How to Set Up Power BI Sales Dashboard – Effortlessly Visualize Sales Data
A sales analytical dashboard will empower you to gain an edge over competitors and increase profits for your business. Here, we’ll discuss the steps to create a sales dashboard in Power BI. The sales team has to don many hats. From creating marketing strategies to directly interacting with end users, the sales department is burdened with a heavy workload. Sales analytics helps the teams stay up to date and be proactive in handling leads to increase revenue. Investing in business intelligence tools provides the department with the necessary technical support to be one step ahead of competitors. According to Finances Online, 90% of sales and marketing teams mention that BI tools increase their work efficiency Similarly, a business intelligence sales dashboard is the best tool to empower sales reps and help them make the right decisions. Microsoft Power BI is among the most used business intelligence tools in the global market. Setting up a Power BI sales dashboard and customizing it for the business will ensure that the department can monitor leads, customers, revenue, expenses, profits, and all other KPIs (key performance indicators) in real-time. You can achieve this by partnering with offshore BI service providers. In this blog, we’ll discuss the steps to set up a Sales Power BI Dashboard for the team. We will also look at the reasons to hire offshore Power BI experts instead of building an expensive in-house team from scratch. What is Microsoft Power BI? Power BI is a suite of applications developed by Microsoft to process large amounts of data and analyze it in real time. The insights are presented on the interactive dashboards through data visualization. The graphical reports are easy to read and used for day-to-day decision-making. Power BI is a cloud-based business intelligence tool that can be adopted in different departments of an enterprise. What Goes into a Sales Dashboard? A sales dashboard is an interface that provides actionable insights by processing data from CRM systems. Building a BI sales dashboard can be complex. You should correctly identify the KPIs to track and goals to achieve. Before you decide to set up a weekly sales dashboard, you need to consider the following: A few important metrics or KPIs to include in your sales dashboard are: The effectiveness of reports depends on how accurate your KPIs are and how well you customize the Power BI sales dashboard to align with your business goals. How to Set Up Power BI Sales Dashboard? Setting up a Power BI sales dashboard involves eight steps. The process can be simple or lengthy, depending on the data volume, sources, dashboard layout, and KPIs. 1. Create Your Power BI Account The first step is to create a Power BI account. You can start for free by clicking on the Try Free option on the Microsoft Power BI website. Provide your official email ID or Microsoft 365 login details if you already have an account. Complete your profile and follow the instructions on the screen to set up your profile. 2. Import Data from Sources The next step is to import the data required to create dashboards. You can upload Excel or CSV files (exported from other platforms or apps). Microsoft Power BI accepts different types of input files. You can also integrate Power BI with databases like Salesforce, Dynamics, SharePoint, Azure, etc. Power Bi is compatible with several CRM systems and third-party databases. You can set up API integrations for real-time data flow between the platforms. In fact, you can get data from multiple sources simultaneously. 3. Import Datasets with Report Once you complete the data importing step, you should import Power BI datasets to create the dashboards. Power BI adds a dataset and reports when you import data to the platform. The reports are automatically generated using PowerView sheets. 4. Select Tables to Generate Reports The tables in the imported data can be automatically converted to visualization reports. Go to Navigator View and click on the Edit option. Go to Query editor to add and filter the data in tables to create the reports. 5. Define Relationships Between Data Sources By defining the relationships between different tables, you can create custom visualization to accurately monitor every one of the sales KPIs. You can create a Power BI revenue dashboard by following the same steps. Select Foreign Keys to establish the relationships between two or more tables (data sources). Take time to correctly assign the keys and define relationships and click Ok when done. You can go back to the Report View through the tab on the top left. 6. Customize Visualization Elements So, how do you want to display sales data? The choice is yours. You can customize the interface to suit the sales teams’ requirements. Microsoft Power BI offers great visualization to present reports in graphical formats. You can choose the types of graphs, charts, etc., you want to see on the sales dashboard. Drag and drop the necessary elements onto the dashboard. You can also move them around and adjust their size, positions, filters, etc. 7. Dashboard Embedding For third-party integrations, enter the login details to your database account. Follow the instructions on the screen to configure the database. The reports are ready to be embedded in other platforms. 8. Create Power BI Application This step is optional. You can register an application with Microsoft Power BI to get the application ID and code generated to create the app. Why Hiring Business Intelligence Consulting Companies is a Smart Move Setting up the Power BI sales dashboards requires expertise. The talent gap is a real issue in many enterprises. You can hire new talent, train existing employees, or opt for offshore partners to handle the project. By hiring a BI consulting company, you get the following benefits: Greater Industry Experience BI service providers work with different businesses and have deeper knowledge about the process of setting up Power BI dashboards for sales. For example, DataToBiz has clients from various industries, ranging from manufacturing to healthcare, IT, retail, supply chain, eCommerce, etc., and works with MSMEs,
Read More