You’re getting plenty of leads through various channels, but you’ve noticed that only a very small number of them actually become customers. Does this sound familiar? If so, you may be dealing with a leaky sales funnel. Result: You miss out on a lot of sales opportunities and waste time and resources. In this blog post, you'll learn how to identify, prevent, and fix leaks in your sales funnel.
A sales funnel consists of a series of steps that lead to a sale. Every point of contact should help you achieve your goal, but inevitably, prospects sometimes drop out. The more complex the products or services you sell and the higher the investment cost for the customer, the more extensive the process from initial contact to the actual purchase. ‘Complex Solution Selling’ is a process in which you provides information step by step, sparks interest, builds trust, and demonstrates ROI. A Effective collaboration between sales and marketing is important here. Just like in a relay race, the key is that no one drops the baton before reaching the finish line. The most important step in any sales process is always: the next step.
How to Identify Leaks in Your Sales Funnel
Identifying leaks in your sales funnel is a challenge that takes time and effort, but it's more than worth it. Every leak that is fixed leads to better results.
It is important for you to know when and where things go wrong. This information can help you get the most out of your marketing and sales data. The basic requirement, however, is that you ’track’ every lead—from the initial contact through to a won bid—in a CRM system, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. You can automatically track leads generated through digital marketing using a marketing automation tool, such as ClickDimensions.
Through the process of lead up to opportunity and order By tracking this information in a CRM tool, you can determine which leads were lost at which stage of the process.
How can you map this out? Based on your CRM data, create a sales and marketing dashboard with the following KPIs:
- based on the Lead record data
- Figures by month, quarter, and year, and compare the figures with the same period last year.
- Breakdown by status: how many Qualified, how much Disqualified And how many leads have not yet been acted upon? Which leads have remained open for too long without any marketing or sales activity?
- Breakdown by channel and by campaign:
- to gain insight into the channels through which leads come in and to what extent.
- to compare the conversion rate by opportunity; for example, what is the quality of leads coming in through word-of-mouth, through your content marketing, through cold calling, etc.?.
- based on the Opportunity record data
- Figures by month, quarter, and year, and compare the figures with the same period last year.
- Breakdown by status and sales stage: How many opportunities are still open, and how many are marked as “lost”? Break down the number of missed opportunities per sales stage.
- Always review the data above by channel and source campaign.
- based on the WON Quote record data (or Order/Invoice)
- Breakdown of revenue generated by channel and by campaign, viewed on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
- Breakdown of sales volume by existing customers vs. new customers.
- Track and analyze the reason(s) for disqualification at every stage of the sales funnel: Why did a lead or opportunity fall out of your sales funnel? What was the reason according to the prospect, and what was the real reason according to your salesperson?
Review and interpret these figures on a regular and systematic basis.
How can you prevent or fix leaks?
Below, we’ll go over what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your sales funnel. You can track the impact of each improvement in the sales and marketing dashboard.
Tip 1: Attract the right customers
Are you losing prospects mainly at the beginning of the sales funnel? If so, you should ask yourself whether you’re attracting the right type of leads. Are they a good fit for your products or services?
Of course, it's essential that you attracts the right customers. We don't need to explain the importance of targeted marketing to anyone anymore. When analyzing your sales funnel, it's important to compare your leads with your ideal customer profile.
Make sure your inbound marketing efforts are properly aligned. Thoroughly analyze the “buyer personas” in your target audience, address their typical pain points, and tailor your content marketing to them as effectively as possible. Also, make sure you have the necessary marketing and sales tools for every step of the “buyer journey.”.
Tip 2: Respond quickly enough
“Speed wins deals.” According to InsideSales.com 35 to 50% of sales go to the supplier who responds first. Thanks to lead scoring, you can see who has recently shown the most interest in your marketing activities. If you respond quickly and correctly, your chances of success will increase.
Tip 3: Respond appropriately
It's important to have a good sense of what stage a potential customer is in. To sell efficiently and effectively, you need to carry out the right sales activity at the right time. For example, there's no point in preparing a quote right away if your prospect doesn't yet know what they're buying. Similarly, there's no point in providing your customer with basic information if they've already thoroughly researched your product or service.
Don’t forget to regularly refresh your sales staff’s knowledge of sales methodology. Is everyone familiar with the sales process? Are your sales staff familiar with the existing sales tools, and do they know when to use them? If not, it goes without saying that training is necessary. Through training, you can increase sales effectiveness across the board and ensure everyone is on the same page.
Tip 4: Analyze the process from lead to won bid and make improvements
Map out the process currently in use in your marketing and sales organization.What could be improved? Have you considered the effectiveness of each step in the process? Does each step in your sales process have a clear objective? Is the handoff of leads from marketing to sales as smooth as it could be?
During this analysis, focus on your potential customer’s experience, because customer experience is becoming increasingly important. These days, people expect the same level of emphasis on customer experience in B2B as in B2C. If necessary, improve and optimize the way we work. And support this new way of working by making the necessary adjustments to your CRM system. Be sure to provide the necessary training to marketing and sales staff so that everything runs smoothly and consistently.
Tip 5: Keep experimenting
Keep testing and trying. Review the KPIs in your marketing and sales dashboard, draw conclusions about what’s working and what isn’t, make adjustments as needed, and see the results.
