Presented by:Md. Zafar Ullah

How-to Make a Sales Pipeline Funnel Excel Chart Template

HEAD or TAIL- Problems with Funnel chart- Then Why?

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Problems with Funnel Chart• The chart may have the potential to mislead

readers.• The area of each section may not represent the

data proportionally to other sections. – For instance, if your values for each section/category are

the same, then the size of the top section is not proportionally equal to the bottom section even though they are the same value. 

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• So be careful when using this as a representation of your data. 

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• In this graphic, it can be deceiving to readers that the Sales in Prospecting phase are much larger than those in the Negotiation phase, when in reality, they are exactly equal. 

• The graphic is basing the height on the category value, not the width or volume of the section.

Problems with Funnel Chart (cont.)

Then Why?• Even though this may be a bad

graphic from all design and data visualization perspectives, you may be asked to create this type of graphic for your Executive Dashboard. – Your first step should be to talk with the powers

that be about the issues with this type of chart.– If your client or executives or managers still want

this as pare of the Company Dashboard, then give the people what they want.

– That is why you will see this type of chart in many well-known software packages like Salesforce.com.

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• Lets say you are the Dashboard Designer for your sales organization.

Then Why? (cont.)

• Lets say that your sample data has categories from your sales organization on how the sales pipeline looks for the company.

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• This is your data in Excel.

– Presently there are 652 sales opportunities in the Prospecting stage worth $33.6M.

– This is the start of the sales cycle for your company and each sales opportunity may be at a different level in the sales cycle.

Then Why? (cont.)

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- Typically there are less and less at each progressive stage of the sales cycle because deals are not always a done deal. 

- Some people in the prospecting stage may change their mind and not purchase anything. 

- Another potential sale that is in the Presentation stage may not get closed because the buyer chose another company to handle the business.

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Then Why? (cont.)

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- However, not all sales fall out of the pipeline and your organization may be able to calculate the likely percentage that any given opportunity may close from each stage of the sales cycle.  

- This is why organizations like to see this data in a pipeline or funnel format because each stage fills the next stage in the cycle.

- And if you don’t have enough sales in each part of the pipeline, your company will have uneven cash flows as each sale will most likely have an average closing time from start to finish.

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Then Why? (cont.)

HOW TO MAKE FUNNEL CHART in EXCEL- Sales Funnel or Sales Pipeline Chart or Graph in Excel- The Breakdown- Step-by-Step Tutorial

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Funnel Chart or Graph in Excel

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Funnel Chart or Graph in Excel- Looking at the standard set of charts that are available in Excel, the closest representation of what we are looking for is a Stacked Pyramid chart.- More specifically, a 100% Stacked Pyramid chart since our data represents 100% of the sales pipeline data and we are not trying to compare the data from one pyramid to another.- You will find the 100% Stacked Pyramid chart under the Column Chart menu in the Insert Ribbon. 

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The Breakdown

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1) Create a 100% Stacked Pyramid Chart2) Flatten it to 2D3) Flip it upside down4) Label and Clean it up

Step-by-Step Tutorial

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1) Highlight the Data from A2:B6  (From “Prospecting” to Negotiation Value of  “45”) and from the Insert Ribbon, choose the Column Menu from the Charts Group and then select 100% Stacked Pyramid. 

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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The resulting chart will look like above

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2) In the chart, select the data series for Series one by clicking on the pyramids.  Then from the “Design Ribbon”, select “Switch Row/Column” from the Data Group.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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The resulting chart will look like above

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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The resulting chart will look like above

The funnel chart is starting to take shape.

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3) Right click on the chart and select “3D Rotation…” from the menu or you can also see this as a choice from the Layout Ribbon in the Background Group.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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4) Change the Rotation Settings as follows:X=0

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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4) Change the Rotation Settings as follows:Y=0

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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4) Change the Rotation Settings as follows:Y=0

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

Now we are getting really close to the Final Sales Funnel Chart in Excel.

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5) Right click on the chart’s Vertical Axis and select “Format Axis…” from the menu or you can also see this as the Primary Vertical Axis choice from the Layout Ribbon in the Axis Group.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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5) and choose “Values in reverse order” from the Axis Options Dialog Box.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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5) and choose “Values in reverse order” from the Axis Options Dialog Box.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

Now we just need to clean up the Chart and give it some Data Labels.

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• Remove the Vertical Axis – Click on the Vertical Axis and press your delete key.

• Remove the Legend – Click on the Legend and press your delete key.

• Remove the Horizontal Gridlines – Click on the horizontal Gridlines and press your delete key.

• Remove the Category Label – Click on the #1 at the top of the Sales Funnel and press your delete key.

• Add Data Labels – Click anywhere in the chart and change Data Labels to “Show” from the Layout Ribbon in the Labels Group.

6) Clean up

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

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7) Admire your handy work.

Step-by-Step Tutorial (cont.)

Your Sales Funnel for Excel should now be completed and should look like this.

Helpline

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Sample File• Get a FREE sample

download template for the sales pipeline with instructions here:

Video Tutorial• Please click below icon to

see a video demonstration of this technique

2003 version 2007 version

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