Marketers, and really everyone involved in the go-to-market process at a company, are superheroes. I’ve seen it first hand throughout my career. Immovable objects are moved, impossible problems are solved, and distressed quarters and years are rescued by go-to-market superheroes. It is a real thing.
Our October webinar (the latest installment of our monthly webinar series), covered how to optimize the go-to-market funnel based on your Salesforce customer journey analytics. This is hard work, but, superheroes are made, not born (think Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man; since this is a blog about marketing funnels, we can keep the discussion of how Superman was born with his powers for another time…).
Three Keys to Optimizing Funnels
Our agenda set out to cover three main takeaways of using Salesforce customer journey analytics to optimize funnel metrics:
- Understand the importance of key funnel metrics
- Use funnel metrics to find optimization opportunities
- Optimize each stage of the funnel for higher conversions
Alignment on Funnel Stages
The first objective in any go-to-market exercise is alignment, In the case of funnels, it is important to have key stakeholders agree on the go-to-market strategy, the specific funnel stages, and the Salesforce customer journey analytics.
Start with the basics. Are we trying to influence the top of the funnel, the middle, or the bottom? This is an important first step since the answer not only dictates the tactics, but has impact across the entire team. Don’t skip the step just because you think it is too basic.
Next, it is important to outline the basic stages of the funnel. Again, don’t skip this step thinking that it is too remedial for your team. I’ve seen CMOs skip this step only to have to come back to it once tactics had been launched – often this forces teams to rebuild their customer journey in Salesforce.
It’s Time to Start Optimizing
First, lets make sure we all understand the three dimensions of your data:
- Volume – how much data you are putting into your funnel
- Conversion – how many people are actively moving from stage to stage
- Velocity – how quickly people move from stage to stage
Once you align on those concepts (you need to align on all three, don’t stop at “volume”), it is time to break those dimensions into metrics that enable you to identify patterns and trends in your Salesforce customer journey data. Once you break the dimensions into metrics, you can then start optimizing. Here are some of the examples we discussed during the webinar:
- MQL-to-SAL Conversion Rates
- SAL-to-SQL Conversion Rates
- SQL-to-Opportunity Conversion Rates
- Opportunity-to-Won Conversion Rates
- (don’t forget volume and velocity here!)
Don’t Forget The Bottom of the Funnel
One area that I see, marketers especially, give up on is the bottom of the funnel, specifically the opportunity pipeline. “Once it is in the pipeline, that’s the job of the sales team!” Please repeat after me, “Pipeline is a marketing lifeline.”
Marketers have so much to learn from opportunities in the pipeline related to volume, conversion, and velocity. In fact, the pipeline is a rich source of Salesforce customer journey data, too. Why some deals close and others don’t is core to optimizing your go-to-market strategy, which was where we started this entire webinar and blog post.
Remember These Three Takeaways:
- Understand the importance of key funnel metrics
- Agree on funnel stages
- Use funnel metrics to find optimization opportunities
- Data dimensions
- Optimize each stage of the funnel for higher conversions
- Identify patterns and focus on the bottom of funnel
If you are interested in more information about optimizing your funnels, understand attribution in your Salesforce data, or marketing strategy, please check out the Full Circle Insights monthly webinar series.
