It’s surprising to talk with so many marketers that say they get a goal pushed down from above. No rhyme or reasoning, just a revenue number – oh, and no increase in budget. Then marketing has to figure out how. It can be done but in order to see it work, and understand conversion at what phases in the funnel can have the biggest impact can seem overwhelming if one doesn’t understand where or how to start.
For example, low conversion along the entire funnel means the database that is feeding the pipeline needs to increase in size. And data costs. Conversion backup early in the funnel tells us marketing is ineffective, late in the funnel sales is ineffective. In the middle, conversion between MQL and SQL usually identifies a marketing and sales alignment issue.
Like any challenge, once you identify what it is and have a model based on industry assumptions or actual data from your CRM and automation platform, marketers can become much more strategic about what and how they are going to help leads convert, and sales teams win. You can choose specific segments that will have separate campaigns, you can choose to go further through the funnel on prospects to keep things moving forward, and provide less air coverage on customer leads. Whatever the model tells you is the right move.
Even a loose model that is based on averages and assumptions can give a marketer enough to start to make more effective decisions on channels, tactics, and timing.
At Leadous, we tend to build three models. The as-is, what you can do if no factors changed. The goal, what the model would need to look like if the goal were to be met. And the third, which is the game-changer, is a model where the inputs can be changed to see how each could affect the model. What if you got more customers, what if the average deal size increased, what if the database grew, what if more deals closed…the options are endless and it creates a visual that is a great aid in conversations where sales, management, and marketing do not have defined levers, or understand the inner-workings of the entire lead to the sales cycle.
Let Leadous help you reverse engineer your funnel by building you a model that illustrates your ability to meet goals and exceed expectations. Reach out to an expert today by clicking here.