How to Set Up ROI Reporting and Dashboard

If you want to prove the impact of your data investment, this Cognism reporting and analytics guide shows you how to set up ROI reporting and dashboards in your CRM. 

By tracking key sales, marketing, and operational metrics, you can clearly measure how Cognism data influences pipeline generation, revenue performance, and go-to-market efficiency.

Here are our recommendations:

Recommended sales ROI reporting

We recommend creating a Sales dashboard in your CRM to clearly measure the commercial impact of Cognism data. This should be reviewed regularly by sales leadership. 

Objective: To clearly demonstrate how the quality of Cognism data influences revenue outcomes for your team.

Recommended reports to create for sales

1. Pipeline from Cognism contracts and Pipeline value tied to Cognism contacts 
   • To quantify total revenue opportunity generated from Cognism data 
2. Revenue won (Cognism) and Revenue won Cognism v Benchmark 
   • To measure closed-won ROI and compare performance against overall benchmarks 
3. Meetings booked using Cognism Data 
   • To ensure Cognism usage is translating into tangible sales activity 
4. Call to connection ratio 
   • To measure reachability and contact data accuracy 
5. Meeting to opportunity conversion rate and Win rates on opportunities 
   • To validate the quality and strength of Cognism-driven pipeline

Recommended operational reporting

We recommend creating this dashboard in your CRM to measure how Cognism data improves operational efficiency and data quality. 

Objective: How to integrate crm reporting with Cognism to demonstrate how Cognism data drives faster execution, stronger account coverage and more predictable revenue outcomes.

Recommended reports to create for operations

1. Speed to first contact 
   • To understand how quickly new data is actioned 
2. Time to first meeting 
   • To see how quickly new contacts convert into booked meetings 
3. Funnel conversion rates (Lead > Meeting > Opportunity > Closed Won) 
   • To identify how Cognism-driven contacts improve stage progression 
4. Sales cycle velocity 
   • To assess whether Cognism contacts move through the pipeline faster 
5. Contact coverage per account & Improvement 
   • To measure buying-group visibility within target accounts 
6. CRM records enriched 
   • To quantify the scale of data enhancement across your CRM

Recommended marketing reporting 

We recommend creating this dashboard in your CRM to measure how Cognism data expands your addressable market and contributes to qualified demand. 

Objective: To demonstrate how Cognism data expands reach, improves targeting precision and drives measurable pipeline growth.

Recommended reports to create for marketing

1. New Contacts created via Cognism
   • To measure growth of your addressable market 
2.   Existing records enriched via Cognism 
   • To see how quickly new contacts convert into booked meetings 
3. MQLs generated using Cognism data
   • To attribute qualified demand directly to Cognism 
4.  Lead to MQL conversion rate 
   • To assess the targeting accuracy and quality of Cognism-sourced leads 
5. Meeting to Opportunity conversion rate 
   • To validate pipeline quality 
6. Marketing Sourced Pipeline from Cognism Contacts 
   • To connect Cognism-powered campaigns to revenue impact