Services
TAYA

They Ask, You Answer Mastery

A coaching & training program that drives unmatched sales & marketing results.

Sales

Sales Performance Mastery

Improve the competencies and close rates of your sales organization.

Web design

Website Mastery

Web design, development & training for your team.

HubSpot

HubSpot Mastery

Everything you need to get the most from HubSpot.

AI Mastery

AI Enablement Mastery

Unlock the power of AI in all aspects of your revenue operations.

Discover how IMPACT’s services can help take your business to the next level. Book a free 30-minute coaching session Book a free 30-minute coaching session
Learning Center
Learning Center

Learning Center

Free resources to help you improve the way you market, sell and grow your business.

Discover how IMPACT’s services can help take your business to the next level. Book a free 30-minute coaching session Book a free 30-minute coaching session

Free Assessment: How does your sales & marketing measure up?

Get Started
Close

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.
Get Started
Ramona Sukhraj

By Ramona Sukhraj

May 23, 2013

Topics:

Marketing Strategy
Marketing Strategy

The Importance of Tracking Your Sales Funnel and Identifying Leads

Ramona Sukhraj

By Ramona Sukhraj

May 23, 2013

The Importance of Tracking Your Sales Funnel and Identifying Leads

 

The Importance of Identifying Leads and Tracking Your Sales FunnelYou've identified your marketing goals, now what?


It's important for your marketing team to know how many leads they need to generate in order for sales to achieve their goals.


And once you've aligned your business and marketing goals, you have in many ways decided your sales goals as well.


Identifying leads and track your sales funnel is an important part of the process when you're planning your inbound marketing investment.


Importance of Tracking Your Sales Funnel and Identifying Leads


Even if you have an innovative, groundbreaking marketing campaign, it won’t be worth the time or effort if it does not translate into leads/sales. You need to know how many leads/sales you will need in order for your campaign to see an ROI and to meet your overall business goals. The best way to do this is by tracking your sales funnel.


Visitors > Leads > MQLs > SQLs > Opportunities > Customers


For example:








































  Current Year Next Year
Visitors 50,000 100,000
Leads 4000 8000
MQLs 1200 2400
SQLs 600 1200
Opportunities 300 600
Customers 100 200

If you have to double your sales from $50k to $100k, everything higher up the funnel must double as well. In other words, you need at least 100,000 visitors, which would ideally turn into 8000 leads, 2400 MQLs, 1200 SQLs, 600 opportunities, and ultimately 200 customers.


Tracking Leads and Distributing Content


Much like the Customer Buying Cycle, your Sales Funnel can also help you with lead nurturing, or how you tailor your content in order to drive someone into being a customer. Depending on where they are in the funnel, you can better understand their mentality and decide what kind of content would guide them in the right direction. You wouldn’t market or communicate with an infrequent website visitor the same way you would an MQL.


The sales funnel also helps you organize your sales team’s priorities. With Inbound Marketing software, you can track your prospects activity and easily see how “sales ready” they are.  While a Marketing-Qualified Lead has downloaded and viewed a lot of content, they are not as sales ready as a Sales-Qualified Lead who has possibly requested a consultation or contacted you for more information.


Is Inbound Marketing Bringing in Leads?


As we described in the last chapter, tracking your results is one of the most important habits and Inbound Marketer can have. Is your blog being viewed and shared? How many people are visiting and downloading content? What is the conversion rate?


These statistics are the black and white proof if your Inbound Marketing efforts are in fact working. Comparing these results with other campaigns (i.e. Outbound efforts) help you evaluate your strategy and allocate your marketing dollars efficiently.  If your blog is driving relevant traffic and profitable leads, but your magazine ads aren’t, take note and make a change. Invest in what works.


Thinking About Investing in Inbound Marketing?


Check out our newest Ebook! You will learn everything you need to know in order to make a smarter, more successful investment with inbound marketing and get the results you need.

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.

Related Articles

Create Better Website Videos by Avoiding These 3 Mistakes

October 25, 2023
Lindsey Schmidt Lindsey Schmidt

4 Ways To Recession-proof Your Website In 2024

October 22, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

Is Content Marketing Dead in 2024?

October 11, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

How Should My Marketing Budget Change With AI?

October 9, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

Sales vs Marketing in 2024: What’s The Difference?

October 8, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

What Should a 2024 Content Marketing Strategy Include?

September 21, 2023
Mandy York Mandy York

HubSpot Pricing: Your Guide to Everything HubSpot Costs

August 24, 2023
Will Smith Will Smith

Why Trust Is the True Currency for All Business

August 9, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

10 Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking

August 3, 2023
Carolyn Edgecomb Carolyn Edgecomb

How To Become a Better Business Coach

July 31, 2023
Allison Riggs Allison Riggs

Do You Need a New Website? Maybe Not

July 19, 2023
Vin Gaeta Vin Gaeta

How to Create a Content Map To Solve Your Marketing Guesswork

July 6, 2023
Brian Casey Brian Casey

Inbound Marketing vs. Content Marketing: What's the Difference? 

July 3, 2023
Brian Casey Brian Casey

How To Do a Competitive Analysis In 5-and-a-half Easy Steps

June 29, 2023
John Becker John Becker

Why Hiring a Coach is the Surest Way to Spur Business Growth

June 28, 2023
Bob Ruffolo Bob Ruffolo

Marketing Coach vs Agency: Why You Need a Coach for Real Success

June 26, 2023
John Becker John Becker

LinkedIn Could Become Your Most Powerful Distribution Channel

June 22, 2023
John Becker John Becker

Content Copycat: What To Do When Your Website Gets Copied

June 15, 2023
Christine Austin Christine Austin

My Best Sales Reps Haven’t Hit Their Quotas All Year: What Do I Do?

June 7, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

7 Must-have Word-of-Mouth Marketing Strategies [Infographic]

May 8, 2023
Ramona Sukhraj Ramona Sukhraj

What Small Business Leaders Need To Know to Thrive During a Recession

April 19, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan

5 Keys to Marketing Your Business During a Recession

April 17, 2023
Ramona Sukhraj Ramona Sukhraj

Should Your Demand Gen Strategy Change in a Slumping Economy?

April 12, 2023
Nick Bennett Nick Bennett

Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation: What’s the Difference?

April 10, 2023
Kristen Harold Kristen Harold

How a Lack of Sales and Leadership Buy-in Is Killing Marketing Morale Worldwide

March 6, 2023
Marcus Sheridan Marcus Sheridan