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8 tips on how to analyze data and use it in the sales funnel

Gustavo Goncalves
Gustavo Goncalves

Dec 9, 2022

sales funnel

The funnel is a strategic model that should be used by companies that want to be successful on the internet, mainly through customer prospecting and conversions in sales.

In this post, you will better understand what a sales funnel is and how to analyze data from your organization and previous strategies to be able to use this method so efficiently and necessary for the development of an institution.

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What is a sales funnel?

The sales funnel is a process in which the business accompanies a customer from their first contact until the moment the purchase of your product or service is closed, considerably helping to capture customers on the internet.

Its main objective is to allow greater knowledge of the consumer's purchase journey, identifying triggers and opportunities to make this conversion of users to potential buyers more efficient and cheaper.

How is the sales funnel divided?

The sales funnel is divided into three parts, the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel. In each of them, there is a different user profile within the same purchase journey. Get to know each one of them better below:

  • Top of the funnel: at the top of the funnel are those users who are having their first contact with the institution, often through reading a blog post or a publication made on social networks.
  • Middle of the funnel: when they advance to the middle of the funnel, these users already have a certain level of engagement with your brand and, above all, demonstrate the potential to become future customers.
  • Bottom of the funnel: here, the focus is on turning these potential customers into consumers, in fact. They already know and build trust in your brand, so it's an ideal time to take a more direct sales approach.

How to analyze data to be used in the sales funnel?

As important as understanding what the sales funnel is and its importance is knowing how to design it efficiently, and this is only possible when based on an efficient data analysis that helps you better understand your audience.

So, here are some tips on how to do this analysis of results correctly and how to implement them in your sales funnel, aiming at its use and capturing leads increasingly qualified

1. Define the analysis objectives

The first step is to define an objective for this analysis, which, in our case, is precisely to use the sales funnel. This direction is necessary, since it is possible to collect a multitude of information about the customer, the market and the company itself.

Having access to information may seem beneficial at first, but all this data will be effectively useful for attracting customers, so it is necessary to filter those that really make sense for our purpose.

Read too:

What metrics focus on the sales funnel?

Well, the truth is that there are several metrics that can be analyzed to structure an sales funnel efficient

  • Value and volume of opportunities (at each stage of the funnel);
  • Time the user spends in each stage;
  • Source and number of leads;
  • Conversion rate;
  • Among others.

1. Make a plan

Once you have your objective defined, you need to make the data analysis planning more complete, so you need to define a schedule for carrying out this process and who will be responsible for it.

Through the schedule, it will be easier to structure data analysis and ensure that your team (or yourself) does not waste time on things that are unnecessary for the objective defined above.

The definition of who will be responsible for collecting this data will help in identifying a competent person to perform this function and who probably already has knowledge of data analysis or even sales funnel.

Another point that can also be seen during the planning stages is the budget allocation for this activity, if necessary (as in the acquisition of CRM tools).

2. Define hypotheses and working questions

Another way to further direct the collected data to optimize the sales funnel is to ask some questions and formulate hypotheses that must be answered by the information that will be worked on.

Questions like:

  • “When is the lead discovering that they should invest in my solution to solve their problem?”
  • “Where are the leads coming from?”
  • “How long is it taking for a user to progress through the funnel?”
  • “What are the objections that leads are raising to not becoming customers?”

They help you not only understand your customer better or create a better funnel, but also identify problems and opportunities for improvement that will make this customer journey faster and more assertive.

Keeping these and other relevant questions in mind, it will be easier to identify which data should be collected to answer them, as well as which sources will be used to collect them.

3. Choose the sources of analyzed data

Another issue that must be well defined for the data analysis process concerns the sources from which the information will be collected, promoting more confidence in the final report.

There are different places where information can be collected:

  • Data lakes;
  • Data Warehouses;
  • Database;
  • Social networks;
  • Management systems.

The sources for collecting information will depend on the type and size of the institution, as a smaller institution, for example, will not be able or need to deal with a large database.

However, all help is valid to find the information you need to be able to answer the questions listed in the previous topic, as well as to get to know your own customer better.

4.Create indicators

With all the planning done so far, it's time to list which indicators will be used to collect information and make a correct analysis of this data, aiming at its use in the sales funnel.

Again, it is necessary to consider the purpose of data collection and the questions and hypotheses raised.

For example, to answer the question “where do the most converting leads come from?”, you can use the indicator “percentage of conversion by channel”, which will show, among all the communication channels used, which ones are giving the best result.

See, below, some other indicators commonly used in their analysis and in the sales funnel:

  • ROI (return on investment): shows how much of the amount invested in a given strategy is returning to the organization. A high value means that the adopted method was effective.
  • CAC (cost per customer): represents the amount being spent to acquire just one customer, which also involves costs related to marketing and sales strategies.
  • NPS (Net Promoter Score): represents a great indicator for customer satisfaction, as it analyzes the chance that this consumer will recommend the company's products or services to other people.
  • Conversions at each stage of the funnel: although conversions happen more often at the bottom of the funnel, it is also possible that this process occurs at other times, something that must be analyzed and used in favor of the strategy itself.

5. Use the data to make decisions

Once the data is properly collected, it's time to use this information in practice, in decision making regarding the sales funnel and other strategies in the area of ​​marketing and sales.

Realizing that most of your conversions into leads are coming from your blog, for example, it is worth making decisions to optimize the audience attraction derived from this communication channel and, at the same time, investigate why the others are not having a performance so good.

6. Use support tools

Collecting, analyzing and monitoring (something we will talk about in the next topic) this data is not such an easy task, especially if it is done completely manually. Therefore, it is worth analyzing the possibility of investing in tools to optimize this process.

Through a CRM system, for example, it will be easier to monitor the conversions and sales made by the institution using the sales funnel. Some of them even allow you to have a profile traced for each lead.

7. Keep monitoring information

If you think that all these steps need to be done just once, you are wrong: your audience's preferences are constantly changing and it is important that your sales funnel, as well as the entire business, is constantly updated.

That said, try to define a periodicity to carry out the data related to your sales funnel, in addition to not forgetting to check if the changes made due to the previous analysis are having the expected effect.

In short: to analyze the data that will be used in the sales funnel, you need to define your goals, define which metrics, indicators and sources will be used, in addition to using this information for strategic decision making and monitoring your results.

In this way, knowing the best tips on how to analyze data and use a sales funnel, you will be able to better understand your audience and what adaptations will be necessary to your strategies, in order to improve the customer experience with your brand and prospect more and more. customers!

And to help you work with this data better, aiming at your company's goals, check out this other post on our blog, in which we explain how to apply SMART goals in your business.

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