How Sales Leaders Capture More Accurate Reports with StarfishETL

Do you have a sales strategy outlined for next year? For the next three years? More than 50% of successful sales teams have at least a 12-month view of their plans.

So, where do these plans come from? From data, of course!

Intelligent reporting helps teams build the most informed approach to their sales strategy. Forecasts, year-over-year sales histories, MQL to SQL conversions, and customer retention rates are just a few of the report types that educate sales executives on what’s working and what isn’t. Data-centric businesses use integration strategies to unlock hidden trends and help teams expand those reporting functions.

The number of integrations and types of applications you combine are independent to your sales goals and budget, but here are a few of the most common ways StarfishETL is used to help sales leaders capture more accurate reports.

Precisely Monitoring MQL to SQL Conversions

One of the most in-demand requests we get is for businesses connecting their CRM to their marketing automation. Because the sales team mostly uses the CRM and the marketing team mostly focuses their energy on the marketing automation, there’s often a disconnect with the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) process.

Separate systems keep sales in the dark on prospect engagement and preferences while marketing tries to build segmented lists that may not accurately reflect where a prospect is in the sales cycle. It’s a dangerous divide, and businesses quickly learn how it can negatively affect their MQL to SQL handoff.

When StarfishETL enables integration between these core systems, sales can pull reports and track real-time data on how specific individuals or companies are engaging and when they’re converting. It improves collaboration and data sharing with the marketing team, which studies show helps close more deals. In fact, sales teams that closely collaborate with their marketing counterparts are  67% better at closing deals.

Because of the popularity (and necessity) of this integration, StarfishETL built a pre-configured connection the most requested marketing solution: HubSpot Marketing Hub. This Starter Template saves our integration customers from configuring basic fields like Accounts, Contacts, and Leads by providing the core mapping framework upfront. To learn more about the availability of Starter Templates for integration, you can visit this page.

<em>Integration shares MQL to SQL conversion data in both a CRM and Marketing Automation system. </em><br><em>This keeps sales and marketing up-to-date on where each contact is within the process. </em>

Creating and Reporting-On Pricing Quotes

Most organizations use an ERP or accounting system to track financial data. Real-time data sharing between an ERP and CRM gives sales the tools they need to quote more accurately in the short term and store the analytics for forecasting and reporting in the long term. StarfishETL enables this by pulling the up-to-date pricing information from the client’s ERP into their CRM to populate quotes accurately. The quotes are then saved to the CRM account and easily referenceable for all future transactions.

This real-time transfer of data is also extremely helpful in reducing errors. Because the detail of the sale is shared in both systems, the need for duplicate data entry is eliminated. In addition, workflows between the ERP and CRM can be set up to populate pre-defined reports that highlight top metrics. Individual sales reps and department leaders can house these reports on their CRM dashboards to get a snapshot of how well they’re performing against quotas and quarterly goals.

StarfishETL also offers ERP Starter Integrations for some of the most requested solutions.

Tracking Opportunities Against Actual Sales

Another connection StarfishETL users rely on to empower sales reporting is one between accounting software and CRM. When a sale is completed and marked as such in the accounting system, it’s updated in the CRM Opportunity to be tracked against other completed sales.

Depending on which fields are configured between the accounting and CRM, sales can pull a number of reports from this data. For example, sales can create a report on opportunities closed or likely to close by month, the value of those opportunities, the products or services related to those opportunities, the accounts associated to the opportunities, etc.  Speak to your StarfishETL consultant about the types of reports you’re trying to get from your accounting and CRM integration to pinpoint which fields you’ll need to configure.

Sales leaders capture more accurate reports with StarfishETL through real-time data connections between core business applications. These connections give sales teams the context they need to make sense of larger sales patterns. If you’re unsure which integrations would best suit your sales reporting goals, reach out to StarfishETL for a free consultation and quote.

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