Make use of these five reports when reviewing a business year. Learn how to set goals for the coming year by looking at your data. By optimizing for success, you can increase your revenue, leads, and customers.

The beginning of a new year is an exciting opportunity for some business owners to reevaluate their objectives. For some, thinking about everything that needs to be done can be overwhelming. If you fall into the latter category, the appropriate reports and tools can make the year-end planning and review process less stressful and more beneficial.

Conducting a year-in-review with the appropriate reports and data is essential for organizing your business for the upcoming year. It’s easy to get lost in everything you’ve done (all those online contracts and online invoices!) and accomplished over the past year if you don’t have that direction.

With just five reports, you can make new business goals based on what you learned about lead nurturing, conversion, finances, and other topics from the previous year.

How to achieve your business goals for the new year

With the help of a client flow management platform, you can accomplish your objectives more effectively in the coming year. You’ll have everything you need to reach new heights, including tools like online payment software to collect payments.

The CRM also provides all of the aforementioned year-end reports, allowing you to organize everything for the upcoming annual review. Start using this platform right away to make life your life easier.

But what are these five reports that you need to review? And how can they help you set SMART goals for your business? In this blog post, we will explain each report in detail and show you how to use them to plan ahead.

1. Lead Generation Report

This report shows you how many leads you generated in the past year, where they came from, and how qualified they were. You can use this report to evaluate your lead generation strategies and identify which channels and campaigns were most effective. You can also see how well you nurtured your leads and moved them along the sales funnel.

Some questions to ask yourself when reviewing this report are:

• How many leads did I generate in total?
• What was the average cost per lead?
• What was the conversion rate from lead to customer?
• Which sources generated the most leads?
• Which sources generated the most qualified leads?
• How did I segment my leads based on their interests, needs, and behaviors?
• How did I follow up with my leads and keep them engaged?
• How can I improve my lead generation process in the next year?

Based on your answers, you can set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your lead generation in the next year. For example:

• I want to generate 20% more leads in 2024 than in 2023.
• I want to reduce my cost per lead by 10% in 2024.
• I want to increase my conversion rate from lead to customer by 15% in 2024.
• I want to focus more on organic sources like SEO and content marketing in 2024.
• I want to create more personalized and targeted campaigns for my leads in 2024.
• I want to automate my lead nurturing process with email marketing and chatbots in 2024.

2. Sales Report

This report shows you how many sales you made in the past year, how much revenue you generated, and how profitable you were. You can use this report to evaluate your sales performance and identify which products or services were most popular and profitable. You can also see how well you managed your sales pipeline and closed deals.

Some questions to ask yourself when reviewing this report are:

• How many sales did I make in total?
• What was the average revenue per sale?
• What was the average profit margin per sale?
• Which products or services are sold the most?
• Which products or services had the highest profit margin?
• How long was my average sales cycle?
• What was my win rate?
• How did I handle objections and negotiations?
• How can I improve my sales process in the next year?

Based on your answers, you can set SMART goals for your sales in the next year. For example:

• I want to increase my sales by 25% in 2024.
• I want to increase my average revenue per sale by 10% in 2024.
• I want to increase my average profit margin per sale by 5% in 2024.
• I want to launch a new product or service that meets a market need in 2024.
• I want to upsell and cross-sell more to my existing customers in 2024.
• I want to shorten my sales cycle by 20% in 2024.
• I want to improve my win rate by 10% in 2024.
• I want to develop better objection-handling and negotiation skills in 2024.

3. Customer Report

This report shows you how many customers you acquired and retained in the past year, how satisfied they were, and how loyal they were. You can use this report to evaluate your customer service and relationship management strategies and identify which factors influenced customer satisfaction and loyalty. You can also see how well you delivered value and solved problems for your customers.

Some questions to ask yourself when reviewing this report are:

• How many customers did I acquire in total?
• What was the average cost per acquisition?
• How many customers did I retain in total?
• What was the average retention rate?
• How many customers did I lose in total?
• What was the average churn rate?
• How satisfied were my customers with my products or services?
• How loyal were my customers to my brand?
• How did I measure and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty?
• How can I improve my customer service and relationship management in the next year?

Based on your answers, you can set SMART goals for your customer service and relationship management in the next year. For example:

• I want to acquire 30% more customers in 2024 than in 2023.
• I want to reduce my cost per acquisition by 15% in 2024.
• I want to retain 80% of my customers in 2024.
• I want to reduce my churn rate by 10% in 2024.
• I want to increase my customer satisfaction score by 20% in 2024.
• I want to increase my customer loyalty score by 15% in 2024.
• I want to implement a customer feedback system and a loyalty program in 2024.
• I want to provide more value and solve more problems for my customers in 2024.

4. Financial Report

This report shows you how much money you made and spent in the past year, how profitable you were, and how healthy your cash flow was. You can use this report to evaluate your financial performance and identify which expenses were necessary and which were wasteful. You can also see how well you managed your budget and forecasted your revenue.