For any sales leader, sales activity tracking is an important part of the job. Not only does it let you monitor the effectiveness of a rep, but it also helps you stay up to date on how a deal is progressing through the sales funnel — all in real-time.

The benefits of sales activity tracking, however, go well beyond the day-to-day. These tools can have big picture benefits for the entire organization.

Here is a look at five reasons why organizations should make the investment in sales forecast software tools today:

1. You can forecast accurately. 

Sales activity tracking means you’re working with real data — not the hunches or hopes or an optimistic sales team. Having this accurate data is a crucial part of creating realistic forecasts about the future of a product, service, and organization. It affects all facets of a company and its operations — revenues, strategy, resource planning, and investor relations, to name just a few.

2. You can set benchmarks. 

Tracking sales data will give you insights into the number of calls or demos your team is making, the length of calls, and the conversion rates, amongst other data. Having this data will allow you to set performance benchmarks for the various members of your team to know who is meeting their targets and who is underperforming.

3. You can gauge whether your company is growing.

Part of your sales tracking will include your average deal size. By looking at this metric regularly — think monthly or quarterly — you will have an insight into whether the size of your sales and deals are getting larger. If they are, that may mean you’re moving upmarket and growing as an organization. If not, it may mean your company isn’t meeting its goals and growing at the pace that was initially forecasted.

4. You can track your sales team’s development. 

As you track data, you will eventually build a database of historical information that provides keen insights into your team’s performance, including whether they’re getting better at their job and the sales process. As part of your sales activity tracking, your data will include conversion or win rates. If that rate is increasing — meaning you’re closing deals at an increased rate it means your sales performance is getting better. If that rate is dropping, it could mean performance has stagnated or is even decreasing, and you’ll need to invest in training to get the sales process back on track.

5. You can spot weak points.

By tracking your sales activity, you’ll be able to spot at what state potential clients fall out of the funnel. Is the discovery call, the demo, or the negotiation? Or is it the sales enablement content efforts that are falling short? Knowing when they fall out should help you figure out why. For example, if a majority of clients end their engagement with you at the demo stage it might be because you’re giving bad demos. And from there you can fix it, whether that means investing in more training or hiring more or different talent.

Together, these reasons showcase why investing in sales activity tracking can make total sense for your business growth.