Maintaining a monthly sales report is a significant part of your business. A business owner's monthly sales report helps you with what's working and not inside your company.
So you can make informed business decisions and improve your sales strategy.
Apart from meeting targets, monthly sales managers expect you to create and present reports to the senior management and stakeholders inside your business, giving them a detailed insight into the sales activity.
Here is a way how you can prepare a better monthly sales report that offers accurate insights into your monthly business while keeping readers engaged and intact:
Set Your Goals:
The first and most important step while creating a monthly sales report is who you are making your monthly sales report and what they need to learn. It will help you with what your document should contain and how to shape it.
You asked to present the monthly sales activity report to your boss, the head of sales. You want to showcase the sales team's productivity or superfluity and how it will connect to the larger revenue goals for the company.
So, if you are writing a monthly sales report, narrow down your purpose, write the relevant details, and for whom you are writing your monthly sales report.
Decide Your Time Frame:
Defining a time frame for your business is one of the most important aspects of your small business; it is critical as it lets your business present the most detailed and accurate picture of your monthly business.
It makes comparisons, analyses trends and comes to logical conclusions quite easier.
As you are working on a monthly report, there is no reason to look into data from the beginning of the year. Instead, it would be best if you focused on analyzing the sales performance of your small business for that particular month.
Collect Appropriate Data:
As you have established your goal, time frame and depth of reporting expected by you in your monthly sales report. Now, you need to decide the right set of data or which data you should include and exclude in your monthly sales report.
You should carefully include:
- The sales revenue and costs.
- Period-to-period KPI change
- Progress toward sales goals.
- Sales by product or service.
- Sales forecasts.
- Future sales plans.
Explain Your Data Thoroughly:
Once you collected all sets of data and presentation. You now have to decide which data collection is essential and what it will mean for your audience.
Either you are presenting your data to your subordinates or managers– in that case– You should conceptualize it carefully as they want to know the interpretation of the data you have presented in front of them.
Analyze your monthly sales performance, assess patterns and make evaluations to identify gaps in the sales process and uncover opportunities. Explaining your data is critical for your monthly sales report presentation.
It Should Be Eye-Catching:
Sales is a numbers game, but the text and numbers together may not make your monthly sales report unique and engage your audience. As a professional monthly sales creator, you have to visualize your data with charts, graphs, tables, and other infographics to make your sales report easier to digest.
Visuals are critical for your monthly sales report because they communicate the message without overwhelming the reader. It may give enough insights about your business, and your audience can quickly grasp a large set of data as they don't need to go through a large group of text.
Write a Summary:
You should start your monthly sales report with a one-page summary, as it gives an outlook to your readers of what they can expect in your monthly sales report.
It is a handy tool when you present an in-depth report to top-level executives or senior management who don't have the time to read the monthly reports.
You should use lighter words in your monthly sales report and consider using visuals to present it and capture attention while sticking to a consistent colour scheme.
It's Best to End With an Action Plan:
The best monthly sales reports are action-oriented, giving you an action plan based on monthly sales performance. Suppose your monthly sales are falling; it's essential to state a clear action plan asserting your strategy for the upcoming month and how you plan to increase sales.
Ending your monthly sales report with a definite action plan that addresses the gaps and loopholes. You may seek the Vyapar monthly sales report generator to create your account, and it helps you with all essential tools and information, which makes your report more powerful and eye-catching.