Pulse Widget
Overview
Pulse aggregates the CRM information from Opportunities, your call and your team's call from Forecasting, and the projection from Trend all in a single view. This allows you to pressure test your pipeline and performance for the current quarter, understand how your previous quarter(s) played out, and set your revenue teams up for success next quarter. The power of Pulse can be pulled directly into your Dashboards with the Pulse Widget.
The Pulse Widget can be pinned to any Dashboard directly from Pulse. Simply set the filter criteria that you need in Pulse once, and then pin that view of Pulse to a Dashboard using the Actions Drop-down. You can pin previous quarter, current quarter, or next quarter views of Pulse to your Dashboards.
To pin the Pulse Widget:
1. Click Add to Dashboard in the top right corner.
2. If needed, update the name of your Pulse Widget. The name will default to the quarter view of Pulse and Overall Forecast you have selected in your Chart Settings. When you're done, click Next.
If you want to rename your Pulse Widget later, simply click the ellipsis icon in the upper right of the Widget, and select the "Rename Widget" option.
3. Select which Dashboard you want to pin the Pulse Widget to, and click Save.
Best Practice Recommendations
Which Dashboards should I pin the Pulse Widget to?
The Pulse Widget aggregates the key information from other modules like Opportunities, Forecasting, and Trend to provide an overview of overall performance, forecast, accuracy, and pacing week-over-week for your organization, region/team, or individual sales rep as needed. In the case of the next quarter view of Pulse, the Pulse Widget helps you ensure that you have enough pipeline and the right pipeline mix to hit your number next quarter.
As such, the Pulse Widget is particularly useful to pin to Dashboards that you use to understand how this quarter is shaping up, or how last quarter played out, or how things are shaping up for next quarter — whether that be your QBR Dashboard, Board Review Dashboard, Current Quarter Dashboard, or Pipeline Generation Dashboard.
Where should I place the Pulse Widget in my Dashboards?
The information aggregated in the Pulse Widget reveals your organization's performance (or a team's or a rep's performance) week over week. It's helpful to place the Pulse Widget at the top of your Dashboard, or underneath the KPI Widgets that might already be placed at the top of your Dashboard.
This will allow you to identify the patterns that indicate how your business is shaping up (i.e. overall performance, pacing, forecast accuracy) before diving into the details with other widgets such as the Forecasting Widget, Top Deals Widget, or Deal Prioritization Widget, for example.
What Insights Can I Share with Sales Leadership?
The Pulse Widget can be especially useful for sales leaders who appreciate the insights that Pulse provides, but don’t necessarily want to navigate to Pulse and adjust their filters each time they need these insights.
For sales leaders, when the Scope in a Dashboard is adjusted to an individual sales rep, then the Pulse Widget allows sales leaders to identify patterns or trends in their sales rep's performance and coach each reps according to their specific areas for improvement.
Additionally, execs are able to examine important patterns like overall performance, pacing, and forecast accuracy not only for individual contributors, but also for their team/region, or the entire organization.
Pinning the view of Pulse that your CEO, CRO, or CFO likes to use to your Board Review Dashboard, Current Quarter Dashboard, CFO Dashboard, or Pipeline Generation Dashboard can help key moments in your revenue operating rhythm, such as board review meetings and QBRs to run smoothly without pulling reports manually.
How Can I Use the Pulse Widget in QBRs?
The Pulse Widget is a powerful and convenient addition to your QBR Dashboard. When the Scope is adjusted to an individual sales rep, you can review the following key points in the QBR:
- Did the rep make his / her number? If the green Closed Won bar at the end of the quarter exceeds the dotted Quota line, then overall performance is great!
- At what point in the quarter was the rep’s forecast accurate? Examine when the yellow Primary Forecast call line comes within a reasonable range of accuracy. At what point did the sales rep's forecast call come close to the total amount that they Closed as Won by the end of the quarter? The earlier in the quarter that the primary forecast call is within a reasonable range of accuracy, the better!
- Did the rep hit his / her pacing goals? Review whether or not the green Closed Won bar meets the dotted purple Pacing line. If the Closed Won amount meets or exceeds the Pacing line at the end of Month 1 and the end of Month 2 of the quarter, for example, then the rep is meeting their pacing goals.
*Only one Pulse Widget can be pinned to a Dashboard.
