Marketing and sales are the bread and butter of any business. Marketing advertises products and promotes brand awareness; sales reaches out to potential customers to try and close a deal. However, to better understand how to create a marketing and sales report, let’s define the two in more detail.

What is Marketing and Sales?

HubSpot defines marketing as: “The process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests.”

Sales is defined as: “All activities involved in selling a product or service to a consumer or business. A sales team can be broken up by the region they sell to, product/service, or target customer.”

As you can see, these two have a lot in common. When paired, they are a powerful duo offering increased profits and company growth.

Historically, these two departments were disconnected and communicated poorly. Over time, people have realized the benefits of aligning their marketing and sales. Despite their similarities, marketing and sales reports are quite different.

What’s the Importance of a Marketing & Sales Report?

Marketing and sales both work toward the same goal—to sell a product or service. For this to happen, businesses need a way to share their success and failures. Without the ability to create a marketing and sales report, companies are unable to communicate their findings or implement new ideas

So, what's the difference between a marketing and sales report?

In short, more than you would think.

However, let’s take a closer look at how they differ.

What Should Be In A Marketing Report?

In most marketing campaigns, there are a lot of metrics that you could include. However, it’s important that you focus on the data that best supports your goal.

For example, if your monthly goal is to generate five new leads, it wouldn’t make sense to include the amount of time someone spent reading a blog. This fails to show whether you hit your goal or provide any relevant data.

Reports can cover any timeframe that you choose. Two of the most common reports would be annual or monthly.

Let’s talk about the five key items to include in your marketing report.

Current and Past Deliverables

It's never a bad idea to start off your report with past data. Doing this will help get everyone on the same page and show how hard your team has been working. When you’re able to show improvement, there will never be any room for disappointment.

Progress is the name of the game!

Website Traffic

Generating traffic for your website is one of the most important steps in moving someone down the marketing funnel. As you review visitor data, it is important to include which pages had the most traffic and where your traffic originated from. These two metrics assist with page optimization.

For example, if you notice that a page listing your company’s experience and certifications brings in the most organic traffic, then create more content or pages with similar information.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is defined as: “The percentage of people who land on a page on your website and then leave. They do not click on anything else or explore your site.” This metric is important because it can point out which pages are irrelevant or confusing.

People often arrive on your website searching for a particular solution. If you have irrelevant or confusing information, then people will leave.

Leads and MQLs

A lead is the first step in building a relationship with your audience. This is someone who shows interest in your brand’s products or services. They often provide you with basic information about themselves, like their name and email. Once they are marked a lead, they are ready to be nurtured down the funnel.

The next step following a lead is an MQL (marketing qualified lead). HubSpot defines a MQL as, “a lead who has been deemed more likely to become a customer.” This can be based on offers they download, pages they have viewed, or ways they have engaged with your content.

Determining what moves a customer from a lead to an MQL is criteria determined by the sales team. This is why alignment between the marketing and sales team is a high priority.

Traditionally, sales teams have spent hours reaching out to leads who were not in the right mindset to buy. If this happens, sales reps often begin to lose trust in the marketing team. This is a prime example of why it is vital that communication should be established between the two. An issue like this can be easily avoided if criteria of what is a “good” and "bad" lead has been established.

Revenue

Reporting on revenue is important because it shows you which sales channels were most effective. Being able to justify that your money was spent in the right place also helps gather support for your future marketing ideas. More often than not, businesses don't mind investing more money into your marketing efforts if you’re providing them with a positive return.

Example of a Marketing Report

The marketing report below does a great job of displaying data in a simple layout. Depending on the campaign, your report might look different. Using charts and different metrics can enhance the impact of campaign results.

What Should be in a Sales Report?

Now that we’ve gone through what a marketing report looks like, let's dive into how a sales report will differ.

Response Time to Leads

When a MQL is sent over to the sales team, it’s important for the sales rep to act in a timely manner. When potential customers are actively exploring their options, they are in the perfect mindset to be contacted. The longer your team takes to reply, the higher the chance someone will lose interest or choose a competitor.

Opportunity Win Rate

Opportunity win rate determines how many potential opportunities turn into customers. This helps diagnose problems within your sales and marketing team. If marketing is not providing suitable leads or your sales team is dropping the ball by not following up in time, your opportunity win rate might suffer.

The opportunity win rate is calculated by taking the number of new customers divided by total opportunities, and multiplied by 100.

Depending on the nature of a business, a good opportunity win rate can differ. Just ensure that goals are being hit and progress is made.

Customer Lifetime Value

CLV, or customer lifetime value, measures the amount of value that a new customer brings to your business. This metric is great for determining which product or group of people is most valuable to your company.

When this is known, it makes it easier to determine where to focus your efforts. Want an in-depth explanation on how CLV is calculated? Read this article for a step-by-step process.

New Sales

This one might seem like a given, but it is vital to show whether your business is growing, shrinking, or just getting by. When reporting on your monthly sales, it’s great to include past metrics and how they compare. Showing how your margins and profits change over time reveals where to focus your efforts.

Example of a Sales Report

The sales report below displays a lot of great metrics. It shows the amount of revenue, new contacts, and sales by month. Depending on the depth and type of campaign you’re reporting on, your sales report might differ.

Most salespeople are judged by the number of leads they can turn into customers.

However, without knowing your ideal customer so the marketing team can provide quality leads, a salesperson would have nowhere to start. Yes, these two are often grouped separately, but having these two work together is critical in company success.

So, the next time you are stuck wondering what to include in your marketing and sales report, start with the bigger picture. Remind yourself what the goal of the campaign was.

Once you are familiar with this, it will be easier to determine which metrics are the most important to report on. Even though marketing and sales reports can differ in style and scope, they both accomplish similar goals. Look to the elements above when creating your next report and you will be headed in the right direction.