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How to Create a Sales Dashboard: Metrics, Tools, and Best Practices

sales dashboard

Feeling overwhelmed by endless Google Sheets sales dashboard, conflicting reports, and outdated sales metrics? In 2025, relying on generic sales dashboards is like trying to navigate a stormy sea without a compass.

At Nexalab, we watch companies spend precious time wrestling with disjointed data while prime opportunities quietly slip away. That gap between your CRM, marketing platforms, and financial systems isn’t just a headache—it’s a real drain on your bottom line.

What’s needed is a unified, customizable solution to keep a keen eye on your sales pipeline and fuel revenue growth. This is the reason why Octobits takes scattered sales metrics and transforms them into clear, actionable insights. The goal is to show you exactly where your team should focus its energy for the best results.

In this article, we’ll explore how to build a sales dashboard that goes beyond simply displaying data—it’s all about driving smart decisions that directly boost your revenue growth.

What is a Sales Dashboard?

Sales dashboard is a centralized, interactive platform that displays key performance metrics in real-time. The dashboard gives stakeholders instant visibility into sales activities and outcomes.

Unlike a generic data analysis dashboard, a sales-specific view focuses on metrics that matter most to revenue generation, such as deal stages, conversion rate, and overall sales reporting.

These dashboards serve as command centers where teams can monitor local market performance, track regional trends, and make data-backed decisions.

A well-designed sales dashboard example typically features performance visualization, reporting insights, analysis, and a lot of aspects which are arranged in a logical flow. One customised sales dashboard example is Octobits which can display daily sales targets and progress to call immediate action when performance dips below expectations. 

Benefits of a Sales Dashboard

Implementing a robust sales analysis dashboard delivers numerous advantages that directly impact your bottom line. First and foremost, it dramatically streamlines sales reporting, transforming what was once a time-consuming monthly exercise into an automated, real-time process.

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With proper sales automation integration, dashboards provide immediate insights into potential bottlenecks in your sales pipeline. Additionally, a well-constructed revenue dashboard significantly improves forecast accuracy by highlighting historical patterns and current trajectories.

For Australian businesses, the ability to switch between domestic and international views—whether for revenue dashboard or conversion rate metrics—proves especially useful.

Types of Sales Dashboards

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and we have various types of sales dashboard. Think of them like cars: some are built for speed, others for comfort or hauling capacity. Your perfect sales dashboard depends entirely on who’s behind the wheel and where they’re trying to go.

In Nexalab, we’ve seen three distinct flavors emerge:

  • Operational dashboard: This is your daily drivers. This dashboard where the rubber meets the road—showing reps and managers exactly what’s happening right now in your sales performance dashboard. Who’s called whom? Which deals are moving? What’s stuck? These are the dashboards your team likely checks more often than their social media (well, almost).
  • Analytical dashboards: This dashboard doesn’t just show you where you are—they reveal how you got there and where the congestion typically builds up. These sales data analysis dashboards expose the stories hidden in your historical data: “Every Q3, our enterprise deals slow down” or “Tuesday follow-ups close 30% better than Friday calls.”
  • Strategic dashboards: This is the helicopter view that executives need. They strip away the day-to-day noise and answer the big questions: Are we growing or shrinking? Is market share expanding? Is our year-over-year sales growth on track? These aren’t checked hourly—they’re the quarterly compass that ensures everyone’s climbing the right mountain.

How to Create a Sales Dashboard

Define Key Metrics and KPI

The foundation of an effective sales dashboard begins with selecting the right metrics that align with your business objectives. Focus on revenue dashboard data (total revenue, average deal size), conversion rate, KPI sales (quota attainment, lead response times), and overall sales growth.

When building your sales analysis dashboard, resist the temptation to track everything. Instead, focus on metrics that drive meaningful sales performance tracking and decision-making.

Identify Who Will Use the Dashboard

Determine the target audience for your sales dashboard. Different stakeholders need different levels of detail in their sales dashboards.  An executive might require a high-level view focusing on revenue targets and market penetration, while sales representatives need granular data about their individual pipelines and activities.

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Before finalizing your sales dashboard template, consider the primary audience and their specific needs. Also, consider tailoring data visualizations for sales to match each audience to ensure maximum relevance and utility.

Choose Sales Dashboard Software and Tools

Selecting the right platform is crucial for building an effective dashboard. Yes, there’s a wide array of sales dashboard software options, each with unique strengths. Let’s break down the popular sales dashboard in 2025.

  • HubSpot Sales Dashboard: Excellent for companies already using HubSpot CRM with built-in sales reporting features
  • Octobits from Nexalab: A versatile solution offering customizable dashboards with powerful integration capabilities. And you can get the free trial until the end of December 2025. So, rather than using Google Sheets, smaller organizations or those with limited budgets can choose Octobits. 
  • Salesforce: Robust reporting for enterprises with complex sales operations
  • Tableau Sales Dashboard: Advanced visualization capabilities for complex data analysis
  • Power BI: Microsoft’s solution that works well and is favored for sales dashboard excel integrations.

Connect CRM & Sales Data Sources for Automation

The power of modern dashboards lies in automation, so try integrating your chosen platform directly with your CRM dashboard and other data sources. For example, with Nexalab HubSpot solutions, you can integrate your HubSpot into your dashboard. This integration is a fundamental element of sales automation that frees your team to focus on selling rather than administrative tasks.

Optimize Data Visualizations for Sales

Effective data visualizations for sales reporting transform complex numbers into intuitive visual stories. When designing your dashboard, prioritize clarity over complexity—use consistent color schemes, clear labeling, and appropriate chart types for different metrics.

For instance, pipeline stages work well as funnel charts, while revenue dashboard trends are best displayed as line graphs. Your data analysis dashboard should balance comprehensive information with accessibility.

Set Up Real-Time Alerts and Reporting

Real-time alerts let you respond quickly to emerging issues—like a dip in pipeline velocity or a surge in conversion rate. Advanced sales dashboard reporting capabilities can trigger alerts for stalled deals, declining conversion rates, or when sales representatives hit their targets.

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This is why at Octobits, we include alert functions that keep team members informed without requiring them to constantly monitor the dashboard.

What Makes the Best Sales Dashboard?

The cream-of-the-crop sales dashboards have a few things in common that separate them from the also-rans. First off, they play nice with your existing tech stack. Nobody’s got time for yet another siloed system, right?

Top-notch dashboards connect seamlessly with your CRM and other tools—they’re team players. And whether you’re reviewing numbers at your desk, they adjust perfectly to whatever screen you’re using.

A dashboard that requires a PhD to navigate? Hard pass. The good ones are intuitive enough that your least tech-savvy sales rep can find what they need without breaking a sweat. And flexibility is key—your business isn’t static, so why should your dashboard be? The best ones let you tweak and adjust as your needs evolve.

With these key characteristics, a great sales performance dashboard doesn’t just display metrics—it drives tangible improvements by making clear what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do next.

Create Your Own Sales Dashboards with Octobits

Octobits integration engine pulls data from everywhere your business lives—from basic Excel spreadsheets to your most sophisticated CRM systems. This approach creates the single source of truth your sales team desperately needs.

No more contradicting reports. No more manual data reconciliation. So, while other platforms force you to adapt to their limited capabilities, Octobits transforms to fit your exact needs with unmatched flexibility.

The magic of Octobits is how it bridges the gap between power and usability. Your sales team can drag-and-drop their way to insights without IT hand-holding, while your data wizards still get all the advanced features they crave. And when your competitor is making decisions based on yesterday’s data, you’re responding to what’s happening right now—because Octobits updates in real-time when it matters most.

Now, the question isn’t whether you need better sales visibility—it’s why you’re still operating without it when the solution is just one decision away.

For pricing details and demo requests, contact us at Nexalab.

Your Next Steps

Now it’s time to make a change. Don’t settle for outdated, generic tools that leave your team guessing. And please, your team deserves a tool that grows with your business, driving productivity and revenue.

With Octobits, you can streamline your CRM, automate reports, and boost your sales pipeline efficiency effortlessly. Imagine making decisions with confidence, powered by real-time data and actionable metrics. So, take the leap, invest in a robust sales dashboard, and watch your business thrive like never before.