Sales funnel is a very common business chart. Here is a simple bar chart based trick you can use to generate a good funnel chart to be included in that project report.
Download the Sales Funnel Chart – Excel Template and learn it by playing with it.
1. Get your sales data ready
The first step is to get your sales data ready for a funnel chart.
For this we take a normal phase-wise sales data and add a dummy series to it. The dummy values tell excel how far each of the sales figures should be moved away from y-axis to get the funnel effect.
The dummy values are calculated using a simple formula like =(some_large_number – funnel_size_at_that_phase)/2, In our case, I have used 150,000 for the large number.
We will also add a total column.
Tell me again, why are we using dummy series?
In order to create the funnel effect, we must move each of the bars in such way that they are all centered vertically. To do this, we take a large number and subtract funnel value from that and divide this by two. How it works ? well, that you can figure out while sipping coffee 😀
2. Create a simple bar chart with the columns Total and Dummy
Once you are done, the bar chart should look like this.
3. Now adjust bar overlap and gap width settings to create a funnel effect
Select the bars by clicking on them, and right click and go to format data-series. In the resulting dialog, go to options and adjust “series overlap” and “gap width” settings in such way that series are completely overlapped and gap is ZERO.
Once you do this, the chart should look like this.
4. Adjust colors and add labels
Select the dummy series and fill it with white color or make it transparent. Add data labels and you have a sparkling funnel chart ready.
Next time use this in your sales presentation to the boss and see everyone having a discussion.
Download the Sales Funnel Chart – Excel Template and learn it by playing with it.
14 Responses to “Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability”
I think the virtue of pie charts is precisely that they are difficult to decode. In many contexts, you have to release information but you don't want the relationship between values to jump at your reader. That's when pie charts are most useful.
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Chandoo,
millions of ants cannot be mistaken.....There should be a reason why everybody continues using Pie charts, despite what gurus like you or Jon and others say.
one reason could be because we are just used to, so that's what we need to change, the "comfort zone"...
i absolutely agree, since I've been "converted", I just find out that bar charts are clearer, and nicer to the view...
Regards,
Martin
[...] says we can Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability. Such a pie has too many labels to fit into a tight space, so you need ro move the labels around [...]
Chandoo -
You ask "Can I use an alternative to pie chart?"
I answer in You Say “Pie”, I Say “Bar”.
This visualization was created because it was easy to print before computers. In this day and age, it should not exist.
I think the 100% Bar Chart is just as useless/unreadable as Pies - we should rename them something like Mama's Strudel Charts - how big a slice would you like, Dear?
My money's with Jon on this topic.
The primary function of any pie chart with more than 2 or 3 data points is to obfuscate. But maybe that is the main purpose, as @Jerome suggests...
@Jerome.. Good point. Also sometimes, there is just no relationship at all.
@Martin... Organized religion is finding it tough to get converts even after 2000+ years of struggle. Jon, Stephen, countless others (and me) are a small army, it would take atleast 5000 more years before pie charts vanish... patience and good to have you here 🙂
@Jon .. very well done sir, very well done.
good points every one...
I've got to throw my vote into Jon's camp (which is also Stephen Few's camp) -- bars just tend to work better. One observation about when we say "what people are used to." There are two distinct groups here (depending on the situation, a person can fall in either one): the person who *creates* the chart and the person who *consumes* the chart. Granted, the consumers are "used to" pie charts. But, it's not like a bar chart is something they would struggle to understand or that would require explanation (like sparklines and bullet graphs). Chart consumers are "used to" consuming whatever is put in front of them. Chart creators, on the other hand, may be "used to" creating pie charts, but that isn't an excuse for them to continue to do so -- many people are used to driving without a seatbelt, leaving lights on in their house needlessly, and forwarding not-all-that-funny anecdotes via email. That doesn't mean the practice shouldn't be discouraged!
[...] example that Chandoo used recently is counting uses of words. Clearly, there are other meanings of “bar” (take bar mitzvah or bar none, for [...]
[…] Grouping smaller slices in pie chart […]
Good article. Is it possible to do that with line charts?
Hi,
Is this available in excel 2013?