Where do we lose 70% of customers? Sales Funnel WebCanape

Today we want to share with you numbers. Namely, the real funnel of WebCanape sales for 2014. The numbers of many of you will be surprised how surprised I was at the initial data analysis. Today, there is still no exact answer, as far as it corresponds to the branch of development of budget sites, but there are thoughts and plans for increasing conversion that I want to share with you. I would welcome comments and advice from colleagues regarding your and our indicators.

Sales funnel

So, here's a sales funder in the direction of "Website Development". In parentheses are the percentage of all applications received that have reached this stage. Data is relevant at the end of 2014, but gradually (already slightly) change in a big way, because contracts continue to grow together.

Month	Applications	KP is set	Harmonization of contract	Payment
January	127	81 (64%)	35 (28%)	31 (24%)
February	105	59 (56%)	28 (27%)	24 (23%)
March	85	62 (73%)	27 (32%)	25 (29%)
April	125	81 (65%)	37 (30%)	29 (23%)
May	85	67 (79%)	34 (40%)	27 (32%)
June	73	54 (74%)	26 (36%)	24 (33%)
July	92	67 (73%)	36 (39%)	30 (33%)
August	70	52 (74%)	29 (41%)	27 (39%)
September	73	55 (75%)	22 (30%)	17 (23%)
October	117	85 (73%)	39 (33%)	33 (28%)
November	79	59 (75%)	30 (38%)	25 (32%)
December	79	69 (87%)	35 (44%)	30 (38%)
Total (N )	1110	791 (71%)	378 (34%)	322 (29%)

Dry statistics

Total quality applications for the development of the site came 1110 pcs. This is about 3-5 applications per business day. No advertising costs, no cold sales, natural demand. Accordingly, it is possible to estimate the seasonality. There is practically none. :) Approximately 50% comes from a recommendation, 20% through a search, 20% from links from the site’s cellars, 10% from articles, etc.
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Now the most important thing. The average total percentage of losses at all stages of sales is 70%. I think this is a lot. 70% of the manager's effort is wasted. In a crisis, this is a luxury that is not permissible. What is the reason for such losses and how to minimize them, we tried to figure out.

This stage is organized as follows. When a request comes from a client (by phone, e-mail or via the website), an online brief is sent automatically or manually (when calling) from our CRM to him. When the client completes the brief, the manager will receive a notification that the brief is full. After that, the manager prepares a commercial offer and sends it to the client for approval.

Automatic sending of the brief is good because the client does not wait until the manager reaches his request and sends him a questionnaire. The manager is not distracted by the initial client requests and consistently prepares the KP in the order of the completed questionnaires.

It is verified that such automation makes work uniform and allows one qualified manager to handle the entire flow. This significantly reduces the cost of sales, which is very important in the segment of low-cost sites.

Everything is good, but, as can be seen from the statistics, at this stage we lose 29% of clients.

Possible reasons:

• the client simply did not receive the form of our online brief;
  
• the client did not fill out the brief, because the form seemed difficult to him, but there is no time to fill out;
  
• competitors made a super-free offer, and it makes no sense to fill out the brief WebCanape;
  
• the client filled in everything, but we did not prepare the KP, because We see that our solutions do not suit him.
  

What to do?

The task of the sales manager is not only to sell, but also to sift out non-core or obviously unprofitable inquiries. There are no more than 5%. Remains 25%, which we lose.

To refuse the questionnaire, we can not, because it helps the manager to more accurately and fully prepare a commercial offer, and the client - to collect thoughts in a heap and formulate a goal. At the same time, there is always information in CRM with a primary request, which helps a lot when transferring a project between managers.

As a result, you need to solve the first two problems. So far we have found a simple solution. We plant a student trainee who will call up with the client immediately after the receipt of the application, find out if he received the brief, and help him fill out. The task of the student is to form a lead in the form of a completed questionnaire for the sales manager.

From quotation to contract

At this stage, we lose another 37% of clients. Losing customers here is becoming expensive. If the sales manager made a decision on the preparation of KP for the client, then this is definitely our client. At the stage of preparation of the KP, the structure of the work, the structure of the site, the features of the functional, so to speak “mini-TZ” are being worked out. This is already an expensive process for a company that should lead to a contract. Why 37% of this does not happen?

The study of the situation showed that 90% of clients at this stage are not satisfied with the price. Where is cheaper? The fact is that in the budget range, where we work, customers often order a website for the first time and have no idea how much it can cost. As a result, even the amount of 20-30 thousand may be high for them and not meet expectations. Of course, they are cheaper.

How to work effectively with such objections, we have not yet learned. And is it necessary? 37% of the losses tell me what to do, and project managers say no. We take 3 months to correct the situation.

Another small% at this stage eats away a separate layer of customers - bureaucrats. It is they who, having agreed a commercial offer, pass the contract to a lawyer who can seriously slow down the process or block it altogether. Since we are working with small budgets, any violation of the standard process (for example, editing the contract) raises the question of the profitability of the project. In this regard, part of the budget goes to non-core work, which already makes the continuation of work on the project impractical for the studio. The project has become unprofitable, not starting. :)

Unfortunately, we have not yet invented a better way than to refuse to edit the contract. Here we will not change anything yet.

From contract to payment

Losses at this stage, though small (they make up only 5%), but already very expensive. Why do customers fall off at this stage? Almost all cases are related to the change of the responsible executor on the client side. The executive officer quit, and the director has no time or plans have changed. A new performer has found a new contractor, etc.

In working routine, you don’t think about losses, and when you look at the report at the end of the year, you understand what you are losing.

The task for at least 2015 is to increase sales conversion by 10%.

A 10% increase will allow:

• Raise the company's revenue by 10% per year.
  
• Reduce the loss of the development of more than 100 proposals, it is about 400-500 thousand rubles.
  
• Add to the piggy bank 100 new customers who are ready to use other services of WebCanape
  

We will be able to evaluate the first results in 3 months. We are pleased to hear your opinion and experience. How are things going with your sales funnel?

Vasily Churanov and WebCanape team