Tips for Identifying Sales Funnel Leaks

The top 3 things I look for when a B2B funnel isn’t converting: (Spoiler: It’s almost always 1 of these 3 that are the problem) 1. Find the leak Most funnels don’t need a complete rebuild. They just need to find where the money stops flowing. Map every step, then track where buyers fall off. → CTR under 1%? Targeting or messaging is off. → Opt-in rate under 20%? Weak offer. → Booking rate under 30%? Friction or hesitation. → Show-up rate under 70%? Low trust or clarity. → Close rate under 25%? Wrong audience or sales approach. Follow the numbers. Then fix what’s actually broken. 2. Target the right audience You can’t sell a $20K offer to beginner startups. You can’t sell to non-decision makers. Yet most funnels do exactly that. You need to hone in on the right: • Industry • Job Title • Company Size • Stage of awareness Then rebuild your targeting around that. Because the right message to the wrong person? Still converts at $0. 3. Reposition your messaging Pull up the landing page and pretend you’re a stranger. Can you instantly answer: • What is this? • Who is it for? • Why should I care? • What’s the next step? If not, you need to rewrite the copy. Aim for: → Clear over clever → Urgency over fluff → Proof over buzzwords Most funnel issues aren’t strategy problems. They are clarity problems. P.S. If your funnel’s broken, what’s the first thing you look at?

Sales is a numbers game. But NOT in the way you think. Here are 4 key metrics I like to measure to ensure funnel efficiency. #1 Curation Rate Since we have a 100% inbound funnel, not every booked call is quality. We range between a 60-65% curation rate. Ex: 100 inbound booked calls on the calendar. We'll cancel 35 of them on average as they are not a good fit. If we are below 60%, chances are good we are OVER qualifying prospects out. If we go above 65%, we are allowing too many in and that can waste my team's time. #2 Show Up Rate We average a 90% show up rate. Ex: Out of 65 calls, we'll run 58-59 calls. We do this through automation mixed with manual touches. If we dip, it's almost a guarantee that we didn't follow the process. #3 Offer Rate This is the percentage we "make an offer" to. We average 85%. If it's either too high or low, it could mean issues with the sales or marketing process. #4 Close Rate This is how many deals we close based on how many discovery calls we run. Depending on the salesperson, it ranges from 15-43%. This tells me how efficient and effective each rep is for the entire sales process. So here's the cool part with these 4 metrics: → Gives me a clear view from COLD to CLOSED. → Helps me prioritize the biggest constraints. → Now I can go deep to find the root issues. → And find the "story" behind the data. As the saying goes: "What gets measured, gets improved."📈

We’ve helped clients collect 10+ million emails to launch their products. And 99% of those emails came from ads. But what happens when ad metrics suck? We have a framework for that… steal it 👇 0 // Understanding the funnel First off, you need to understand the funnel we use to build prelaunch email lists. It’s called the Reservation Funnel. Here’s how it works: 1. Ads drive traffic to a landing page 2. Landing page collect emails 3. Reservation page collects $1 deposits to reserve the best deal Here’s our # 1 goal: → GOAL: Collect reservations → KPI: Cost per reservation (CPR) → TARGET: Below 25% of your product price What does it mean if my CPR is higher than 25% of the price point of my product? ⚠️ There’s a leak in your funnel ⚠️ Here's how to fix this... Identify the leaks in each step of your funnel, which the rest of this post is about. Let’s start with step one of your funnel: ads. 1 // Diagnose your ads As the first touchpoint someone has with your funnel, ads are the hook.   → GOAL: Click → KPI: Click through rate (CTR) → TARGET: 3% CTR What does it mean if your CTR is below 3%? ⚠️ You aren’t grabbing attention ⚠️ Here's how to fix this... Test new ad imagery first. Your ad creative is made up of three parts: 1. Image 2. Copy 3. Headline Your image is what people see first, which is why we test it first. 2 // Diagnose your landing page Now visitors are hungry for answers. That’s why I call your landing page "the meat". → GOAL: Lead → KPI: Conversion rate (CR) → TARGET: 20% CR What does it mean if your CR is below 20%? ⚠️ People don't think you're the solution ⚠️ Here's how to fix this... Test a new headline first. The hero section of your landing page is the most important. It is made up of three parts: 1. Headline 2. Body text 3. Hero image Unlike ads, people's eyes are first drawn to your headline. 3 // Diagnose your reservation page Now is the time to call them to commit with their wallet. → GOAL: Reservation → KPI: Lead to reservation rate (LTR) → TARGET: 4% LTR What does it mean if your LTR is below 4%? ⚠️ People don’t think your product is worth it ⚠️   Here's how to fix this... Test your price. This is the first step where you show pricing.   There are two variables you can test: 1. The discount price 2. The retail price You don't always have to test lowering the price. Sometimes increasing the price works better. Now when you spot a leak in your funnel, follow these steps to patch them up. Little by little you’ll get closer to building a watertight Reservation Funnel.

𝟓 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝟐𝐁 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐥𝐮𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬) 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟒 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝟏. 𝐏𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 Unqualified leads consume time and effort. • Define clear qualification criteria • Train teams to identify fit • Use lead scoring systems Effective qualification maximizes efficiency. 𝟐. 𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰-𝐔𝐩𝐬 = 𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 Timely follow-ups are crucial for engagement. • Automate reminder systems • Personalize follow-up messages • Set a strict follow-up schedule Consistent follow-ups keep leads warm. 𝟑. 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 & 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬 Alignment ensures consistent messaging and goals. • Regular alignment meetings • Shared KPIs and objectives • Collaborative content creation Unified teams drive pipeline success. 𝟒. 𝐈𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 Data insights tailor the sales approach. • Segment database for targeted campaigns • Analyze engagement for interest indicators • Personalize communication based on data Data-driven strategies enhance conversion rates. 𝟓. 𝐈𝐠𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 Feedback improves product and customer experience. • Implement feedback loops • Act on customer suggestions • Regularly survey for insights Feedback fosters product relevance and loyalty. Businesses lose an average of 10-25% in revenue due to poor pipeline management. Plugging these leaks can significantly boost your bottom line. Ready to fortify your sales pipeline?

Sales careers are built from outbound Pipeline Generation (PG). Let’s talk about meaningful coaching through top of funnel metrics. If the volume of activity is adequate then it is about leveraging metrics to better understand where the breakdown is. Similar to stages in an opportunity sales funnel, the metrics are a great place to start. Quality - The lead off here because it is probably the biggest gap I see with most prospecting efforts. Truly understanding your customer and creating a meaningful hypothesis prior to outreach. When I say “know your customer” I don’t mean noting that they just raised a round of funding or they are hiring for a persona that fits your product is enough. I could write about this one for days but for the purpose of this post let’s talk about KPI to measure it. Measuring message/hypothesis quality: Activity to Engagement Conversion % - How many activities does it take to actually get a response back.    Engagement to Discovery Conversion %  - After speaking with someone how good are you at converting that to a discovery call Distribution - Leveraging a healthy balance of channels for outreach (Phone/Emails/LI etc) and ensuring adequate distribution of your activity across your accounts/BU’s is key. Tier 1 prospects deserve more effort but over indexing here will lead to not having enough volume on the opportunity side. Measuring Distribution:  % Breakdown of Activity Across Channels - Phone/Emails/LI # of Touches by Account Tier - Distribution of activities across your accounts Consistency - Are you staying with a particular person or account long enough to having meaningful contact? This doesn’t mean relentlessly contacting someone but we’ve all heard a stat that it takes x amount of touches to make contact. Measurement: Average # of touches per contact Execution - Preparation is paramount to success. The best athletes in the world don’t just walk onto the field, they study the tape and they have a gameplan. You have a meeting, do yourself and the customer justice and prepare. Are you going to the top too early or spending too much time on information gathering calls with hands on key contacts. Measuring Execution: Disco to Opp Conversion % % Disco Breakdown by Title Leveraging these metrics have helped guide coaching for myself and the folks I have the pleasure of working with.

Results = activity x effectiveness. How do you measure activity or effectiveness in a large sales organization? Starting this month, Outreach sellers, managers, and admins will have full analytics of their entire sales funnel - from initial outbound to revenue booked. This means understanding how sales activity converts to conversations with prospects, how conversations convert to meetings booked, how meetings convert to pipeline created, and how pipeline converts to revenue. TL;DR: this report gives you a 360° view of sales Activity and Effectiveness. You can use this report to: 1. Use data to identify specific points of bottleneck in the sales process for more targeted improvements - whether it's building lead nurturing automation, improving follow-up processes, or refining sales messaging. 2. Set more realistic goals by leveraging your own historical data, conversion rates, and rates of improvement. 3. Understand where to allocate more resources (ex: orgs that struggle to convert meetings to pipeline may benefit from additional enablement on how to hold effective demos and discovery calls). 4. Coach more effectively by comparing metrics between various teams and individual reps to scale the winning strategies of your top reps. This report is a major gap in the Sales Engagement ecosystem and I can't wait for our customers to see it live in their platforms! If you want to learn more, I'll link our May Product webinar in the comments below 👇

I was talking to a CRO of a $75M Series C SaaS company who decreased their sales team’s no-show rate by 70% (in just 5 weeks). Here’s how we helped: When PastSight onboards a new customer the FIRST THING we investigate is where the biggest leaks are in their sales funnel. One client had a team of SDRs setting a ton of meetings through cold calls, but prospects wouldn’t show up to the following meeting they agreed to. After interviewing these prospects, we discovered 2 things: 1. The SDRs would successfully schedule a follow up meeting for their AE’s, but they always got off the phone as quickly as possible. This made the prospect less interested in attending the meeting. 2. When the prospect no-showed the meeting the with AE, the SDR would just update the calendar invite to another time without contacting the prospect. This disregard of the prospect’s schedule was a HUGE turnoff. This might seem simple, but it isn’t obvious. The key is to talk to your customers…. #winloss #sdr #saas

Not every KPI is important. But there are a few that are severely underrated. Find the leak in your sales funnel with these neglected KPIs: 1. Pop-Up Subscription to Conversion (%) — How many people join your email list from a website popup and what percentage of them actually end up converting? If you're seeing consistent signups at a low conversion rate, it means you're missing something. Pay attention to the copy and value prop in your popup and compare it to the offers in your promotional emails. 2. Time To Purchase (95th Percentile) — What is the average time to purchase for each customer segment? You can leverage this information to build a followup cadence via email and SMS. The shorter the time to purchase, the more efficient your sales funnel. 3. Pop-Up Subscribers Conversion (%) and Non-Subscribers Conversion (%) — What is the conversion rate of subscribers vs. non subscribers? High conversion rate for non-subscribers = great product + value prop. BUT: If the conversion rate of subscribers vs. non=subscribers is close, it could mean that: - Your website conversion rate is exceedingly high - Your email/SMS conversion rate is alarmingly low (more likely)