5 Great Sales Funnel KPIs for Success in 2020

The preferences of your customers have changed, and so have their journeys. The key performance indicators (KPIs) used to track the success of your sales funnels are no longer as effective as they used to be. Plus, our old-timey colleagues didn’t have the tech we have today. It’d be such a waste not to use the tools at our disposal to improve our sales efficiency. 2020 and the years which will follow call for new KPIs.

And in this article, we’re taking a look at the five most important ones.

Sales funnels are essential for guiding potential customers through the buying process efficiently. They help businesses convert leads into paying customers by streamlining the sales process.

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial for optimizing sales funnels. These metrics provide valuable insights into customer interactions and help identify areas for improvement in the sales process.

By understanding the sales funnel stages, businesses can better allocate sales resources and improve customer satisfaction. This leads to increased revenue generated and a more effective sales funnel.

Let’s get to selling!

Understanding Sales Funnels

What is a Sales Funnel?

A sales funnel is a visual representation of the customer journey from initial awareness to conversion. It helps businesses understand customer needs and identify sales process bottlenecks.

Importance of a Well-Designed Sales Funnel

A well-designed sales funnel can significantly boost conversions and revenue. It ensures potential customers receive the right information, improving customer satisfaction and creating a seamless buying experience.

Benefits of Understanding Sales Funnels

Understanding sales funnels allows businesses to allocate resources effectively and optimize the sales pipeline. This leads to increased revenue and a more efficient sales process.

A comprehensive grasp of sales funnels empowers sales teams to identify potential customers’ needs at each stage, ensuring tailored interactions. This enhances customer satisfaction, fostering loyalty and increasing the likelihood of converting leads into paying customers.

Sales funnels provide valuable insights into the customer journey, enabling businesses to refine their marketing strategies. By aligning sales and marketing efforts, companies can create a cohesive approach that maximizes the impact of marketing campaigns.

By analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) within the sales funnel, businesses can pinpoint areas for improvement. This data-driven approach allows for targeted adjustments, enhancing the overall effectiveness of the sales process and boosting conversion rates.

Efficient sales funnel management ensures that sales resources are allocated strategically, focusing efforts on high-quality leads. This optimizes the sales team’s productivity and maximizes revenue generated from both new and existing customers.

1. Social Selling Index: One of the Most Important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for 2020

If any stage of your sales funnel includes social selling on Linkedin, SSI (Social Selling Index) is a KPI you should be tracking.

If you’re not already using social selling, it’s time to start:

• 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level executives use social media to make purchasing decisions (Source)
• 98% of salespeople who have over 5,000 LinkedIn connections meet or exceed their quota (Source)
•  Social sellers generate 38% more new opportunities than traditional sellers (Source)

If that sounds good enough to implement social selling right away, you’re going to need the right metrics to track your success.

LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index works like a charm as a sales funnel KPI, especially if you’re using social selling in the lead generation phase.

SSI measures the four elements of successful social selling:

1. Branding. SSI takes each sales rep’s profile into account. It monitors how effectively your reps are completing their profiles with customers in mind, adding interesting content, and receiving endorsements for their skills.
2. Connecting. The second variable is all about your reps connecting with their prospects over LinkedIn. When integrated with your sales funnel, LinkedIn’s SSI system will also help your reps by allowing them to accurately target prospects, and it’ll monitor how well your reps leverage existing connections to connect with new leads.
3. Engaging with social selling insights. A good sales rep has to stay in touch with their industry so they’re perceived as a trustworthy source by their prospects. SSI measures how often your reps engage with and share relevant content.
4. Relationship building. Finally, it’s not enough to just shoot one message and call it a day. SSI also measures how you reps nurture relationships, how they follow up, and so much more.

SSI is definitely the right metric to track in 2020, especially if you want to make sure you’re maximizing your conversions at each funnel stage.

2. Sales Process by Contact Method

Back in the day, the main way to sell was to cold call until someone finally said yes. Maybe there was a letter sprinkled in here and there.

However, 2020 needs us to have 20/20 vision for contact methods and channels that convert.

The majority of sales teams track contact methods very vaguely, leading to:

• Disengaged sales reps
• Low conversion rates
• Lost opportunities

However, when you track sales by contact method as your sales funnel KPI, you can see:

• Costs associated
• Contact methods which work best
• Contact methods that suit certain sales reps

Incorporating SBCM is incredibly beneficial if you look at it from a holistic standpoint, while also tracking the performance of individual reps and the differences between prospects.

For example, you may find that the majority of prospects respond best to face-to-face contact. However, that comes with high costs, so you can easily adapt your approach to meet only with key prospects.

Similarly, you can help every rep maximize their engagement while also maximizing ROI.

How?

By simply keeping them focused on the channels that delight them and your prospects.

3. Customer Lifetime Value

If you’re still worried about high acquisition costs, are you sure you’re tracking customer lifetime value (LTV)?

Spending $100 to bring in a customer that will eventually help your company earn $10,000 isn’t a lot. However, spending $100 to bring in a customer that will generate only $50 is a bad move.

The trick is in analyzing and using LTV to understand your customers and the revenue you will be getting from them.

You can easily calculate your LTV with the following formula:

Lifetime Value = Gross Margin % x ( 1 / Monthly Churn ) x Avg. Monthly Subscription Revenue per Customer

LTV is one of the important KPIs for the entire sales funnel, as well.

It shows you the effectiveness of your methods; from the very first stage to the very last.

It could also alert you to any problems with offers or value propositions.

4. Meaningful Actions for Customer Satisfaction

If you’re still only measuring your sales target progress, you’re lagging behind and you’re not motivating your reps.

When reps only see a numerical value (e.g. 35% of target reached), they won’t feel motivated to keep performing meaningful actions that drive that progress.

Instead, they’ll feel as though all the actions they perform don’t matter unless they’re seeing the big needle move.

Make sure you track actions such as:

• Follow-up emails
• Demos
• Calls

No action is too small if it’s driving progress.

However, when you start using the amount of performed meaningful actions as your KPIs, you’ll see your sales reps exceeding targets and expectations, day in and day out.

You can even use Spinify to add gamification to the mix, and make hitting the targets becomes even more fun!

Tracking meaningful actions boosts sales team morale and productivity, encouraging them to focus on customer interactions that enhance satisfaction and drive conversions.

By rewarding meaningful actions, businesses can foster a culture of continuous improvement and accountability among sales reps.

Incorporating meaningful action metrics into sales KPIs ensures a comprehensive approach to performance measurement, aligning with strategic goals.

Sales teams that prioritize meaningful actions often experience higher customer retention rates, leading to increased revenue and customer lifetime value.

By emphasizing meaningful actions, businesses can better align sales and marketing efforts, ensuring a seamless customer journey and enhanced satisfaction.

5. Sales Funnel Flow: The Most Important Sales Funnel KPI

Finally, there’s nothing more important than understanding how long it takes for your lead to convert into a customer within the sales funnel process.

In particular, you should track:

• The number of leads
• The number of qualified leads
• Sales team response time
• Closing rates
• The average amount of time it takes for a lead to advance through the funnel and convert into a paying customer

This is especially important if you have a long sales cycle, or a complex sales funnel. Tracking the sales funnel stages can help identify bottlenecks and optimize the sales process.

When you understand and track your sales funnel flow, you’ll be able to monitor performance consistently.

And if you notice a bottleneck, you can eliminate it before it’s affected your targets.

Finally, monitoring your flow is a great way to further optimizing your sales funnel and capturing even more customers.

Track Meaningful Sales Funnel KPIs with Spinify

Spinify is a sales dashboard that makes the entire sales process much more fun for your sales teams, and more effective for your company.

From encouraging healthy competition to tracking day-to-day engagement metrics, you’ll be well on your way to unlocking your team’s full potential.

Importance of Tracking Sales Funnel Metrics

Tracking sales funnel metrics is crucial for understanding customer behavior and optimizing the sales process. By identifying key performance indicators, businesses can make data-driven decisions to enhance conversion rates and maximize revenue.

Leveraging Technology for Sales Funnel Success

Utilizing advanced tools and technologies streamlines the sales funnel, enabling businesses to efficiently manage leads and customer interactions. This approach ensures that sales teams have valuable insights to drive successful outcomes.

Aligning Sales and Marketing Teams

Aligning sales and marketing teams ensures a cohesive strategy that enhances customer satisfaction and drives conversions. By sharing insights and goals, both teams can work together to optimize the sales funnel process.

6. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer satisfaction by gauging the likelihood of customers recommending your business. It provides valuable insights into customer loyalty and potential areas for improvement.

By tracking NPS, businesses can identify strengths and weaknesses in their sales process, allowing for targeted enhancements. A high NPS indicates satisfied customers, while a low score may signal issues needing attention.

Implementing strategies to improve NPS can lead to increased customer retention and lifetime value. This enhances the overall effectiveness of the sales funnel and drives revenue growth.

7. Average Order Value (AOV)

Average Order Value (AOV) is a key performance indicator that calculates the average amount spent by customers per transaction. It helps businesses understand purchasing behavior and optimize sales strategies.

By analyzing AOV, businesses can identify opportunities to increase sales through upselling and cross-selling. A higher AOV indicates effective sales tactics and customer engagement, contributing to revenue growth.

Strategies to boost AOV include offering bundled products, personalized recommendations, and loyalty programs. These initiatives enhance customer satisfaction and encourage higher spending, benefiting the sales funnel.

8. Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate

Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate measures the percentage of leads that become paying customers. It provides insights into the effectiveness of the sales funnel in converting prospects into buyers.

A high conversion rate indicates a well-optimized sales process and effective lead nurturing strategies. Businesses can identify stages where leads drop off and make necessary improvements.

Enhancing the lead-to-customer conversion rate involves refining messaging, improving follow-up strategies, and providing tailored customer experiences. This results in increased revenue and a more efficient sales funnel.

Continuous Improvement in Sales Funnel Strategies

Continuous improvement in sales funnel strategies involves regularly analyzing performance metrics and customer feedback. This approach allows businesses to adapt and refine their sales processes, ensuring sustained growth and competitive advantage.

Spin(ify) the wheel!