are some great
dashboard ideas you might revisit.
Customer
Dashboard Gallery
Peer Performance Dashboard
At
salesforce.com we have a two tiered sales team, one which qualifies leads and
the other which closes business. One challenge with this model is finding a
good metric to compensate the inside sales team or the team that qualifies the
lead. In this dashboard you can se that we track three numbers. The number of
converted leads which reach 20% provides a leading indicator to make sure the
rep is on track and building enough pipeline. The next is the number of closed
deals which creates incentives to work all leads and do what they can to build
momentum. And finally, the amount of closed revenue which makes sure they work
the big leads more aggressively than the small leads. The second goal of this
dashboard is to help the sales manager compare apples to apples. Each rep takes
time to get up to speed yet most of the reports that are run don’t take that
into account. For each incoming class of reps we have created a peer
performance dashboard. This gives me some sense of how long it takes for reps
to ramp and it shows which reps are most deserving of being promoted.
Peer Performance Dashboard
At
salesforce.com we have a two tiered sales team, one which qualifies leads and
the other which closes business. One challenge with this model is finding a
good metric to compensate the inside sales team or the team that qualifies the
lead. In this dashboard you can se that we track three numbers. The number of
converted leads which reach 20% provides a leading indicator to make sure the
rep is on track and building enough pipeline. The next is the number of closed
deals which creates incentives to work all leads and do what they can to build
momentum. And finally, the amount of closed revenue which makes sure they work
the big leads more aggressively than the small leads. The second goal of this
dashboard is to help the sales manager compare apples to apples. Each rep takes
time to get up to speed yet most of the reports that are run don’t take that
into account. For each incoming class of reps we have created a peer
performance dashboard. This gives me some sense of how long it takes for reps
to ramp and it shows which reps are most deserving of being promoted.
Data Quality Dashboard
One
critical element of managing a team is watch over workload and data quality.
The
second dashboard depicts open tasks. It’s very easy for reps to get in the
habit of setting tasks and never closing them out. This hurts collaboration in
a significant way because when a task list becomes unrulely it’s very likely a
rep will miss a new task assigned to them. It also means that someone at some
point in time is going to have to delete the task for them. In any event, that’s
why we decided to crack down and put in place a policy where in there should
never be more than 100 overdue task.
Data Quality Dashboard
One
critical element of managing a team is watch over workload and data quality.
The
second dashboard depicts open tasks. It’s very easy for reps to get in the
habit of setting tasks and never closing them out. This hurts collaboration in
a significant way because when a task list becomes unrulely it’s very likely a
rep will miss a new task assigned to them. It also means that someone at some
point in time is going to have to delete the task for them. In any event, that’s
why we decided to crack down and put in place a policy where in there should
never be more than 100 overdue task.
Team Challenge
When I
was working with our inside sales team it quickly became apparent that there
was a big gap between the top of the class and the bottom. With a large group
of reps to manage I realized that the fast way to turn things around was
through competition, peer pressure, and team mentoring.
I paired up two senior reps
who were consistently hitting their number with one junior person who was
struggling. I then created a dashboard with all six teams and put in place a
small spiff for the two teams who finished on top. With five sales days left in
the month, all of the junior reps have made dramatic improvement. We’ll give it
a try again next month and see if we continue to see progress.
Team Challenge
When I
was working with our inside sales team it quickly became apparent that there
was a big gap between the top of the class and the bottom. With a large group
of reps to manage I realized that the fast way to turn things around was
through competition, peer pressure, and team mentoring.
I paired up two senior reps
who were consistently hitting their number with one junior person who was
struggling. I then created a dashboard with all six teams and put in place a
small spiff for the two teams who finished on top. With five sales days left in
the month, all of the junior reps have made dramatic improvement. We’ll give it
a try again next month and see if we continue to see progress.
Snag-it and Dashboards
There is a great screen capture tool called Snag-It which I
would recommend to just about anyone. The closest thing I can equate it to is
have a good pair of scissors at your desk. As a sales manager, one way I use
snag-it is to create quick snapshots of a dashboard element that I want to
bring attention to. I then do a quick annotation to emphasis what I’m seeing,
and then I send it out to the team.
For example, “Hey guys take a look, Conor hit his
number today. Congratulations! Carly, Anish, Jen, Jared, and Dana are inching
closer. Who will be next?”
As a manager this is a great way to drive adoption
because the reps realize that you are watching dashboards intensely and
rewarding behavior accordingly.
Snag-it and Dashboards
There is a great screen capture tool called Snag-It which I
would recommend to just about anyone. The closest thing I can equate it to is
have a good pair of scissors at your desk. As a sales manager, one way I use
snag-it is to create quick snapshots of a dashboard element that I want to
bring attention to. I then do a quick annotation to emphasis what I’m seeing,
and then I send it out to the team.
For example, “Hey guys take a look, Conor hit his
number today. Congratulations! Carly, Anish, Jen, Jared, and Dana are inching
closer. Who will be next?”
As a manager this is a great way to drive adoption
because the reps realize that you are watching dashboards intensely and
rewarding behavior accordingly.
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