Fast forward to today, and I’ve written a lot of content for SaaS brands helping sales teams track performance more clearly.
This piece pulls together the best visual examples I’ve come across across different roles, use cases, and tools. Whether you‘re a founder, a sales leader, or just trying to make sense of your pipeline, I hope this helps you see what’s possible without overwhelming you.
Table of Contents
- What is a sales dashboard?
- How to Create a Sales Dashboard
- Sales Dashboard Examples
- Sales Dashboard Tips
- What makes a great sales dashboard?
Think of it as the difference between digging through 15 tabs of spreadsheets versus glancing at a single screen that shows your current pipeline, team performance, and monthly revenue progress.
Dashboards help sales managers, RevOps teams, and founders stay aligned on goals, spot bottlenecks early, and make faster decisions wSales Dashboard Tipsith real-time numbers.
Depending on how it’s set up, a sales dashboard might show Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and sales metrics like:
- Quota attainment
- Conversion/win rate
- Average deal size
- Revenue
- Sales funnel leakage
In short: They surface the exact sales metrics your team needs — like quota progress, pipeline status, or deal velocity — in a format that’s easy to read and take action on immediately.
Why You Need a Sales Dashboard
I‘ll be honest. I resisted dashboards for way too long. I thought I could keep everything in my head or rely on my CRM’s basic reports.
But after missing that $15k deal, I realized I needed something that would surface the important stuff without me having to go hunting for it.
The biggest benefit I've found is speed. Instead of spending 20 minutes every Monday morning pulling together numbers from different places, I can glance at my dashboard and immediately see where things stand like:
- Are my deals moving through the pipeline as expected?
- Which prospects haven't heard from me lately?
- What's my revenue looking like for the month?
But here's the thing that sold me: Dashboards keep everyone working from the same information. When I‘m collaborating with my virtual assistant, we’re all looking at the same numbers, updated in real-time.
No more “wait, which version of the spreadsheet are we using” conversations.
As business management expert Peter Drucker once said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
The setup does take some work upfront — I won't sugarcoat that. But once you have a dashboard that fits how you work, it becomes one of those tools you wonder how you ever lived without.
1. Determine which sales metrics you’ll track.
I've made the mistake before of trying to track everything because it all seems important. The result was a dashboard so cluttered that nobody used it.
Start with the metrics you already look at regularly. For me as a freelancer, that meant tracking things like proposal-to-close rate, average project value, and how long deals stayed in each stage of my pipeline. For the B2B SaaS teams I work with, it's usually monthly recurring revenue, customer acquisition cost, and churn rate.
To get started, I’ll ask myself the following questions:
- What metrics do I regularly review with the entire company, in one-on-one meetings, and among my sales team?
- Do I consider some metrics more important than others?
- What are my Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?
- Do I have multiple sales teams within my organization?
Ask yourself: What numbers do you check when someone asks “how are things going?” Those are your starting metrics.
Here are the categories I see most teams focus on:
- Pipeline health (conversion rates, deal velocity, stage progression).
- Revenue tracking (closed deals, forecasted revenue, quota attainment).
- Activity metrics (calls made, emails sent, meetings booked).
- Team performance (individual rep performance, win rates by rep).
The key is starting small. Pick five to seven metrics max for your first dashboard. You can always add more later.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure where to begin, check out our guide to sales metrics to determine which pieces of information are most important to you and your sales organization.
2. Identify how the dashboard will be used.
This is where I see teams go wrong most often. They build a dashboard without considering who's going to use it and how.
I learned this the hard way with my own freelance business. When I finally moved beyond spreadsheets, I got excited and created this comprehensive dashboard that tracked everything — deal stages, monthly revenue, project timelines, client communication frequency, you name it.
The problem?
When I was heads-down writing, I just wanted to quickly see which prospects needed follow-ups. When I was doing monthly planning, I only cared about revenue forecasts. I'd spend five minutes hunting for the one number I needed.
Here's what I think about now when I see teams struggling with dashboard design:
- Who's the primary user? A sales rep needs different information than a VP of Sales.
- How often will they check it? Daily users need different layouts than weekly reviewers.
- Where will they view it? Desktop? Mobile? In meetings with clients?
I usually recommend building role-specific dashboards:
- Sales reps get individual performance metrics and pipeline health.
- Managers get team performance and coaching insights.
- Executives get revenue forecasts and high-level trends.
3. Pick a sales dashboard provider.
If you’re already using a CRM, it likely comes with reporting dashboard features that your team can use. However, if you’re not using a CRM, there are also several standalone reporting tools you can use to sync or import your data, making it possible to create your own dashboards and reports.
Here are some of my favorite sales dashboard software providers.
HubSpot

If you're already in the HubSpot ecosystem, their dashboard features are solid. You can pull data directly from the HubSpot CRM and connect other tools too. The biggest advantage is having everything in one place since you can sync data from a wide range of apps and web services.
What I love: HubSpot gathers all of my data in one place, creating a single source of truth for my team.
Geckoboard

This one's great for teams that want something visual without getting too technical. It connects to 90+ data sources, including Hubspot Sales, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, and has a drag-and-drop interface that makes building dashboards pretty straightforward.
I love how you can use it to create dashboards that teams can share via link or push to Slack channels. Here are 13 more sales dashboard examples from Geckoboard.
What I love: Geckoboard’s drag-and-drop interface makes it ridiculously simple to create real-time KPI dashboards. I also love the sharing options, which make it possible to share a dashboard via a link or set up automated notifications and reports on Slack.
RIB BI+ (Formerly datapine)

This is more of a full business intelligence platform that can handle sales dashboards along with other functions. It's good for teams that want to visualize data from multiple sources in real time. The sharing options are robust — automated email reports, embedded analytics, that sort of thing.
What I love: RIB BI+ offers multiple sharing options, including automated email dashboards and embedded analytics to boost sales team collaboration and communication.
Klipfolio

Klipfolio makes it possible for me to combine data from my CRM with data from other services to create detailed sales dashboards.
What I love: Kipfolio also generates a sales team leaderboard, making it possible to celebrate top performers and foster healthy competition.
Zoho Analytics

Zoho offers a bunch of pre-built reports and dashboards, which can save time if you don't want to start from scratch.
What I love: Zoho Analytics integrates fully with HubSpot, making it possible to merge my HubSpot CRM data with 100+ different data sources to create meaningful business reports.
Coefficient

Coefficient works inside Google Sheets, which a lot of teams are already comfortable with. You can build dashboards that pull live data from your CRM and other tools without the usual copy-paste headaches.
What I love: Coefficient’s templates are unique in that I can power them with my live data. There’s no need to copy/paste or import/export. I just make a copy of the template and then follow the prompts to sync live data from my tech stack (including HubSpot).
Toucan Toco

A no-code platform that's designed to be user-friendly for non-technical teams. It handles multiple data sources and focuses on making dashboards that look good and are easy to navigate.
What I love: The sharing and collaboration features are well thought out, with automated reports and embedded analytics.
Slemma

Another template-based approach, similar to Coefficient. Teams can pick from pre-built dashboards that match their data sources and customize from there.
What I love: Slemma’s templates save me time and set me up for success.
Visible

Whenever I’ve been looking to create a dashboard to increase investor visibility, this has been my go-to software solution. With Visible, I can automate report creation, build dashboards, and drill down to see the details of my reports.
What I love: It's designed for external stakeholder communication, not just internal tracking.
TapClicks
TapClicks focuses on identifying problems before they become bigger issues. The platform sends alerts when metrics hit certain thresholds, so teams can respond quickly.
What I love: Proactive notifications and easy conversion of dashboard data into presentation materials.
4. Pull data into the dashboard.
Once you've picked your tool, you need to connect your data. If your dashboard integrates with your CRM, this part is usually straightforward — most modern tools sync automatically.
For example, if you're using HubSpot CRM to create dashboards and reports, you can pull sales data directly from your CRM without manual exports. Same goes for Salesforce, Pipedrive, and most other popular CRMs.
The trickier situation is when teams are still managing prospects in spreadsheets. I‘ve seen this more often than you’d expect, especially with early-stage companies. The data connection becomes more manual, but many dashboard tools offer Excel templates or CSV import options to bridge the gap.
5. Build reports for the sales dashboard.
Here's where you decide how to display your data. The chart type matters more than most people realize — the wrong visualization can make important trends invisible.
I use these charts based on the data I have:
- Bar or column charts for comparing values (like sales performance across different reps or territories).
- Pie charts or stacked bars for composition data (showing how total revenue breaks down by product line or customer segment).
- Line charts for trends over time (month-over-month growth, pipeline velocity changes).

The golden rule I've seen work best: If someone can‘t understand your chart in five seconds, it’s too complicated. The goal is instant clarity, not showing off how much data you can cram into one view.
Once you‘ve built your reports, test them with the people who’ll use them. I‘ve seen beautiful dashboards gather dust because they looked impressive but didn’t answer the questions users had.
Sales Dashboard Examples
Every business has different needs when it comes to sales dashboards, but looking at examples can spark ideas for your own setup. Here are 12 dashboard types I've come across that solve specific problems:
1. Sales Conversion Rate Dashboard
![]()
I‘ve seen teams use HubSpot’s free Sales Conversion and Close Rate Calculator to track progress through their entire pipeline. It's particularly useful for forecasting metrics like lead-to-MQL rate and MQL-to-customer rate. The interactive format makes it easy to set goals by month and quarter.
2. Sales Rep Dashboard

Individual performance tracking is crucial for sales reps who want to see their progress. These dashboards include reports for meetings booked, open opportunities, deals in pipeline, and forecasted revenue. I like how they give reps ownership over their numbers.
3. Sales Manager Dashboard
![]()
Managers need a different view, one that shows team performance at a glance. The best manager dashboards I‘ve seen include today’s stats alongside monthly progress toward team targets and MRR goals. It's the perfect balance of immediate and long-term visibility.
4. Sales Leaderboard

Nothing motivates a competitive sales team like a good leaderboard. These dashboards rank reps by activities completed (calls, emails, meetings), new accounts generated, MRR contributions, and customer retention. The key is keeping it friendly rather than cutthroat.
5. Deal Performance Dashboard

Revenue forecasting reports become much easier when you can see deals at each stage of your process. I appreciate dashboards that show not just what's in the pipeline, but how those numbers compare to your targets. It makes gap analysis much more visual.
6. Win/Loss Dashboard

Understanding why deals succeed or fail is critical for improving your sales process. The best win/loss dashboards break down results by deal size, salesperson, and industry. They also compare your close rates to previous periods or industry benchmarks.
7. Sales Performance by Region

For businesses selling in multiple territories, regional performance dashboards answer key questions: Which regions are performing best? What products sell well where? I've seen these help companies reallocate resources and identify expansion opportunities.
8. Sales Activities Dashboard

Sales managers often want visibility into what their reps are doing day-to-day. Activity dashboards track calls, emails, meetings, and demos, often showing the average number of activities needed to win a deal. It's useful for coaching and process improvement.
9. Performance Overview Dashboard

Sometimes you just want the most important metrics front and center without any clutter. These dashboards prioritize key performance indicators and make them the first thing you see when the page loads. Perfect for daily check-ins.
10. Sales to Target Template

Goal tracking becomes simpler with dashboards that sync live data and show progress toward customized targets. Whether you‘re tracking by team, opportunity category, or time period, these templates make it easy to spot when you’re falling behind.
11. Sales KPI Dashboard

KPI-focused dashboards put your most critical metrics in one place. I've seen effective ones that highlight invoiced income with clear monthly breakdowns, making it easy to spot trends and seasonal patterns.
12. Executive Sales Performance Dashboard

C-level executives need comprehensive views without getting lost in operational details. Executive dashboards typically show opportunities, bookings, and high-level performance metrics that inform strategic decisions rather than day-to-day tactics.
Sales Dashboard Tips
Ready to build your own dashboard? Here are the lessons I‘ve learned from my own experiences, plus what I’ve observed working (and not working) for other teams.
1. Keep the layout clean.
My first dashboard looked like a data explosion. Charts everywhere, multiple color schemes, information scattered across the screen. Nobody used it because it was overwhelming.
Now I stick to grid layouts that most dashboard tools offer automatically. It keeps everything organized and prevents the “Where do I look first?” problem.
One thing that has helped me is to put my most important information in the top-left corner. That's where people naturally look first, so make it count. I arrange my dashboards with critical metrics on the left, supporting details on the right.
The test I use: If someone opens your dashboard and doesn‘t immediately understand what’s most important, your layout needs work.
2. Do the math for people.
I learned this lesson when I was constantly calculating month-over-month growth in my head every time I looked at my revenue numbers. It was annoying and slowed me down.
Now I include calculated fields whenever possible. Instead of showing raw numbers that require mental math, I show the percentage change, the variance from target, or whatever calculation people need.
For example, rather than displaying “Revenue: $45,000” and “Last Month: $38,000,” I show “Revenue: $45,000 (+18% vs last month).” It's a small change that saves time and prevents misinterpretation.
3. Think about who else needs to see this.
I used to build dashboards just for myself, but I've realized that sharing visibility can improve performance. When sales reps can see the same metrics that leadership tracks, they understand the scenario from the leaders’ eyes.
This doesn't mean giving everyone access to everything, but transparency about goals and key metrics helps align effort. If leadership cares about customer lifetime value, make sure the team can see those numbers too.
I've seen teams improve significantly just by making their targets and progress visible to everyone, not just managers.
What makes a great sales dashboard?
Building a great dashboard is part science, part art, and a lot of trial and error. I‘ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, and I’ve watched teams struggle with dashboards that looked impressive but didn't help anyone make better decisions.
Here‘s what I’ve learned makes the difference.
Don't overcomplicate.
My biggest dashboard mistake was trying to show everything at once. Revenue, activities, conversion rates, pipeline velocity, deal sizes, forecasts — you name it, I crammed it in there. The result was a beautiful mess that nobody wanted to use.
For example, one of my favorite sales tracking tools is HubSpot’s free Sales Metrics Calculator. This Excel template is simple and easy to use, offering key information such as average deal size, win-loss rate, and churn rate, without overwhelming me with unnecessary data and charts.
Now I follow what Steve Harlow, chief sales officer at prospecting tool Sopro, calls the golden rule: “Dashboard reports must drive action. If a metric doesn't inform a decision or behaviour, it's just noise. Simplicity and visibility make a dashboard a real asset, not how many metrics you can cram in.”
I've found this to be absolutely true. The best dashboards I use now answer specific questions:
- Am I on track to hit my monthly target?
- Which prospects need follow-up?
- Where are deals getting stuck?
Everything else is secondary.
Build for your actual users.
I used to build dashboards based on what I thought people should want to see, rather than what they needed. Big mistake.
Ali Newton-Temperley founder of agency growth consultancy Agency Growth Pad makes a great point about this: “I believe a great dashboard is one that provides useful data to both the sales manager and all of the sales team ... if they can look at it and understand how it can help them improve, then you're on track to grow a more empowered and high performing team.”
This means thinking carefully about who will use your dashboard and how. A sales rep tracking their own performance needs different information than a VP forecasting quarterly revenue. Don't try to make one dashboard serve everyone.
Focus on what you can control.
When my revenue dipped last year, staring at declining numbers didn't help me fix the problem. What helped was tracking the activities that led to revenue: outreach emails sent, follow-up calls made, and proposals delivered.
As Newton-Temperley puts it: “In times of low sales the biggest help to a salesperson is focusing on the elements that they can control. By increasing the inputs, there is surely a path to the results improving too.”
Harlow takes a similar approach: “We track leading indicators like response rates and booked meetings, as well as lagging metrics like pipeline velocity, conversion rates, and revenue per rep. This mix helps us spot bottlenecks early and coach the team proactively.”
Make it accessible.
A dashboard sitting in some forgotten corner of your CRM isn‘t helping anyone. I’ve learned to think about how people will access and use the information.
Some teams need daily email updates with key metrics. Others want dashboards embedded in their project management tools. The key is meeting people where they already are, rather than expecting them to remember to check another tool.
Getting started with your dashboard.
Your first dashboard doesn‘t have to be perfect. In fact, it shouldn’t be.
Start with the metrics you're already tracking manually — the numbers you find yourself checking every Monday morning or pulling together for weekly meetings. Build those into a basic dashboard and use it for a month.
You‘ll quickly discover what’s missing and what‘s not as useful as you thought. Maybe you realize you don’t need that conversion rate by traffic source, but you desperately want to see which deals have been stuck in “proposal sent” for more than two weeks.
The goal is to replace whatever manual process you're using now with something that saves you time and gives you clearer visibility into your sales performance.
Your business is unique, and your dashboard should reflect that.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Sales Metrics