Enhanced Forecasting Out-of-the-Box Visualizations: a Comprehensive Guide

We've recently posted about our fantastic reporting and analytics capabilities available with Enhanced Forecasting, part of Sugar Sell Premier. Now, we're pulling out all the stops and introducing you to all the available out-of-the-box visualizations, their purpose, and how you can use them within your business.

Consider the following breakdown by visualization function, then see a full description of each visualization's purpose and related use cases by clicking the links.

PERFORMANCE

Here are some reasons why sales pipeline performance is important:

• It can help a team monitor their progress and see what needs to happen to increase revenue.
• It provides an overview of all deals, including their value, at any given time.
• A sales pipeline allows you to improve your sales process, forecast future business results, and analyze different sales strategies.
• It provides a visual representation of where new leads are in the sales funnel stages.
• A reliable pipeline can help you create a forecast for future revenue.
• A well-managed sales pipeline can help you measure performance and estimate the number of deals you can expect to close each quarter.

With Enhanced Forecasting, you can see your top performance metrics at a glance. Easily manage your team with individual performance views, or toggle over to see your full pipeline and forecast metrics and how they've changed over time.

Top 10 Reps for Idle Opportunities

• See Idle Opportunities Trends Monthly for more info. In Enhanced Forecasting, Idle opportunities are opportunities that have been in the same stage for more than 30 days.

This visualization shows the 10 sellers with the current highest number of idle opportunities expected to close within the current quarter and the next calendar quarter. It can help you identify individuals who may need help to progress their sales deals. This visualization includes opportunities created within the last 2 years.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Which reps have the highest number of stalled opportunities expected to close this quarter and next quarter?

Use the visualization to:

• Determine which reps may need additional coaching or follow-up.

Funnel Flow Analysis

• A sales funnel flow analysis helps users understand the steps required to close a deal and where deals sit in each step.

This visualization illustrates how opportunities flowed through your sales cycle. The y-axis represents each sales stage in your sales process, and the color stacks represent which stage the opportunity transitioned to for all activity over the past year. This visualization does not include Closed Won and Closed Lost as beginning sales stages.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Where are deals dropping out of the sales process?
• Are we investing too much time on deals that we eventually lose?

Use the visualization to:

• Create/modify sales playbooks and training to help move stagnant deals forward in stages where they normally get stuck or drop.
• Add additional management check-ins for sales support as deals progress (especially in "at risk" stages).

Current Quarter Forecast Changes Since Last Week

This visualization shows how the forecast has changed in the last 7 days, with the total forecasted pipeline at the beginning (i.e., 7 days ago) and end (i.e., today) of the week as blue bars on the left and right of the chart, respectively. Between the blue bars, green, red, and yellow bars display increases, decreases, and closed won opportunities. Increases and decreases are further subdivided based on the type of activity that increased or decreased in value from the forecast.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• How did my forecasted pipeline change over the last week?
• Where are we gaining or losing the most opportunities from our pipeline?

Use the visualization to:

• Keep track of what changes are happening within your current quarter forecast over time (e.g., from week to week).
• Identify risks, spot upside opportunities, and make accurate forecast commitments.
• Find out how many deals that were expected to close this quarter were closed in the last week.

VELOCITY

Here are some reasons why measuring sales velocity is important:

• Sales pipeline velocity tells you how fast deals move through a sales pipeline.
• Pipeline velocity is a valuable metric for companies of all sizes because it can help sales leaders forecast revenue, evaluate their sales process, and find ways to accelerate their sales cycle.
• Sales velocity can also reflect the health and productivity of a sales team and show areas where the sales process could be improved.
• The higher the sales velocity, the more money a sales organization makes in each timeframe.

Use these visualizations to track sales velocity over time and across the stages of your marketing and sales funnels.

Sales Velocity by Stage

• Sales velocity is the speed at which leads and opportunities move down and out of your sales funnel. You can also refer to this as "deal velocity." Factors that affect sales velocity include the number of opportunities in the pipeline, average deal size, conversion rate, and how long it takes to complete a sale.

This visualization shows the average days spent in each stage of your sales process for opportunities that transitioned through those stages during the last 10 months. Users can see where sales velocity is increasing or decreasing in specific areas of the sales process and in which month(s) the sales velocity was slow or fast. This visualization does not include any opportunities that are closed won or close lost.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Where are deals getting stuck in the sales process?
• Are my company's efforts to increase velocity around the qualification process successful?

Use the visualization to:

• Understand how long deals typically stay in each stage of the sales process.
• Create sales playbooks that help sales reps move deals forward faster in "stuck" areas.
• Understand how sales velocity by stage has changed over time and tweak sales or marketing campaigns to ensure future success.

Funnel Velocity & Conversion

• Funnel (or sales) velocity is the rate at which an individual moves through the marketing funnel, from awareness (top of the funnel) to decision (bottom of the funnel). In Enhanced Forecasting, this visualization shows what has happened to all opportunities that were created in the past year, giving the user a view of how they pass through the Sales Stages from top to bottom. This chart excludes opportunities that are in the Closed Lost stage so that the user can focus on the active pipeline.

The values along the left side of the funnel show the average number of days that the opportunities stayed in that stage of the sales cycle. These values only include the records that flowed through a given stage and ignore records that either have yet to progress that far, skipped that stage in the sales process, or spent under a day in the stage.

Each funnel stage (horizontal bar) provides the number of records that progressed at least that far in the sales cycle. Records can have spent time outside the stage to be considered part of this count. The percentage between the stages indicates what percent of the previous stage got at least as far as the next stage.

At the bottom of the funnel, there are two summary metrics.

• Total Funnel Conversion = Number of Closed Won ÷ Total number of records in the cohort
• Average Cycle Time = Average sales cycle length in days for Closed Won Opportunities

This visualization does not support drill-down. However, it does support comparisons with the ability to highlight relevant data.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• What are our conversion rate (count) and average sales cycle length for opportunities created last year?
• Where are deals spending the most time in the sales cycle?

Use the visualization to:

• Determine how you are performing in one segment and how much that segment impacts the whole.
• Consider new approaches to sales marketing, including spending additional efforts in parts of the funnel where deals often get "stuck."
• Update sales playbooks to push deals forward at sticking points.

Funnel Velocity & Revenue Conversion

•  See Funnel Velocity & Conversion for more information.

This visualization is like the Funnel Velocity & Conversion Visualization, except instead of viewing conversion based on opportunity count, it is based on the sum of revenue dollars. It includes opportunities that were created in the past year and excludes opportunities that are in the Closed Lost stage. The revenue associated with each record is the revenue when the record entered the stage.

This visualization does not support drill-down.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• What are our conversion rate (revenue) and average sales cycle length for opportunities created last year?
• Where are deals spending the most time in the sales cycle?

Use the visualization to:

• Determine how much revenue is attributed to each segment and how much that segment impacts the whole.
• Consider new approaches to sales marketing, including spending additional efforts in parts of the funnel where deals often get "stuck."
• Update sales playbooks to push deals forward at sticking points.

TRENDS

Here are some reasons why sales pipeline trends are important:

• Trends can help managers understand the size of their sales pipeline over time.
• Trends can help managers predict future sales, set realistic targets, and allocate resources.
• Trends can help managers identify strong and weak points in the business cycle.
• A well-managed sales pipeline can identify bottlenecks and gaps and take proactive measures to ensure a smooth flow of opportunities.
• Sales pipeline analysis can provide insights to optimize sales performance and drive revenue growth.
• Sales pipeline forecasting can calculate the probability of a deal based on how long it has been in the sales pipeline.
• A visible sales pipeline can help a team monitor progress and understand what needs to happen to boost revenue.
• Sales pipeline analysis can help businesses make informed decisions, anticipate market fluctuations, and maintain a competitive edge.

Use these visualizations to quickly see key business trends over time, including average deal size, win rates, sales cycles, and idle opportunities.

Average Deal Size Trend

• Your average deal size is the average size of your deals. It is the total revenue achieved in a set period (e.g., a month, a quarter, a year) divided by the number of closed-won opportunities for that segment.

This visualization shows the average deal size for opportunities with expected close dates in each of the last 10 months so that you can find positive or negative trends within key business segments.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• In which business segments is our average deal size increasing or decreasing?
• How is our average deal size changing over time?

Use this visualization to:

• Monitor the months when your sales team is closing the largest deals and build a more accurate pipeline (e.g., summer months are usually slower).
• Verify or modify your Ideal Customer Profile based on where you're most successful.
• Run cross-sell/upsell promotions as needed to increase average deal size over time.

Win Rate Trend

• Sales win rates—sometimes also called win percentages—represent the percentage of deals that closed. They help gauge a sales rep's (or a sales group's) overall performance in each reporting period.

The win rate is the number of "Closed Won" opportunities with an expected close date in the indicated month and segment divided by the total number of closed items with an expected close date in the indicated month and segment. Closed items include items that are in the "Closed Won" or "Closed Lost" stage.

This visualization shows the win rate for opportunities with expected close dates in each of the last 10 months so that users can see positive or negative trends within specific business segments.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• In which segments of the business is our win rate increasing or decreasing?
• How has our win/loss rate changed over time?

Use this visualization to:

• Understand your win rate over time across business areas, regions, or teams.
• Determine which types of companies, geos, etc., you should invest your marketing dollars for the largest ROI.
• Make more accurate forecast predictions based on past win-rate trends.

Sales Cycle Trend

• The sales cycle length is the number of days between when a "Closed Won" opportunity was created and its expected close date. The sales cycle length takes the average of these values for opportunities with an expected close date in the specified month and segment.

This visualization shows the sales cycle trend for opportunities with expected close dates in each of the last 10 months, helping users see positive or negative trends within specific business segments.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• In which business segments is our average sales cycle length increasing or decreasing?
• How long does it typically take sellers to close a deal?

Use this visualization to:

• Understand the length of your sales cycle by region, business area, or product.
• Accelerate current deals that are lagging.
• Accurately forecast in the present based on past sales cycle trends.
• Implement sales playbooks to optimize sales cycle timeframes.

Idle Opportunities Trend Monthly

• In Enhanced Forecasting, idle opportunities are opportunities that have been in the same stage for more than 30 days.

This visualization shows the number of idle opportunities on the last day of the trailing ten months. This visualization only includes opportunities created within the last 2 years.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Is the number of stalled opportunities trending up or down within key business segments?
• How many stalled opportunities do I have in my pipeline this month/quarter?

Use the visualization to:

• Determine in which industries, regions, or other specific areas sales needs additional encouragement to follow up on leads.
• Find out how your number of current idle opportunities compares to last quarter.

Pipeline Creation Trend

• See this section’s introduction for information on why pipeline creation and tracking are important.

This visualization shows the total pipeline generated over the past six months. Opportunities created in the last six months are segmented by the month in which they were created. The pipeline revenue (bar graph) represents the current value of all opportunities created in the specified month. The breakdown of sections within the column shows what Sales Stage those opportunities are currently in.

It illustrates how quickly the pipeline matures relative to when it was created. The count of opportunities (line chart) provides a visual representation of how many records were created in each month. This means you can quickly assess the relationship between the pipeline amount and the number of sales opportunities generated. In addition, the visualization provides a relative comparison of deals and pipeline generated from month to month.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Are we generating enough pipeline to meet our sales targets given our average sales cycle and win rates?
• Is our pipeline generation trending up or down over the past 6 months?
• How are sales deals progressing after creation?

Use this visualization to:

• See the value and number of opportunities created in each of the last months with which sales stage they are currently in.

FORECAST

Sales pipeline forecasting is important for sales performance because it can help you:

• Define the right stages of the sales cycle.
• Create a sales process that closes deals.
• Calculate the probability of a deal based on how long it's been in the sales pipeline.
• Predict future sales.
• Improve pricing, marketing strategies, and product development.
• Identify inefficiencies in the sales process.
• Make informed decisions about future operations, marketing, and resource allocation.
• Monitor the progress of efforts to boost revenue.
• Make better business decisions and strategize for the future.
• Anticipate future demand and adjust strategies accordingly.
• Efficiently allocate resources for future growth and manage cash flow.
• Sales pipeline forecasting can also help identify the stage of the pipeline where the most customer loss occurs, so you can uncover the cause of the problem and potential remedies.

Use these visualizations to compare past and current forecast performance to build data-backed forecast predictions for the future.

Forecast: Current vs. Prior Quarters

• A sales forecast is an expression of expected sales revenue. It estimates how much your company plans to sell within a certain timeframe.

This visualization shows a historical comparison of your total pipeline for the current quarter compared to the pipeline on the same day in previous quarters. The y-axis displays the likely revenue for opportunities with an expected close date in each quarter. This visualization does not include any opportunities that are closed lost or have moved to the Closed Lost stage. It only includes closed won opportunities and open pipeline.

Each bar also shows Closed Won versus open pipeline (e.g., Committed and Upside) so that you can see how your open pipeline changes over time.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• How does the total pipeline for this quarter compare to the same day from previous quarters?

Use the visualization to:

• Make accurate forecasting predictions based on past performance.
• See a snapshot of your current forecast.
• Visualize trends across time periods.

Forecast Accuracy

• Accurate forecasts help businesses better predict key metrics like future revenue, expenses, profit margins, and net income.

This visualization shows a simple forecast accuracy metric over time. The forecast accuracy calculation is recorded each Friday for the current and the previous calendar quarter.

A forecast accuracy above 100% indicates that the seller overestimated their sales on that day, while a forecast accuracy below 100% indicates that the seller underestimated their sales.

This visualization does not support drill-down.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• How does our forecast accuracy improve over the period?
• Which reps are usually accurate when reporting their forecasts? / Which reps need to be more accurate?

Use the visualization to:

• Understand the accuracy of forecasting at the rep level.
• See how reps compare in forecasting accuracy.
• Make accurate predictions based on past trends.
• Coach/retrain individuals who need to be more accurate in reporting their forecasts.

Top 20 Committed Opportunities This Quarter

• Usually, a committed opportunity means that the sales rep has verbal confirmation that a deal will close.

This visualization displays the top 20 committed opportunities with the highest total likely revenue for the current quarter. This includes opportunities with an expected close date within the current quarter, are included in the forecast (i.e., the Forecast Stage field is set to "Include"), and are not yet marked closed won or closed lost.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Which opportunities are going to produce the most revenue?
• How long until the top opportunities are expected to close?

Use the visualization to:

• Keep an eye on the progress of your current top deals and see which reps own those deals.
• Follow up on deals that are past their expected close date.

Top 20 Upside Opportunities This Quarter

• An upside opportunity is an open opportunity with an expected close date within this quarter but is not committed to the forecast (i.e., the Forecast Stage is set to "Exclude").

This visualization displays the top 20 upside opportunities with the highest total likely revenue for the current quarter. These opportunities have an expected close date within the current quarter, are not committed to the forecast (i.e., the Forecast Stage field is set to "Exclude"), and are not yet marked closed won or closed lost.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Which opportunities that are not currently forecasted are likely to produce revenue this quarter?
• How should I update my forecast based on current upside opportunities?

Use this visualization to:

• Build a more accurate forecast based on new upside opportunities.
• Follow up with reps on upside deals and get updates.

Pipeline: Current and Next Quarter

• The ability to accurately forecast sales helps companies future-proof their strategic vision and run their day-to-day operations effectively. When sales managers compare pipeline across quarters, they can make better predictions.

This visualization shows the total pipeline remaining for the current quarter and the total pipeline for the next quarter in terms of revenue (bar graph), and opportunity count (line plot). The expected close date of the opportunities determines the pipeline each quarter. Pipeline revenue is further broken down by Sales Stage to indicate pipeline maturity. This chart excludes opportunities in the "Closed Lost" stage so you can focus on your active pipeline.

Each column represents the total likely revenue for opportunities with an expected close date in the given month.

Examples of insights that can be gained from this visualization include:

• Do we have enough pipeline to meet our sales targets?
• Are we focusing enough effort on growing next quarter's pipeline?

Use this visualization to:

• See what pipeline is available to your sales team in context with their win rate.
• Uncover the monthly value and count of opportunities expected to close in the next two quarters.

Need additional info?

For additional information, including the fields used for each visualization and additional Enhanced Forecasting capabilities and visualizations, view the support documentation here. Or, check out the learning course here to see these dashboards in action and test your knowledge.