How to build a sales competition dashboard in Geckoboard

In this tutorial we'll run through how to build a Sales competition dashboard, like the one below. To follow along, you’ll first need to sign up for a free Geckoboard account.

A Geckoboard dashboard is made up using smaller visualizations, which we call widgets.

A widget visualizes live data from a data source.

In this tutorial we’ll show you how to build this dashboard, using widgets that visualize data from this example spreadsheet. You can make a copy of this spreadsheet, or use your own.

Alternatively, you can build this dashboard with widgets that visualize data from other data sources, such as Salesforce, Pipedrive and Hubspot.

A single dashboard can visualize metrics from multiple data sources.

To recreate the Sales Competition dashboard you will need to add 16 widgets to a blank dashboard:

  • 10x Number widgets
  • 4x Image widgets
  • 1x Leaderboard widget
  • 1x Line chart widget

The first widget we’ll build is Team sales this year, located in the top-left corner of the dashboard, a number widget, which also includes a Goal to show progress.

Building this widget using a spreadsheet

  1. First, make your own copy of our example sales spreadsheet. (In Google Sheets select File > Make a copy)
  2. In Geckoboard, click + Add widget and select Spreadsheets from the data sources list.
  3. From the Select a data source panel, hover over Google Drive and click Connect. (Alternatively, you can link directly to the Google Sheet.)
  4. In the pop-up window you'll need to authorize the connection to Geckoboard.
  5. Once this is done you’ll see a list of spreadsheet files. Select the correct spreadsheet.
  6. In the bottom left corner, select the sheet: For Geckoboard, then select cell U2.
  7. From the visualizations options, click the number icon.
  8. In the bottom corner a preview shows how your visualization will look.
  9. Click Continue to begin configuring your number widget.
  10. Next, we’ll add a sales goal for the year to highlight the progress the team is making. Click Add comparison visualization to open the Goal panel.
  11. In the Goal field, enter 1200000. (Goals are shown as progress bars on number widgets.)
  12. Click Save.
  13. Finally, click where it says Add a title and enter “this year”.
  14. Your number widget is complete! Click Add to dashboard to see your new widget on your dashboard.

Building this widget using a different data source

Geckoboard securely connects to over 90 different data sources, including sales tools like Salesforce, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Close, and more.

Here’s a quick example that shows how easy it is to build this same number widget using our Pipedrive integration.

Duplicating a widget that’s already on your dashboard can really save time, especially when the metric you want to display is similar, or from the same data source. We’ll demonstrate this by duplicating the Team sales this year number widget, then editing it to build the Team sales this week number widget, located on the middle-left side of the dashboard.

  1. Hover over your first widget, then click the more options icon in the top right corner.
  2. Click Duplicate to create a new widget beside its original.
  3. Edit your copied widget, then click Edit your data selection.
  4. Hover over your spreadsheet and click to edit selection.
  5. Clear the previous cell selection U2.
  6. Select the sheet: Individual sales by week, then select cell O2.
  7. Select the number icon, then click Continue.
  8. Next we’ll add a comparison number to show the difference between last week’s sales. Click Add comparison visualization to open the Number panel.
  9. In the Compare to field, select the previous week's sales figure from your spreadsheet.
  10. Click Save.

In the Sales Competition Dashboard, you may notice that many widgets are grouped together. This helps your dashboard viewers to understand quickly which metrics are related.

Next we’re going to group the Year and Weekly sales number widgets together.

  1. Drag and drop one widget on top of another.
  2. Resize the group.
  3. Give the group a “Team sales” heading.
  4. Drag the group into the top left corner of the dashboard.

The next widget we’ll build is a Team sales this year leaderboard widget, located below the revenue number widgets.

  1. Add a new Spreadsheet widget.
  2. Select the sheet: Total individual sales, then select the cell ranges A:A and J:J.
  3. Select the leaderboard icon, then click Continue.
  4. Click Formatting, then add a Dollar ($) prefix to the sales values.
  5. Click where it says Add a title and enter “leaderboard this year”.
  6. Your leaderboard widget is complete! Click Add to dashboard to see your new widget on your dashboard.

Next we’ll build the Weekly sales line chart widget, located on the bottom-left corner of the dashboard.

  1. Add a new Spreadsheet widget.
  2. Select the sheet: Individual sales by week, then click drag to select cell ranges X:X and Y:Y.
  3. For the total monthly sales, click drag cell range B6:L6 to add a new range to your selection.
  4. Click the Line chart icon.
  5. Click Continue to begin configuring your line chart widget.
  6. Change the widget title to “Weekly sales”.

To further highlight the individual sales performance, we’ll display an image for each salesperson.

Geckoboard can display any image that is hosted online and has an image URL.

The easiest way to create an image URL is to upload your image to an image hosting service, such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Imgur.

  1. Generate and copy a link to your image. Follow the instructions for Dropbox, Google Drive or Imgur.
  2. Copy the image URL to your clipboard.
  3. In Geckoboard, add a new Image widget.
  4. Give the image an optional Title. In our example, we used the salesperson’s region.
  5. Paste the copied URL to the URL field, then click Save.
  6. Repeat the process for any additional salespeople.

The final widget we’ll build is an Individual sales this year number widget, located below the salesperson’s image.

  1. Add a new Spreadsheet widget.
  2. Select the sheet: Total individual sales, then select cell J2.
  3. Select the number icon, then click Continue.
  4. Next we’ll add a sales goal for the year to highlight the progress the salesperson is making. Click Add comparison visualization to open the Goal panel.
  5. In the Goal field, enter 300000 to display the progress bar.
  6. Click Save.
  7. Click Add to dashboard and repeat the process for any additional salespeople.

By now, you will have realised that Geckoboard can visualize data from any spreadsheet.

So the simplest approach may be to connect Geckoboard to an existing spreadsheet you’re already using, or directly to a sales tool like Salesforce or Pipedrive.

However, if you wish to continue using our example spreadsheet you can add your own sales data and watch your dashboard widgets update as you go.

The spreadsheet includes queries that automatically generate the sample sales data calculations. These queries run whenever new entries are added to/removed from ‘Sales Data’.

If you made it here you've covered everything you need to get you started building your sales competition dashboard. If there's something we haven't covered here that you need help with, please take a look at our Help Center or drop our Support team a message.

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