Everything You Need to Know About CRM Dashboards

One central hub for all your data. A single source of truth for your entire team. That's the promise of a CRM dashboard. Unfortunately, implementing a dashboard isn’t always that simple.

The good news is that some CRM software makes the job easier, allowing you to make the most of your CRM investment.

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about CRM dashboards. You'll learn how to create one that works for your business and which CRM software has the best dashboard functionality.

What's the Benefit of a CRM Dashboard?

A customer relationship management (CRM) platform gathers all sorts of data. It can hold everything from customer details to website and ecommerce engagement metrics, and more. That’s what makes a CRM so valuable.

A dashboard takes what can be vague and complex data from your CRM and simplifies it into easy-to-understand graphics.

The visual aids usually consist of charts, tables, and graphs representing the collected data. These make it much easier to spot trends and patterns at a glance.

The benefits of a CRM dashboard can have a long-lasting impact on your business. Let's look at some of the biggest perks.

Delivers Key Information at a Glance

In a high-pressure sales environment, those minutes saved by opening up a chart rather than reading through a report could mean the difference between making a sale or not. The University of Minnesota found that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than textual information. If employees are digging through pages of text or spreadsheets, you're wasting valuable time and resources.

Reduces Data Gathering

A dashboard gives you one central location to find all the info you need at a glance, rather than collecting it each time you need it. This can save your team hours of busy work, as well as improve data accuracy.

Dashboards can also be customized to show specific data or metrics relevant to each employee's role in the company. A sales rep doesn't have to go through multiple spreadsheets or reports to find the needed data. It's right there on their dashboard.

Supports Informed Decision-Making

Dashboards help employees to make informed decisions. By having all the necessary data displayed in an organized and easily accessible manner, employees are able to quickly analyze trends, patterns, and other relevant information. This puts them in a better position to make decisions that positively impact the company's bottom line.

Improves Motivation

Having a tangible view of the company's progress and performance can help motivate team members to continue working hard and help them better understand how their individual efforts contribute to the company's overall success.

Depending on your company culture, you may also choose to pit sales reps against one another in a competitive setting. Most dashboards have leaderboard tools to achieve this effect.

Provides Real-Time Updates

By using the power of real-time data, team members can receive updates and track progress in real-time. This allows for more efficient communication among team members and enables quick decision-making based on nothing but the most current information.

Compare that to waiting for an end-of-month report to see how things are going, and you begin to understand the true value of a CRM dashboard.

Key Types of CRM Dashboards + Examples

Customization is one of the highlights of CRMs. You can create different dashboards for different functions. The type you create will depend on your company's needs and goals, but most will fit into one of the following categories.

Let's look at what each one is, why it's valuable, and the key metrics to include.

Sales Pipeline Dashboard

A sample sales pipeline dashboard from HubSpot.

This dashboard includes a breakdown of your deals (both won and lost), as well as forecasts. It puts your entire sales pipeline on one screen, making it easy to track progress and identify areas that need improvement.

Key metrics you could include in this dashboard:

• Win rate
• Average deal size
• Time spent per stage
• Reasons for lost deals
• Total pipeline value

Lead Generation Dashboard

Sample leads dashboard from Pipedrive.

This type of dashboard will contain information that represents the effectiveness of your lead-generation efforts. After all, each customer starts out as a simple lead, but these need to be carefully nurtured into sales-ready opportunities. This dashboard is ideal for the marketing team because they'll know how to approach these leads depending on where they are in the sales funnel.

Key metrics you could include in this dashboard:

• Conversion rate
• Lead scoring
• Lead status
• Lead-to-opportunity ratio

KPIs Dashboard

Sample KPIs dashboard from Zoho CRM.

This dashboard is as simple as it sounds. It contains all your most important KPIs, displayed side by side. These can be anything from website traffic to email open rates. The key is that they're all metrics directly impacting your lead-generation efforts and can help you make informed decisions.

With this view, you can see how these KPIs are all connected and better understand the overall health of your lead generation strategy. What you choose to measure depends on you and your business. The key is that you want this dashboard to give a clear overview of your KPIs and your progress.

Customer Service Dashboard

Sample customer service dashboard from Salesforce.

The customer service dashboard will mostly be used by the support team to improve their use of the CRM and enhance customer problem resolution. It'll show data relevant to the interactions customers have with your company's support team to give you insight into how well you're serving your customers.

It's also a good way to monitor channels like phone calls and email communication. Are customers getting the help they need quickly? Open this dashboard to find out.

Key metrics you could include in this dashboard:

• Average response time
• Customer satisfaction rate
• First contact resolution rate
• Number of tickets resolved per day/week/month

Activity Dashboard

Sample sales activity dashboard from Salesforce.

If you're wondering what your team spends too much (or too little) time on, an activity dashboard offers a quick way to find out. It can also help identify areas where your team may need more training or resources.

For example, if you see there's an overwhelming number of warm leads and not enough active deals compared to last month, maybe the team needs to focus on more prospecting.

Metrics you could include in this dashboard:

• Activities per type
• Tasks by outcome
• Open/completed tasks by sales owners
• Calls/emails made
• Time spent with each customer

Profitability Dashboard

Sample profitability dashboard from HubSpot.

Last but not least, the most crucial thing in any business is profitability. A profitability dashboard measures how much profit your business is making in a specific period, and how that tracks against your goals. It considers all expenses and revenue to give you an accurate picture of your financial performance.

It's a bigger picture than the other dashboards, but it's helpful to look to get an overview of your business's financial health.

Key metrics you could include in this dashboard:

• Gross profit margin
• Net profit margin
• Return on investment (ROI)
• EBITDA

How to Create a CRM Dashboard

Creating any dashboard from scratch typically requires coding and development. Fortunately, many CRM dashboard software options are available on the market that can be easily integrated with your existing CRM system. These make the whole process much easier.

Even though the hardest part is already done, it's not a plug-and-play process. Some customization and configuration are required to ensure the dashboard meets your business needs and goals.

Here’s a guide on how to set up a CRM dashboard step by step.

1. Define Objectives

First, you'll want to define your objectives for using the CRM dashboard. What do you want to achieve? Are you looking to track sales performance, monitor customer interactions, or analyze marketing campaigns?

This will help you determine who the viewer is and, by extension, what KPIs to include. Countless studies have found that the average capacity of the brain's working memory is seven objects, so we recommend that you use seven KPIs max in your dashboard.

2. Design the Dashboard Layout

The whole point of a dashboard is to make key information clear at a glance. Keep it simple, or it defeats the purpose.

Include only the most essential metrics. Round your numbers. Group connected metrics. Use clear labels. The viewer can choose to go in deeper if needed, but less is more when it comes to effective dashboards.

3. Integrate Data Sources

It's possible that all your data will come straight from your CRM data source. If so, you can integrate the dashboard with your data source and have it update automatically.

However, if some of your data comes from other sources (i.e., Zendesk), you’ll want a CRM that integrates with that source natively. Barring that, you could always create an API integration to pull in that data or use Zapier. Check out our list of the best CRM software for integrations for information on which CRMs are known for integrations, and how to choose one.

4. Keep Optimizing

A dashboard is not a set-it-and-forget-it kind of tool. You must review and adjust it regularly. Take time to see how you can revise the data, the KPIs you use, and how the data is displayed. What works today might not work as well tomorrow as your business grows.

Encourage feedback from those using any dashboard to see if common pain points crop up. Maybe you'll find that a specific graphic seems to be confusing for many users or that you're not keeping on top of data updates as much as needed.

Bonus Tip: Find a CRM Dashboard Template

You can save a lot of time on the steps above if you find a template that matches your needs. These templates will come pre-populated with charts and graphs, so you can just connect your data, saving a lot of time in the long run.

Some template providers to check out include:

• Databox
• Coupler.io
• ThemeForest

Many CRM software also provides handy templates. You can learn more about that in our top picks below.

5 Best CRMs for Building Dashboards

Now you know the value of CRM dashboards. But which platform is the best for your needs?

At Softailed, we’ve tested more than 35 CRM providers to determine the best CRMs based on a number of factors. This list is based on our top 10 picks for best CRM software, but we’ve tailored it to include the CRMs that bring a strong dashboard game.

1. Hubspot

HubSpot is a great CRM overall - and it has lots of functionality for building dashboards.

Plus, HubSpot is an all-in-one product that can integrate marketing, sales, customer service, content management, and operations into one platform. That means you’re able to integrate all that data seamlessly into a CRM dashboard as well.

Customization is also another big advantage of HubSpot's dashboard. Users can create and design their own dashboards specific to their needs. Of course, you can change colors and layouts with the drag-and-drop editor, but you can also add and remove widgets to pull in the data that’s most useful for you. Templates are available for those who have basic needs.

Key Features:

• Pre-Built Report Templates: Select from a library of templated reports accessible to all users to get quick insights into key metrics such as website visits, new contacts, and customer totals.
• Drag-and-Drop Customizability: Create dashboards tailored to specific needs, combining multiple reports to monitor metrics that matter most.
• Dashboard Management and Sharing: Manage dashboards by setting visibility permissions, cloning, deleting, or renaming them. Dashboards can also be shared with specific users or teams or be set to be publicly viewable.

2. Freshsales

The first time you log into Freshworks’ CRM, Freshsales, you're greeted with a Sales Essentials Dashboard. It's a robust, out-of-the-box solution that allows you to pull together multiple dashboard types, like deals, contacts, sales activities, and revenue.

This isn't the only option you have regarding analytics, though. With the click of a button, you can create custom dashboards for all of your team members. It's that simple.

You can use the widgets to change your data visualization from a line to a bar graph, text, or pie chart. This flexibility makes it easy to display your data in the most effective way. You can also build your own dashboards from scratch.

One other unique feature about Freshsales is that you can use the data from your dashboards in your conversations with Freddy AI to get recommendations and insights. It's like having a sales assistant who can analyze your data.

Key Features:

• Sales Essentials Dashboard: This pre-built, multi-page dashboard provides a holistic view of sales performance, including revenue metrics, deal insights, contact analysis, and activity tracking.
• Customizable Analytics Dashboards: Create personalized dashboards with widgets that display the most relevant metrics.
• Integration with Third-Party Tools: Freshsales dashboards can integrate with tools like Databox, allowing for enhanced data visualization and reporting capabilities.
• Freddy AI Assistant: Use Freshsales’ built-in AI tool to analyze sales activities and deal characteristics to identify opportunities. Freddy can also automate repetitive tasks to increase efficiency in the sales cycle.

3. Zoho

Zoho lets you create a dashboard in just a few steps and share it with anyone you choose, either publicly or privately, accessible only to you. The process is a bit more complex than it is with some other CRMs on this list, as you must manually add dashboard components. However, you can then clone dashboards to save time and only change the data source.

Zoho works with many other tools and apps, so you can easily connect different parts of your business. It also has helpful features like lead scoring, email campaigns, and social media tracking, which make it a good all-in-one tool for managing leads.

Zoho also features a separate Zoho Analytics tool that you can integrate with Zoho CRM for more advanced dashboards, analytics, and reporting functionality.

Key Features:

• Real-Time Data Visualization: Real-time data updates ensure users have access to the most current information.
• Diverse and Customizable Components: A wide variety of chart types (bar, line, pie, donut, area, stacked, funnel, and table charts), KPIs, comparators, anomaly detectors, target meters, and other unique tools make it easier to create the perfect visualization. A drag-and-drop interface makes creation accessible.
• Advanced Analytics with AI Integration: Get intelligent recommendations, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics thanks to Zoho CRM’s integration with Zia, its AI-powered assistant.
• Data Accessibility: Customize who can access dashboards, or even specific modules. Download them as PDFs, or access and share them on mobile via the Zoho app.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce offers some elegant dashboard templates that make dashboard creation easy. Just pick one, add headers, titles, and footers, and you’re up and running. The Salesforce AppExchange offers even more options for customizable dashboards.

Salesforce also comes with an impressive new feature called Tableau Pulse. This AI-powered tool can help you better understand what’s happening with your data by calling out anomalies, answering questions, and providing summaries and visual explanations. It can even help you curate and personalize dashboards that are most likely to meet your business needs and goals.

The drill-down option lets you control where users are sent when they click a specific component. And conditional highlighting allows you to make important information stand out. For example, deals over a certain value appear in green.

Key Features:

• Customizable Components: A diverse array of charts, gauges, metrics, and tables can be arranged and resized to create a dashboard that fits specific business needs.
• Dynamic Displays: Get the most relevant info to each user with personalized displays based on the viewing user’s access and permissions.
• Interactive Filters and Drill-Down Capabilities: Apply filters to focus on specific data segments or use interactive elements to drill down into underlying reports.
• Customer and Client Portals: Use Experience Cloud to set up customer and client portals, complete with dashboard data.

5. Pipedrive

Last but not least, we have Pipedrive, an affordable alternative to all the big names on this list. Don't let the price fool you! It packs a punch. You can use the Sales Dashboard to showcase activity and results metrics in a clean and uncluttered way.

The Pipedrive interface might look simpler than some of the other tools on this list, but sometimes that's a good thing. In fact, you can set up a dashboard and have it ready to go on the same day. That's how simple it is to use. You can also make use of Pipedrive's automation features. For example, you can create actions as new leads move through your pipeline and forward client activity to your custom dashboards.

With more than 500 integrations, Pipedrive ensures that you can connect all your business tools in one place.

Key Features:

• Simple, Customizable Dashboards: Create dashboards that focus on specific metrics, then use the drag-and-drop interface to easily add, remove, and rearrange the data.
• AI-Powered Insights: Generate reports by typing queries in plain language, or use suggested prompts to create insightful dashboards quickly and easily.
• Automated Reporting: Set up automations to update contacts, create actions, and forward client activity to dashboards.
• Sharing and Collaboration: Share dashboards with team members, create shareable links for stakeholders, and set up editing and viewing rights.

Final Thoughts

CRMs are all about collecting and managing data. Dashboards make that job easier and more effective by providing a quick visual touchpoint. Building any dashboard will take some planning and effort, but many CRM tools make the process easier with built-in functionality. Check what’s available for your CRM or choose one with the right dashboard functionality from the get-go.

At Softailed, we’ve done a lot of the hard work for you. We’ve tested more than 35 of the top CRM software tools out there. You can check out our top picks for the best CRM software, or break down the list based on pricing, features, reporting, integrations, and more. Or, check out how our top picks stack up by using our Comparison Tool to compare CRM software side-by-side.

Make your data work for you. A good dashboard brings clarity, and clarity brings results.