5 Metrics to Identify Bottlenecks in YOUR Buyers' Journeys
The number one question I get asked by my clients is some variation of, “What do I need to do to make more money?” My answer is always the same: “I can’t solve the problem if I don’t know what’s going on.” I used to think the most important thing I did for my clients was to solve their problems. The biggest value I bring, though, is actually in finding the right problems for us to solve together.
I probably shouldn’t do this, but I’m going to give you my secret to sleuthing out what’s causing the challenge(s) to meeting revenue goals. It’s really pretty simple, even if it’s not easy to diagnose – or create an effective remedy. The key is to pay attention to five key data points.
#1 – Unique Website Visitors
Google Analytics can help you measure the effectiveness of your overall marketing. I subscribe to the hub-and-spoke understanding of marketing, wherein all channels raise awareness and send potential buyers to your website. If you want to know how your marketing efforts are panning out from month-to-month or year-over-year, this is the key number to look at.
#2 – Unique Contact Page Visitors
The goal of the website is to encourage people to inquire for your services. Yes, there are other goals, but they all support the overall objective, which is to generate more leads. That’s what the contact form is for.
Take a look at the number of unique contact page visitors as a percentage of unique website visitors. This tells you how good your website is at getting people to the next micro-commitment in the buyer’s journey.
#3 – Inquiries
Track this number like it’s the most important thing in your marketing world – because it is! The goal of everything you do with social media, listings, referrals, website, FB ads, and everything else is to get new leads. If you’re not doing a good job at this then you’ve got to go back to the root issue(s).
One thing to pay attention to with inquiries is the ratio of inquiries to unique contact page visits. Because you’re interested in micro-conversions, you want to know how effective your contact form is at moving people to inquire. You want as high a ratio as possible.
#4 – Proposals Sent
This tracks how good you are at responding to inquiries and getting them to see your services. The consideration stage of the buyer’s journey is about getting the prospect to recognize their needs and seek out information about ways you can service them. If you do the work between inquiry and proposal effectively – namely the initial response and on-the-phone discovery meeting – you’ll have a high ratio of people moving through the sales pipeline and not ghosting you.
#5 – Bookings
What we’re really interested in with the bookings count is what it is as a ratio to the proposals sent. This will measure how compelling your proposals are and how good you are at setting up and completing follow-ups.
The ultimate goal of all the work you do with marketing and sales is to close a piece of business. While it’s important to pay attention to this number, it’s not the only one you should look to when evaluating the health of your marketing and sales funnel.
