What Makes a Great CRM Report?

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is jam-packed with data. They offer a wealth of information to help your clients run a smoother business–while giving your agency granular insights to run better campaigns.  

However, CRM software can be clunky and hard to parse information. And when you’re scaling your agency, you don’t have time to manually extract data each time for CRM reports.

This article shows you six types of business insights to extract from CRM reports that provide valuable intel your clients will keep coming back to your for. You’ll also learn how to set the entire process on autopilot with scheduled reports.  

• What Makes a Great CRM Report? 

• 6 Essential Types of CRM Reports 

• 7 Strategies to Manage Your CRM Reports

• How To Present Data In Your CRM Reports & Best Practices

• Automate Your CRM Reporting 

What Makes a Great CRM Report? 

CRM software isn’t just for warehousing information about your clients’ leads and sales. It’s what your agency does with that information to show the value you bring to the table–enter the CRM report. 

A CRM report acts as a performance summary during a specific time period. It should highlight opportunities for your agency to offer expertise while helping your clients’ businesses grow. 

So what makes a great CRM report? 

First, it should clearly provide actionable data for each stakeholder. This means boiling down insights for your marketing team to make better campaign optimizations based on data–and to allow your client's sales team to run a smoother business and never miss out on an opportunity. 

Second, it should be easy to understand. Clients don’t have time to decipher what their marketing data means. By presenting it in an intuitive report, you and your clients keep track of notable trends. 

Third, it should complement your marketing campaign data to build better sales funnels, improve lead capture, calculate KPIs and identify the channels that provide the best ROI. 

There are six common types of CRM reports that all serve different purposes. 

6 Essential CRM Reports For Your Clients

1. Showcase Profitability for Business Insights  

Profitability reports show where your client's money is coming from. 

There are tons of valuable insights to take advantage of just by paying close attention to their customer database. Look for things like purchase history and customer buying habits. Both of these metrics help determine which customers are their biggest contribution to revenue, the most loyal, and have the highest potential to buy again in the future (driving customer lifetime value). 

Profitability reports can include: 

• Total revenue 

• Total leads

• Won deals 

• Total expenses

• Gross margin 

• ROI (return on investment) 

The profitability report can be one of the more popular CRM report types with your clients, and for good reason. It demonstrates campaign costs, how many leads and opportunities were generated, and how these were reflected in monetary terms. 

2. Demonstrate How Different Channels Contribute to Revenue for Budgeting Decisions 

Do you know how long it takes for your client’s leads to convert? There are many variables like what industry they’re in, what products and services they offer, etc. Sometimes it can take longer than expected, so it’s important to understand how different channels contribute to revenue, and how long they take to do so. You also want to know exactly how many leads each channel brings in to build actionable revenue forecasts. 

To prepare a campaign leads by channel report, you need to assign a “source” label to every contact in your client’s CRM. For example, if your client sells products online, label lead flows using Google Analytics sources: 

• Organic Search

• Direct

• Referral

• Email 

• Paid Search

• Social 

• Etc.

To keep track of these, be sure to use UTM parameters every time you launch a new campaign. Although Google will often align traffic based on the original source, it's not as accurate as putting that source in the UTM tracking code.   

3. Pinpoint Opportunities for Follow-up 

Create an opportunities generated report to keep track of opportunities generated for your clients as well. Think about their potential customers who have maybe asked for a product demo or contacted their sales team asking about prices. These are all new opportunities they can approach! 

Create opportunity forms in your client’s CRM about their qualified leads and categorize them by: 

• Expiration or closing date of an opportunity 

• Estimated revenue

• Status 

• Topic

• Contact  

Once you categorize the opportunities generated, it’s easier to see who’s managing which lead (salesperson, etc.) and then funnel the results back to their pre-determined KPI. 

4. Identify Lead Sources to Calculate ROAS

This is similar to tracking campaign leads by channel, but instead of looking at each channel, you want to analyze and compare specific lead sources. 

For example, if your client has different lead magnets on their website, all of these can be included in one lead source analysis report. On the other hand, if a client has a variety of referrals coming in, you may choose to include and analyze them separately.  

To prepare your lead source analysis report, you want to include standard UTM values and clearly labeled marketing campaigns: “Facebook,” “Google,” etc. Every time a new lead comes in, information about the source is recorded in the CRM. 

Lead source analysis reports are extremely useful when it comes to calculating ROAS and CPA. As you know, acquisition channels vary in price, so when you prepare a budget for a specific campaign, you need to predict how many “target actions” it will bring in and what revenue the client will receive. 

5. Segment Revenue by Campaign to Invest in the Best ROI-generating Channel 

If you launch multi-channel campaigns for your client, you know there are a lot of variables: different ad creatives, segments, allocated budgets, etc. 

So, to compare the effectiveness of your efforts, it can be beneficial to look at revenue per campaign versus the number of qualified leads per campaign. You need to consider how many conversions are happening and leading to revenue (real-world results). 

This report offers insights into whether or not it’s worth it to invest in a social media influencer or direct their budget toward search ads. 

To set up a revenue generated by campaigns report, be sure to group closed deals according to their sources. Then, compare results visually in a bar chart, for example. 

6. Use Call Tracking to Discover High Intent Leads and Improve Customer Service 

Everyone knows the importance of good customer service. Simply put, happy customers are more likely to return and do business with your clients again versus upset customers. 

So, monitoring things like client calls can give a window into areas where your clients can improve their sales or customer service processes. 

By preparing call tracking reports with CRM data, you measure metrics such as: 

• Talk time (the average time an employee spends on calls with customers) 

• Talk quantity (the number of calls every salesperson makes) 

• Call results (the number of unanswered calls or conversations that lead towards a specific sales funnel) 

Assess the information in the call report to get insights into individual performances or compare them with market benchmarks.  

7 Strategies to Manage Your CRM Reports 

Your clients don’t have time to flip through giant, segmented reports–nor does your agency have the time to make them. Combine your CRM reporting for your clients with the multiple marketing platforms they’re on in one simplified report. 

Here are seven strategies to manage your CRM reports. 

1. Connect All Your Client’s Metrics in One Place

With over 75 integrations, it’s quick and easy to connect all of your client’s metrics in one place. There’s no need to create a separate report just for their CRM data and another for their campaign results. Combine everything in one centralized place to save you and your client’s time. 

2. Use Internal Dashboards To Keep Your Team On the Same Page

There are a few ways your team can benefit from creating internal dashboards. For example, keep track of clients that need additional services (think upselling opportunities) or monitor internal agency goals to better understand the ins and outs of your digital marketing activities (think cost, revenue, etc.). Manage your agency in the most scalable way possible with software that lets you keep track of all your client’s campaigns in one place. 

Here are just a few of the 15 dashboard templates available to get you started. Plus there is a dedicated reporting dashboard for each of the 75+ built-in platform integrations.

3. Give Clients a Login to Their CRM Dashboard 

Instead of clients calling your team every time they have a question about their CRM data, give them access to their live dashboard. Streamline your everyday workflow by creating client and user accounts and choose exactly what you want to share with them. Or, try out our API feature and create your own custom login page right from your agency’s website.   

4. Use Custom Metrics to Combine CRM Data With Other Campaign Metrics 

Create custom marketing dashboards that combine your client’s CRM data with their other campaign metrics. For example, creating a custom metric for their ROAS from a Facebook campaign, or the number of conversions across multiple platforms is a great way to connect their entire digital marketing goals to their CRM metrics and overall refined sales report.

5. Use Goals & Annotations to Communicate Your Progress

Tracking goals in your report ensures everyone is on the same page. It gives an opportunity for you to revisit your client’s goals on a regular basis and see how things are progressing so you make any necessary adjustments. It’s also a great idea to highlight future plans for any upcoming marketing campaigns. One of the best ways to tell a story with AgencyAnalytics is to add annotations and goals to your charts.

Creating goals helps fill up your client’s sales pipeline while managing their campaign performance goals–without the weekly activity of pulling and extracting data into Google Sheets.

6. Visualize Data for Storytelling 

Go beyond reporting standard data points by telling a story with the numbers you’re presenting. You want to help inform your clients about their results, leaving them empowered to make informed business decisions. Simplifying how your agency is presenting data highlights easily recognizable patterns and trends that might otherwise be overlooked. 

7. Automate Your CRM Reporting to Spend More Time on Billable Tasks 

Creating client reports can eat up a lot of your agency’s time and resources. Spend more time on tasks that are actually bringing in revenue by automating your CRM reports. Simply connect your client's data sources, including their CRM, to the AgencyAnalytics platform and start saving valuable time. Choose from prebuilt marketing report templates or create your own customizable dashboard templates. 

How To Present Data In Your CRM Reports & Best Practices 

Whether your clients use HubSpot or another CRM software such as Keap, Salesforce, or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), you want to incorporate data visualization so your clients can easily see and understand all of the data you’re presenting. 

Depending on your client’s KPIs, what they want to see in their reports could differ. Here are some best practices to incorporate into your CRM reports or a live CRM dashboard to show real-time data for your clients.

Contacts

Include a section in their CRM report that goes over contact details such as total contacts, leads, opportunities, subscribers, pipeline reports etc. Plus, add a list of those contacts that they can easily reference and follow up with by displaying their first and last name, email, and the date they were added to their CRM. 

Companies

If your client is in the B2B space, it’s helpful to have a dedicated section to the different companies they work with. Test out different data visualizations such as line graphs, bar charts, and even detailed lists that include insights on:

• Lifecycle stage

• Source

• Total revenue

• Visits 

Web Traffic

This section in your client’s CRM report can get quite detailed of course. It includes metrics on the channels their lead source is coming from: direct traffic, organic search, paid search, organic social media, paid social media, email marketing, and more. 

It can be helpful to set up a dashboard for each of these channels but be sure to add metrics such as:

• Sessions

• New visitor sessions 

• Contact conversion rate

• New Contacts

• Bounce rate

• Page views/sessions 

• Returning visits

• Opportunities

Email

Show your clients how their email campaigns are doing with a clearly laid out dashboard that reveals important information. Make suggestions on how to improve subject lines or create new incentives that improve their email marketing KPIs. Report on key metrics such as:  

• Sent 

• Opened 

• Clicked

• Delivered

• Bounced emails 

• Unsubscribers 

• Click-through rate

• Open Rate 

Content

Break out your content dashboard to include website pages, blog posts, and landing pages, if these all apply to your client. Clearly demonstrate what content is resonating with their customers and what actions they’re taking. For each section, add metrics such as: 

• Page views 

• Submissions

• Time on page

• Bounce rate

• CTA clicks 

Deals

This section shows your client the number of deals closed, forecasted, total amount, and more. It offers insights into what sales process might or might not be working plus a general overview of the status of their deals. Including a deals dashboard that highlights what deals your client closed from a first or second product demo, for example, and where they can dedicate their time toward meeting their sales goals. Cover some of these key deals metrics: 

• Total deals 

• $ amount 

• Closed amount 

• Sales forecast amount 

• Projected amount 

Forms

If your client has forms on their website for scheduling appointments, contacting a salesperson, joining a waitlist, or any other type of form, you want to keep track of these in their CRM report. Let them know what is resonating with their customers and make strategic adjustments. Some metrics to highlight: 

• Views 

• Submissions 

• Completions 

• Non-contact submissions 

• Contact submissions  

Automate Your CRM Reporting 

CRM reports bring several insights marketers can use to their advantage when communicating with their clients. The reports allow you to adjust sales process, sales performance, acquisition strategies, email, and advertising campaigns, switch between converting channels, personalize communication, and predict ROI–all valuable assets to your clients.

Save your agency’s valuable time by putting your CRM reports on autopilot. Set easy scheduling and decide if you want to approve each report before it gets sent to clients if you want to review and address any issues. 

Plus, combine your client’s CRM report with data from over 75 different marketing data sources, including GA4, PPC, SEO, and social media, to create a detailed and complete picture of your client’s marketing goals. 

What are you waiting for? Start your free 14-day trial to build insightful CRM reports in minutes.