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Where are my customers stuck in journeys?

Where are my customers stuck in journeys?

We get asked, "Is my funnel leaking?" on just about every funnel-related call. Most executives want to know what can be done differently to make pipeline and bookings more predictable.

Knowing where things are stuck can kick off some really important investigation, such as:

  • Do we have a system configuration issue?
  • Is sales not acting on our leads?
  • Which leads convert the best? And should I adjust my marketing mix?
  • How can I move a higher percentage of accounts through my funnel faster?

Identifying the sticking point (or two or three..) in our funnel is always the first step of discovery, so let's review how to uncover the answer in CaliberMind.

Our Use Case Scenario

I am a marketer, and I want to understand the status of our hard-earned marketing qualified accounts. Once I identify which accounts are stuck by the month they became a marketing qualified account, I'll decide whether I will put these accounts into a marketing nurture program or if they're still warm enough to push sales to engage with the accounts.

Where do I answer this question in CaliberMind?

As usual, we don't just give you one way to answer this question. You can find the answer using:

  • the Funnels Cohort Analysis Dashboard
  • the Funnels Data Explore Dashboard

We can also see whether things are taking longer than usual by running a Funnels Trend Analysis. We'll show you how to quickly get to your answer using any of these options. In the first two dashboards we'll focus on Active Journeys, which are funnel journeys that are still in a given stage and not completed (for more on this concept, click here).

Using the Funnels Cohort Analysis Dashboard to Identify Stuck Journeys

The Cohort Analysis dashboard lets us see the overall stats for a selected period and then see specific details broken out into smaller increments by stage.

  1. Open the Funnels Cohort Analysis dashboard:
open the cohort dashboard
  1. Select how to cohort your data. If I want to understand how long Marketing Qualified Accounts have been stuck in that stage starting two quarters back (1), I will cohort the data by Marketing Qualified Account (2) and then look at the monthly Active Journeys (3).
Active journey cohort analysis
Remember to hit Apply next to any settings that have that green button next to them.

When I look at the data in the monthly breakout, I can see many stuck MQLs that I need to either nurture in marketing or push the sales team to follow up with:

Remember to Hit Apply Next to Any CaliberMind Settings that Have Green Buttons Next to Them

I can also download a list of accounts to send to sales management or create a segment in my marketing automation platform and put them in a nurture campaign.

  1. Click on the number of accounts you want to inspect:
cohort table click through
  1. Click on the vertical ellipses (1), hover over "Download" (2), and select whichever file format works best for your team (3):
download active journey account list

Using the Funnels Data Explore Dashboard to Identify Stuck Journeys

The Data Explore dashboard funcitons very similarly to pivot tables in Excel. You have the concept of a row, a column, and data values (or metrics) displayed in the table itself. There are many supporting filters, which we'll cover in our step-by-step guide for this use case example.

  1. Open the dashboard.
open data explore dashboard
  1. Select the time period you would like to analyze
select data explore date range
  1. When evaluating stuck journeys or conversion rates, I prefer to use the Stage Start Date cohort. This allows me to display the count of accounts or people (depending on your funnel set up) by the month they reached any given stage in the table.
date aggregation setting data explore
Remember to click "Apply" on any new setting where the green Apply button exists.
  1. Set the "pivot table" so Row Selection is the Stage Name (1), Column Selection is Stage Start Date (2), and Metric Selection is Active Journeys (3):
data explore stuck stage filters

Similar to the Cohort Analysis Dashboard, I can click on numbers in my table so I can send them to my sales manager to push for MQA follow up or upload them into my marketing automation platform to create a segment to nurture in a multi-step campaign.

  1. Select the number you'd like to download the details for:
data explore march stuck mqls
  1. Click the ellipses (1), hover over "Download" (2), and choose the file format that works the best for your team (3):
how to download a list of stuck mqls

How Would I Use the Funnels Trend Analysis Dashboard in this Scenario?

Trend Analysis is fantastic when is comes to understanding whether my numbers are going in the right or wrong direction. If I suspect I have a lot of marketing qualified accounts that are stuck, I can see whether the time for sales to engage and disposition those MQAs is going up or down on the Avg. Days in Stage tab. I can also see whether I flooded them with too many leads by checking my Stage Starts and then understand whether they are getting more or less out of the leads.

  1. Open the Trend Analysis Dashboard:
open the trend analysis

  1. Select your date range:
Select trend timeframe
  1. Choose the stage you want to analyze and click Apply:
trend analysis stage selection
Remember, Trend Analysis conversion rates are only meant to calculate which percent of the accounts or people in the stage your are analyzing have progressed to the next stage. We can't skip stages without custom work at this time.
  1. Click on the Avg. Time in Stage to see whether the time an account spends in Marketing Qualified Account status (in this example) is going up or down compared to prior months:
average days in stage

In this example, we can see a big jump in the average number of days to address a marketing qualified account in the month of March. Overall, we are taking longer to resolve leads than the same period in the prior year, but March is excessive. This would prompt me to research how our marketing mix changed vs. prior months, whether we have an integration issue that's hindering the salespeople from seeing their leads, or if we have a management/expectation setting issue.

To start this investigation, I would view the stage starts to see whether March was an unusually high volume month:

marketing qualified stage starts

Then I would investigate whether our conversion rate was also negatively impacted by looking at the Conversion Rate tab:

conversion rate analysis of marketing qualified

If it was (and it certainly was according to the chart below), I would evaluate whether the marketing mix drastically changed and switch things up as soon as possible.

How did we do?

Sales Funnel Glossary

Funnel Cohort Analysis Use Cases

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