Your guide to the new sales funnel

Step 4: Schedule audits

The final step in the sales funnel forensic audit is to schedule additional audits in regular intervals to evaluate overall success. I recommend quarterly audits, as they offer the best balance between the need to deploy resources productively yet continue to measure progress toward the target benchmark.

• Awareness: 19/32 (59 percent)
• Interest: 22/32 (69 percent)
• Intent: 21/32 (66 percent)
• Purchase: 17/32 (53 percent)
• Evangelism: 18/32 (56 percent)
• Total: 97/160 (61 percent)

In the example above, the sample company has not met the (64 percent) target across activity or funnel stage, but there is notable progress (61 percent). If this were a real audit conducted over a three- to six-month interval, I would say this is a significant achievement.

Conclusion

The above process was designed to create a deeper understanding of the sales funnel and how marketing activities impact the bottom line. Most importantly, marketers must understand that evangelists drive your business and determine the future health of the company (think NetPromoter Score.) By following the four steps outlined above, you will gain insights into strengths and weaknesses of your current marketing mix and sales strategies and adjust accordingly. By measuring toward target goals over time, you will maximize the value of this exercise.

Conducting a sales funnel forensic audit isn't for everyone. Data-driven marketers may find the evaluation process and criteria too subjective or relative. Intuitive marketers (like me) may find the data collection and analysis elements tedious. Regardless of your personality or resources, I highly recommend gaining a better understanding of your current marketing DNA fingerprint, particularly against your top competitors, as it will help provide critical insights that will ultimately alter your activities and lead to better overall ROI.

Kent Lewis is president of Anvil Media.

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